A fix for duplicates when syncing with outlook contacts!
- There are so many threads and posts on both the Z10 and Q10 Forums regarding the problem with syncing contacts (and calendars) with Outlook desktop client (2007/2010) via USB connection, that I wanted to post a thread that addresses the issues and the fix I found after experiencing the same problems. Many thanks to Blackberry forputting the help icon on the home screen
CORRECT SOFTWARE FIRST AND FOREMOST!
To begin with, make sure you have 10.1 OS on your device and that you have downloaded the newest Link version which is 1.1.1.32. Prior to downloading it, make sure and UNINSTALL the old version of Link that you have on your PC and then reboot your PC to clear the cashe. Also make sure and do the uninstall using your PC>CONTROL PANEL>PROGRAMS AND FEATURES. Check the box that says something like remove all associated files, or something like that after it begins. Then install the fresh new Link download 1.1.1.32 from the forums or Blackberry.
Once the new OS 10.1 is on your device, and the new Link 1.1.1.32 version is on your pc, you can now do a 2-way sync with Outlook 2007 or2010. The sync should work flawlessly (though it takes some time), but the issue that rears its ugly head for most of us, is that when we do the initial sync, it works perfectly but for some odd reason it puts many duplicates and triplicates on both the device and the Outlook contact folder. Actually as you will see, it isn’t odd at all.
You are not alone! This happened to me too last week and I had 1100+ contacts so you can only imaginethe frustration I had even though it only duplicated maybe 50 contacts-give or take a few. Perplexed and not knowing what to do, I searched the countless threads and posts on CB and posted my own issues as well, but as is sometimes the case, when you have 20 or 30 pages of posts on several threads, (or even 6 or 7) it becomes even more frustrating to find an answer. That said, I did the “Unthinkable” and actually looked at the “help” icon on my phone. Yes, a man that asks for help-LOL!
I read what seems to be a secret on the "Help" app under troubleshooting. On your device, go to help>contacts>Troubleshooting contacts. Once I found it (and it took a bit of searching) this is what I learned:
It seems that when you sync your contacts (and calendar) it automatically syncs with "All" of your different contact apps, i.e. Facebook,Gmail, Outlook.com, OUTLOOK 2007/2010, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. So if a contact is your contact in any or all of these apps, it creates duplicate contacts (copies) in both your device and your PC for all the apps. HOWEVER--there is a way to"link" them all together. This is what to do:
� Start by "turning on" all of your contact sources in the contact app on the home screen> Contact App>menu>gear (open the contact app-go to gear menu)> click on, all of them. Then close the menu.
� Next open up your contacts like normal (remember that all apps MUST be turned on or you'll end up repeating again)
� Next go through each one of the contacts on your device.-one by one- When you do find a duplicate, tap on the contact(hold down for a sec) and you'll have the side menu come up.
� On the side menu is a box with a check mark in it
� Click on the "checkmarkbox"
� Touch on each of the duplicate or triplicate contacts and they will highlight.
� Then in the same menu,click on the “top person with the "sideways bowtie" looking icon (small icon) and it will link your duplicate contacts together. (Read about it in the"HELP" icon on your home screen under contacts>troubleshooting>duplicates before you begin if you don’t want to just trust this post-LOL).
� When done close contacts on phone and go to PC>Outlook>contacts
� Next painstakingly go through your Outlook 2007/2010 contact list and remove all duplicates or triplicates Link software put there, and if necessary move them to another contact sub folder.
� Once this is done, say a prayer, plug in your phone, open link and click on sync contacts and calendar once it is fully open. Hopefully your experience will be the same as mine was and all dups were gone and all contacts synced perfectly..
You may get a warning that certain files would be removed from your device or your PC or both, "continue or not". If you are unsure, go to those contacts in your PC/Outlook contacts and move them to a subfolder until you can reinsert them. Then repeat the sync and click "continue".
To be completely in tune with this post, please open your help icon on your home screen>contacts>troubleshooting contacts and read it—its about a paragraph long and may be the best paragraph you have ever read. Lastly, remember that when you sync, it syncs with BBLink contacts (that much I noticed), so I have turned off all of my other contacts apps like outlook.com, facebook and linkedin and only keep BBLink contacts on in my contact folder on my home screen. I believe this is the same with the calendar and I only have the BBLink calendar open. Seems to work flawlessly so far. I will update if any issues pop up. Good Luck and I hope this works for others as it has for me. I can't guarantee anything but I now trust the "help" icon--LOL Good Luck--Go1ndrLast edited by go1ndr; 07-01-13 at 05:06 PM.
07-01-13 04:55 PMLike 5 -
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Next--I loaded Link 1.1.1.32 on my netbook and will attempt a 1-way sync from phone to the netbook to update my contacts and calendar on my outlook 2007 on my netbook as well. With the older legacy phones and BBDM I always did a 2-way sync with my desktop PC in my office every night and then a 1-way sync from my 9810 (or what ever phone I had at the time) from the phone to my laptop or netbook once I got it. That way everything was up to date. I have to admit that I'm a little leary of this one but we'll see what happens and of course I'll post it-lol! Are you getting the Q10 soon? Honestly David, it is the single best smartphone I've ever used and that includes most of them (do like Siri though on iPhone-lol). Once you start using it, within a few hours you will forget that you ever had a trackpad or ball. The swipes are so much easier and so responsive--and absolutely light speed fast! Talk soon, Jacksaxxman likes this.07-02-13 01:40 PMLike 1 - Thanks for the info re Q10 and really positive detail I know that I will go to the Q10 but still feeling very attached to my 9810 I also would like a bit of time for anymore bugs with outlook 2010 to get fixed (if there are any) I also buy Sim free without contract so still saving toward my �600 for purchase.
I think that your duplicate fix is really important and wonder if it can be adopted built on for a 101 instruction ((hope I got it right).
david07-03-13 03:26 AMLike 0 -
I'm not sure where "Local" contacts are unless they are the "SIM" contacts as they do not show on my list and when I open the "Manage SIM Contacts" box, it says I have no contacts on my sim card. Also I haven't copied my device contacts to my SIM card as I don't see the need for it. Anyway, the syncing takes place between the BBLink and Outlook (2003/2007/2010). Hope this helps.07-09-13 02:01 PMLike 0 - Doesn't work. I move all my contacts out of outlook so empty. Do a one way sync to PC and nothing moves from Z10 to Outlook. Including calendar. So, how do you move your contacts on the Z10 to become BBLink contacts? This is so ****ed up.
Posted via CB10Last edited by chiphazard; 07-09-13 at 03:24 PM.
07-09-13 03:02 PMLike 0 - The only way I could get this to sync at all was to:
1. Remove all links
2. Turn off all contacts
3. Two way sync
4. Turn on BBLINK in contacts only
5. Link Duplicates
Posted via CB1007-09-13 06:44 PMLike 0 - Humm! Mine worked as discribed in my thread and others have pm'd me that it worked as well. Actually, #1 I have a Q10 and I don't know if that makes a difference or not but I do know that you have to have 10.1OS on the device for it to work--I assume you have it on your Z10. Also you need one of the latest two link versions--1.1.1.26 or the newest 1.1.1.32. When I did the first sync (always 2-way with contacts and calendar checked) it made the duplicates. Then I stumbled on the linking of dups and did the linking in my device---then I did the removing of duplicates in my Outlook 2007 contact list---and finally it did another 2-way sync and its worked fine and continues to work fine. I do know that it seems the BBLink contact list is the one that syncs, not the others. Not sure what else to tell you. By the way, did it sync your calendar ok?07-10-13 03:12 PMLike 0
- Calendar won't sync as it is looking at bblink calendar and not local. Plus can't assign email address to bblink calendar
Posted via CB1007-11-13 03:21 PMLike 0 - 07-12-13 04:37 PMLike 0
- Update that hopefully someone else has run into. After a completed "2-way sync" between my Q10 and my PC via Link, I loaded Link on my netbook as well and attempted to do a "1-way" sync this time from my Q10 to my Netbook and it went through the motions and displayed that the sync was completed--but when I looked on my Netbook Outlook 2007 calendar, it in fact did not sync my updated calendar entries onto my Netbook---and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I've started a thread that has had 132 views already and not one reply. It appears no one has had this happen to them or tried to sync with more than one computer. So if anyone looking at this thread has any ideas, they are so welcomed! Thanks!07-12-13 04:41 PMLike 0
- There are so many threads and posts on both the Z10 and Q10 Forums regarding the problem with syncing contacts (and calendars) with Outlook desktop client (2007/2010) via USB connection, that I wanted to post a thread that addresses the issues and the fix I found after experiencing the same problems. Many thanks to Blackberry forputting the help icon on the home screen
CORRECT SOFTWARE FIRST AND FOREMOST!
To begin with, make sure you have 10.1 OS on your device and that you have downloaded the newest Link version which is 1.1.1.32. Prior to downloading it, make sure and UNINSTALL the old version of Link that you have on your PC and then reboot your PC to clear the cashe. Also make sure and do the uninstall using your PC>CONTROL PANEL>PROGRAMS AND FEATURES. Check the box that says something like remove all associated files, or something like that after it begins. Then install the fresh new Link download 1.1.1.32 from the forums or Blackberry.
Once the new OS 10.1 is on your device, and the new Link 1.1.1.32 version is on your pc, you can now do a 2-way sync with Outlook 2007 or2010. The sync should work flawlessly (though it takes some time), but the issue that rears its ugly head for most of us, is that when we do the initial sync, it works perfectly but for some odd reason it puts many duplicates and triplicates on both the device and the Outlook contact folder. Actually as you will see, it isn’t odd at all.
You are not alone! This happened to me too last week and I had 1100+ contacts so you can only imaginethe frustration I had even though it only duplicated maybe 50 contacts-give or take a few. Perplexed and not knowing what to do, I searched the countless threads and posts on CB and posted my own issues as well, but as is sometimes the case, when you have 20 or 30 pages of posts on several threads, (or even 6 or 7) it becomes even more frustrating to find an answer. That said, I did the “Unthinkable” and actually looked at the “help” icon on my phone. Yes, a man that asks for help-LOL!
I read what seems to be a secret on the "Help" app under troubleshooting. On your device, go to help>contacts>Troubleshooting contacts. Once I found it (and it took a bit of searching) this is what I learned:
It seems that when you sync your contacts (and calendar) it automatically syncs with "All" of your different contact apps, i.e. Facebook,Gmail, Outlook.com, OUTLOOK 2007/2010, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. So if a contact is your contact in any or all of these apps, it creates duplicate contacts (copies) in both your device and your PC for all the apps. HOWEVER--there is a way to"link" them all together. This is what to do:
� Start by "turning on" all of your contact sources in the contact app on the home screen> Contact App>menu>gear (open the contact app-go to gear menu)> click on, all of them. Then close the menu.
� Next open up your contacts like normal (remember that all apps MUST be turned on or you'll end up repeating again)
� Next go through each one of the contacts on your device.-one by one- When you do find a duplicate, tap on the contact(hold down for a sec) and you'll have the side menu come up.
� On the side menu is a box with a check mark in it
� Click on the "checkmarkbox"
� Touch on each of the duplicate or triplicate contacts and they will highlight.
� Then in the same menu,click on the “top person with the "sideways bowtie" looking icon (small icon) and it will link your duplicate contacts together. (Read about it in the"HELP" icon on your home screen under contacts>troubleshooting>duplicates before you begin if you don’t want to just trust this post-LOL).
� When done close contacts on phone and go to PC>Outlook>contacts
� Next painstakingly go through your Outlook 2007/2010 contact list and remove all duplicates or triplicates Link software put there, and if necessary move them to another contact sub folder.
� Once this is done, say a prayer, plug in your phone, open link and click on sync contacts and calendar once it is fully open. Hopefully your experience will be the same as mine was and all dups were gone and all contacts synced perfectly..
You may get a warning that certain files would be removed from your device or your PC or both, "continue or not". If you are unsure, go to those contacts in your PC/Outlook contacts and move them to a subfolder until you can reinsert them. Then repeat the sync and click "continue".
To be completely in tune with this post, please open your help icon on your home screen>contacts>troubleshooting contacts and read it—its about a paragraph long and may be the best paragraph you have ever read. Lastly, remember that when you sync, it syncs with BBLink contacts (that much I noticed), so I have turned off all of my other contacts apps like outlook.com, facebook and linkedin and only keep BBLink contacts on in my contact folder on my home screen. I believe this is the same with the calendar and I only have the BBLink calendar open. Seems to work flawlessly so far. I will update if any issues pop up. Good Luck and I hope this works for others as it has for me. I can't guarantee anything but I now trust the "help" icon--LOL Good Luck--Go1ndr
My only question: how long did this take you with 1000+ contacts. I can feel the pain from here..... must have been measured in "hours" I am sure.
Philisophically, and this is NO REFLECTION on you, we shouldn't have deal with this f________ b___s___ to begin with --- this being said applauding your where-with-all to get this figured out.
It would appear that BB had the assumption that one has NO CONTACTS stored as local contacts on the device.....but that would still hose up BB Link contacts. What a mess.spaniard65 likes this.07-15-13 11:28 AMLike 1 - Your steps worked for me up to where i have to now sync my bb with my outlook via BBlink. I now discovered that my contacts in outlook were not updated with contacts from my Q10. There are some contacts i updated their information. These contacts did not get their information updated in outlook on my laptop. Any idea why this is so.
By the way, i just noticed that if i open an updated contact on my Q10 and i clicked the link sign(the bowtie-ish stuff at the bottom) i get to see the the accounts to which this profile is linked to. If i now click my laptop link i get to see the updates in this profile. Now my puzzle is why is this not updating my outlook on my laptop.Last edited by azum4u; 07-16-13 at 12:16 PM.
07-16-13 09:50 AMLike 0 - It sucks, it won't sync local contacts, but when you add new contact it creates two entries. Bblink and local contact. Stupid if it doesn't look at local contacts. Still can't assign email to my Calendar either.
Posted via CB1007-17-13 04:56 AMLike 0 - This is an awesome "how to".....
My only question: how long did this take you with 1000+ contacts. I can feel the pain from here..... must have been measured in "hours" I am sure.
Philisophically, and this is NO REFLECTION on you, we shouldn't have deal with this f________ b___s___ to begin with --- this being said applauding your where-with-all to get this figured out.
It would appear that BB had the assumption that one has NO CONTACTS stored as local contacts on the device.....but that would still hose up BB Link contacts. What a mess.Dan Donahue#WN likes this.07-17-13 04:50 PMLike 1 - Your steps worked for me up to where i have to now sync my bb with my outlook via BBlink. I now discovered that my contacts in outlook were not updated with contacts from my Q10. There are some contacts i updated their information. These contacts did not get their information updated in outlook on my laptop. Any idea why this is so.
By the way, i just noticed that if i open an updated contact on my Q10 and i clicked the link sign(the bowtie-ish stuff at the bottom) i get to see the the accounts to which this profile is linked to. If i now click my laptop link i get to see the updates in this profile. Now my puzzle is why is this not updating my outlook on my laptop.
What version of link and what OS are you using. I know that you are 10.1 but have you updated to a newer version. I'm not with Rogers so I don't know what they have to offer. You do need to be on the newest version of LINK 1.1.1.32 (or at least .26) in order to have the two sync. Also, if you are not, you will need to uninstall the old version first before installing 1.1.1.32 in order to not have old files laying around that may not play nice with the newer version. Also, even if you did install the newest version of Link, you should probably go into your laptop>control panel>programs and features and uninstall any and all old versions of link on there. Keep the one you are currently using or best option is to uninstall all versions and reinstall the newest .32 back on your laptop and then do a reboot to clear the cashe. Once that is done, set up the configuration on Link to do a 2-way sync between your device and your laptop prior to doing the sync. I assume you did do that but in case you didn't make sure you do or it doesn't know where to sync to. I only have the calendar and contact boxes checked as I don't sync my media since I have it on my pc in a couple of different folders. Try it again as listed and see if it works, and please post back to let us know. Anyone else want to jump in here please do. Thanks and good luck.07-17-13 04:59 PMLike 0 - Hey Chip--any luck yet? Remember that it doesn't sync local contacts or calendar-- only syncs BBLink contacts and calendar. But if you open all your contact sources and link all duplicates together prior to the sync, it should work for you. It does for me perfectly. The only problem I've had is syncing my Q10 with two different computers using Link. I two-way sync with my main desktop PC at my office and wanted to do a 1-way sync from my phone to my netbook but even though it did do the 1-way sync, it didn't update my calendar so I'm not sure exactly why but I'm researching it a lot and hope to have an answer. Let us k now how it's going and good luck!07-17-13 05:04 PMLike 0
- No luck with calendar as all entries are local. Can't use bblink calendar as can't assign email address
Posted via CB1007-17-13 05:11 PMLike 0 - Hi azum4u, Welcome to the forums!
What version of link and what OS are you using. I know that you are 10.1 but have you updated to a newer version. I'm not with Rogers so I don't know what they have to offer. You do need to be on the newest version of LINK 1.1.1.32 (or at least .26) in order to have the two sync. Also, if you are not, you will need to uninstall the old version first before installing 1.1.1.32 in order to not have old files laying around that may not play nice with the newer version. Also, even if you did install the newest version of Link, you should probably go into your laptop>control panel>programs and features and uninstall any and all old versions of link on there. Keep the one you are currently using or best option is to uninstall all versions and reinstall the newest .32 back on your laptop and then do a reboot to clear the cashe. Once that is done, set up the configuration on Link to do a 2-way sync between your device and your laptop prior to doing the sync. I assume you did do that but in case you didn't make sure you do or it doesn't know where to sync to. I only have the calendar and contact boxes checked as I don't sync my media since I have it on my pc in a couple of different folders. Try it again as listed and see if it works, and please post back to let us know. Anyone else want to jump in here please do. Thanks and good luck.
I do appreciate your willingness to help. I removed my BB Link again now just in case i missed something out. And reinstalled it and followed the steps above again. But i still can not get my Q10 contacts to update my outlook contacts. For example the information contained in my contact profile is very different from the information contained in my outlook contact. In my Q10 contact profile, i have 5 phone numbers listed and 4 emails listed. But guess what, in my outlook contact i only have 1 email listed.
By the way here are the other information you asked for:
O/S is windows 7 64 bits on macbook pro laptop
I run 10.1.0.273 on my Q10
i reinstalled the BB link 1.1.1.3207-17-13 09:26 PMLike 0 - I think i have found the answer to whats happening. It could be found in the last paragraph of the following link:
KB34413-After performing a two-way sync, all contacts and appointments imported with the previous version of BlackBerry Link are duplicated
Here is states explicitly BBlink does not syn local calendars to Microsoft outlook. I guess i have to update my outlook with information in the local contact and go from there.07-17-13 10:06 PMLike 0 - Well i got my contacts to sync with the outlook on my laptop. The whole issue with it has to do with the simple basic fact that BBlink doesnt syn local contacts with Outlook. And since i did data transfer from my BB9790 to my Q10, all my contacts were saved as local contacts. So lesson # 1: do not move your contacts to Q10 via data transfer because they will be saved as local contacts on your Q10.
Anyway back to how i got it resolved. My resolution was based on the fact that i still had my BB9790. Here are the steps i did:
1. Charged my old BB9790
2. reinstalled BB Destop since i already deleted it.
3. connect my BB9790 to my laptop.
4. configure the Organizer in Desktop to syn 1 way. Thats is from my BB9790 to my outlook. Thus i was able to have my outlook updated with the contacts on my BB9790.
5. sync my organizer with my bb9790.
6. disconnect my 9790.
Now i have my outlook updated with my contacts in 9790. Next is to now transfer them to my Q10. This how i did that.
1. Going to settings>accounts. Then select the cross cut action button (3 vertical dots) at the bottom-right and select Clear Local Contacts or Clear Local Calendar. This got rid of my local contacts and calendar.
2. i now connected my Q10 to my laptop and now sync my contacts 1-way from outlook to my Q10.
3. this now loaded my contacts back to my Q10.
Now following the steps below which were listed above in the first post i was now able to have my Q10 contact sync and update my outlook:
� Start by "turning on" all of your contact sources in the contact app on the home screen> Contact App>menu>gear (open the contact app-go to gear menu)> click on, all of them. Then close the menu.
� Next open up your contacts like normal (remember that all apps MUST be turned on or you'll end up repeating again)
� Next go through each one of the contacts on your device.-one by one- When you do find a duplicate, tap on the contact(hold down for a sec) and you'll have the side menu come up.
� On the side menu is a box with a check mark in it
� Click on the "checkmarkbox"
� Touch on each of the duplicate or triplicate contacts and they will highlight.
� Then in the same menu,click on the “top person with the "sideways bowtie" looking icon (small icon) and it will link your duplicate contacts together. (Read about it in the"HELP" icon on your home screen under contacts>troubleshooting>duplicates before you begin if you don’t want to just trust this post-LOL).
� When done close contacts on phone and go to PC>Outlook>contacts
� Next painstakingly go through your Outlook 2007/2010 contact list and remove all duplicates or triplicates Link software put there, and if necessary move them to another contact sub folder.
� Once this is done, say a prayer, plug in your phone, open link and click on sync contacts and calendar once it is fully open. Hopefully your experience will be the same as mine was and all dups were gone and all contacts synced perfectly..
Hope this helps.07-18-13 11:27 AMLike 0 - OmnitechDragon Slayerazum4u: Thanks for the detailed procedural documentation.
Unfortunately I think that there are some fundamental problems with contacts on BB10 that can't be solved by these procedures, even if they do successfully address the "duplicate contacts" issue.
For example: BB10 allows essentially UNLIMITED numbers of fields like telephone number fields. When I tested this I got up to at least 10 on one contact before I stopped testing.
The problem is, Outlook (and most contact managers) can not handle so many fields of that type.
Worse, BlackBerry Link has little in the way of configurable syncing settings like the old BlackBerry Desktop Manager, so you cannot tweak how your contact fields synchronize with the external PIM, ie Outlook.
So what happens to all of those "extra" contact fields that Outlook cannot contain, when you do a sync? Do they just disappear? Do they get changed into free-form notes fields? Do they get changed into user-defined fields? Then how do those sync back to the BB10 device, if at all???
This is why I think there has to be some sort of major architectural change in how contacts are managed on BB10 devices before any of this is going to work reliably.07-18-13 07:49 PMLike 0 - Omnitech, i do agree with you. Yes Q10 has so many fields eg my personal profile in Q10 has 4 emails, 5 phones numbers. This was successfuly synced to my outlook. When i open my outlook and check my contact details everything is listed as a business card on the right. I must state though that some of these fields are not shown in the General page on the left. By the way i use Outlook 2010.
In as much as BB10 is a nice concept RIMS or do i say BlackBlerry in trying to re-invent the wheel messed up a lot of things. For example, the contacts application in previous version of blackberry works fine. Why not simply enhance it rather than try to re-invent it knowing there is not enough time to test and perfect what they want. Looking back and being in the tech world, one now understands why BB10 was delayed. Its all due to re-invention policy. That said it is still a good device. One will not really appreciate this device until a few years down the road when the many miscues are fixed via updates and all that.07-18-13 10:20 PMLike 0
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A fix for duplicates when syncing with outlook contacts!
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