Duplicates

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Is there any easy, automatic way to remove duplicates from Outlook? I believe I’m getting duplicate contacts by having multiple categories for a single contact, but I have multiple national holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. I know I can delete them, but I would like to know about an easier, quicker way, if there is one. My IT Dept. says no.

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More than likely, you do not have duplicates; you’re just viewing the same single contact in “views”. If you clear all your views, and just sort your contacts alphabetically, you’ll probably only find those “duplicates” once in the list.

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I don’t understand what you mean by “views.” I assure you that I have multiple contacts that are identical in every way. I did find a few that had a minor difference (a middle initial e.g.)and can correct them. I’m sorry if I miss the obvious, but I’m still stumped. I see duplicates in contacts, and why do I get duplicate entries for New Years Day or New Years Eve? Back to my original question: how can I delete duplicates without picking out each one?

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Okay, ya never know. A lot of people think they have duplicates because they see the same people in different lists. Here’s what you do:

Export your contacts folder as a PST file. Create a new contacts folder called Contacts1 or something. Import the PST file into it, asking it not to import the duplicates. If that works, delete all your contacts from Contacts and move all your contacts in Contacts1 into Contacts.

If that doesn’t work, and you’re familiar with Excel, then you can export your contacts as an Excel file instead. Then use sorting to help you clean up the duplicates. Then import it into Contacts1, and if it works, do the same as above. However, this will not be much different from using Outlook in Phone list view, clicking on the Full Name column to sort it, and deleting any duplicates you see there. If you don’t view it, I suggest viewing the advanced toolbar (View-Toolbars-Advanced).

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Thanks for all the suggestions. I did use the phone list to sort and delete duplicates, and that seems the easiest. I would have thought MS would make it a little easier. Let me add the text of the letter I sent to Woody to ask him. It should explain how I came to ask the question in the first place. Thanks again to all that replied to help, and I apologize for not including this info earlier. I didn’t think it was relevant to my original question.
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Woody,
I have been using Outlook for some time, and since I started using fusionOne, which you advertise on your newsletters and which I really do like, I have been getting duplicate entries in contacts and calendar events and tasks, which is all I synchronize. I also synchronize my home and work computer with my Casio E-115 PocketPC, occasionally my Rex-3 and Casio E-100 Palm-size PC on my home computer, and one or all of them with Yahoo using TrueSync, so that I can see my contacts and calendar on my cell phone, which of course has internet access. I haven

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That is a significant piece of information. I’ve seen duplicates show up between my Outlook and Palm Pilot because of the settings in my sync software and on the Palm itself. I finally had to set the software so that categories could only be created on the handheld to keep Outlook from adding duplicates.

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this is the only automatic way i am aware of http://www.monarchis.com/utilities/%5B/url%5D

says for contacts only. i’ve never tried it.

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Dreamboats idea of exporting them to excel OK and I would like to add that if you were to export it to Access you could easily do a query that would remove duplicates automatically.

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Duplicates in calendar:
Are you sure you have only one set of holidays added?
Check Tools/Options/Preferences/Calendar Options/Add Holidays
But it does sound like your own calendar entries have been duplicated..? Do you have more than one Personal Folders loaded?

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for this specific question, you sound like you are using a group by view – change views and you’ll see only one contact entry.

for the pda problem, yes, calendar and contacts sometimes (may times ) get duped. You need to remove those or live with it. I think a utility exists at http://www.slipstick.com[/url%5D to remove some duplicates. I have never tried it. I maunally delete my duplicates as i find them.

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MJ,
That was brought up before. No, it’s not the view making it look like duplicates. I will have a look at the utility you sent and see if I want to try it. I appreciate the help very much.
Paul

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Edited by maryj on 01/01/14 14:27.

You might want to have a look at this MS KB article, it may help:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/ar…s/q196/9/97.asp%5B/url%5D

You can also get this article by sending an E-mail with a subject of “Q196997” (without the quotes) to mshelp@microsoft.com

This link should automate that for you:
mshelp@microsoft.com?subject=Q196997

Hope this helps.

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Milly,
That seems to be the “unwanted” answer. No way to keep it from happening as the default is to allow duplicates. I guess the fact that I am trying to synchronize so many machines with varied software, that it is inevitable that I get duplicates, because of the way they handle things like categories differently. Thanks for the definitive answer. Thanks to all who had input for me.
Paul Neujahr

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