Problems with to many contacts:

[Cj 1951]

Here is my dilemma. It has to do with contacts. I have tons of dupes. The reason is, I have had an Iphone (.me) a windows phone (outlook). And 3 android phones. 2 note 7’s and now an lg v 20. I have always had a Gmail account. I show 2600 + contacts. The real number should be around 11-1200.Like I said, lots of them are dupe. Another reason is I was told I need an MS exchange account to receive emails and such. I reall don’t have the time to go through the list on my phone and delete them individually. It has been suggested I import them all to a csv file, delete dupes. wipe the phone, then import the cleaned-up csv file back into the phone. I need to use outlook as my email, contact and calendar application. What do the android geeks here think.

Thanks in advance.

 

[steveb944]

Import all your contacts to a single service and have it compile duplicates. Google is my go to
The other option is setting groups.
Also your contact list can filter through various sources, that way you only show specific ones.

 

[svim]

Import all your contacts to a single service and have it compile duplicates. Google is my go to
The other option is setting groups.
Also your contact list can filter through various sources, that way you only show specific ones.

I agree with @steveb944, the most practical way to clean up your collection of contacts is to get everything in one place first, then get it sorted and straightened out. After that you need to always have just one source be the primary, central master, with all your other services just being secondary satellites to that main contacts database. It'll be a lot easier to get everything sorted out using web access on a computer (preferably with a decent sized display) as it sounds like even if you allow something like Google's Contact service to determine duplicate entries you're still going to be doing a lot of manual editing. It also sounds like a really daunting project but the end result will make things a lot easier and hassle-free in the long run.

 

[SaintlySins]

I have the same problem as the OP. And all the above is good advice if you have only one gmail account, and one Apple email address.

But if you have multiple gmail accounts, none of this will work unless you could set it up to ONLY add contacts to ONE gmail account. Which is impossible as you'll be sending and receiving new emails from the other gmail accounts, those names get saved and in turn have different contact profiles in each account - yet when you pull up your contacts, it pulls all the Contact Lists from every gmail/Apple account. There is a way to limit your contact list to only one source, but then you'll only see the contacts out of 'that one' account you're pulling from and you're certain to need a name out of the other accounts. (insert "Roll-Eyes-Then-Mad-As-Hell-Smiley-Face here.)

This is a MASSIVE problem for me ... the cause is the invasion processes of Google, Apple/Alphabet, etc - of capturing all the data they can in an effort to be helpful in making you life easier and functional so you can type an e-mail or phone number and their systems will populate a list that matches for easy 'tap' input ... yet this same process makes for endless duplicates if you have multiple accounts with them.

My two thousand duplicates worth.

One day someone will develop a Contact List Merge App that automatically pulls contacts from all sources, merges, them and will allow you to fix, sort, merge and manage ALL the contacts - then push them back into the sources corrected, sorted and complete as one cohesive contact list. I will love that person with all my heart. ;- )

 

[A bochur]

I have the same problem as the OP. And all the above is good advice if you have only one gmail account, and one Apple email address.
But if you have multiple gmail accounts, none of this will work unless you could set it up to ONLY add contacts to ONE gmail account. Which is impossible as you'll be sending and receiving new emails from the other gmail accounts, those names get saved and in turn have different contact profiles in each account - yet when you pull up your contacts, it pulls all the Contact Lists from every gmail/Apple account. There is a way to limit your contact list to only one source, but then you'll only see the contacts out of 'that one' account you're pulling from and you're certain to need a name out of the other accounts. (insert 'Roll-Eyes-Then-Mad-As-Hell-Smiley-Face here.)
This is a MASSIVE problem for me ... the cause is the invasion processes of Google, Apple/Alphabet, etc - of capturing all the data they can in an effort to be helpful in making you life easier and functional so you can type an e-mail or phone number and their systems will populate a list that matches for easy 'tap' input ... yet this same process makes for endless duplicates if you have multiple accounts with them.
My two thousand duplicates worth.
One day someone will develop a Contact List Merge App that automatically pulls contacts from all sources, merges, them and will allow you to fix, sort, merge and manage ALL the contacts - then push them back into the sources corrected, sorted and complete as one cohesive contact list. I will love that person with all my heart. ;- )

I believe the OP was talking about phone numbers, but you seem to be taking about email addresses.

So when do you encounter too many contacts? If it's in your contacts app, and you only want it to display contacts with phone numbers, then that is an option in the settings.

Also on my s5, in the contacts app in the menu there is an option to 'manage similar contacts' press on that and it lets you merge similar contacts even if it's in different accounts.

 

[SaintlySins]

You're right A bochur ... I guess I got caught up in my hatred for the entire "Contact List" experience.

I tend to use multiple forms of contact with the people in my contact list ... hence my comments ... and why your solution (although useful) doesn't work well for me.

As for merging accounts, that's an option in my phone as well ... but, some of my personal contacts are shared with my business contacts - and my staff needs to see the "business side" of my business contacts while not being privy to the personal side of the same contacts. So to merge them wouldn't be my best solution for the work/personal separation.

I hope this doesn't come across as a debate ... I truly appreciate your input.

 

[svim]

Unfortunately you're caught up in a problem a lot of us are dealing with, trying to separate your personal life from your work life. You might want to try installing a third-party contacts app to supplement the default Contacts app already on your phone, (and/or a separate email app for the same reason), and being careful to configure each to be linked only to either your personal account or your work account accordingly.

 

[A bochur]

As for merging accounts, that's an option in my phone as well ... but, some of my personal contacts are shared with my business contacts - and my staff needs to see the 'business side' of my business contacts while not being privy to the personal side of the same contacts. So to merge them wouldn't be my best solution for the work/personal separation.

So I'm understanding that you have two accounts on your phone one personal and one for work. The work one is shared with your staff, and you don't want them to see your personal contacts, correct?

So here's the deal, when you use the 'mange my contacts option' it will only merge the contacts on your phone, and it will not sync them back to your business account. So if you have 'jon Smith' saved twice in your phone cuz one is for work and one number is personal merging them will not send the info to your business account, but now all his info will be under one name on your phone only.

On a side note, you might want to consider the fact that sharing an account with coworkers which is connected to your phone could give them access to erasing all your data as I've seen happen to someone else.

 

[SaintlySins]

So I'm understanding that you have two accounts on your phone one personal and one for work. The work one is shared with your staff, and you don't want them to see your personal contacts, correct?

So here's the deal, when you use the 'mange my contacts option' it will only merge the contacts on your phone, and it will not sync them back to your business account. So if you have 'jon Smith' saved twice in your phone cuz one is for work and one number is personal merging them will not send the info to your business account, but now all his info will be under one name on your phone only.

On a side note, you might want to consider the fact that sharing an account with coworkers which is connected to your phone could give them access to erasing all your data as I've seen happen to someone else.

It's more complicated than just two accounts. All in all I have 7 accounts for 3 businesses (marketing, sales, promotions, sales reps only, etc, etc, etc) ... might seem bizarre to some, but it's VERY informational to see who's doing what, how, effectiveness and a host of other minutiae that all work for me. Now add 3 accounts for my personal use(s).

Managing all that is relatively easy from any computer, home, work, home office, or on the road. But it's the failure (success from Google/Apple perspective) of the phone merging accounts when they find two different contacts with the same phone number, email address or other similarities.

In finality, you are sooooo very correct about shared data with co-workers. We already had an instance with that. I've a computer security wiz who's set up both back-ups and copy-protection in our network ... of course no one is immune to the dastardly designs of someone really out to hurt a company and/or it's data, but for the most part, we're protected. Thank you for your input and the alert to concerns. It's nice to see someone try for a solution to a problem - and to care for another's best interest.

Regards,

 

[SaintlySins]

Unfortunately you're caught up in a problem a lot of us are dealing with, trying to separate your personal life from your work life. You might want to try installing a third-party contacts app to supplement the default Contacts app already on your phone, (and/or a separate email app for the same reason), and being careful to configure each to be linked only to either your personal account or your work account accordingly.

I've tried a few, but it's a nightmare to configure the info on different Contact Lists ... AND ... merge some of the info with different list designs and purposes.

Someday, I'll find a programmer and we'll develop a Master Contact List App that can be sorted, divided and filtered into several contact lists based on specific info regardless of what platform it comes from or goes to ... while keeping the lists proprietary to my Master Contact List App.

... s o m e d a y .... ;- )