Google Tutor

How to Merge All Duplicate Gmail Contacts with One Click

Posted: 21 Dec 2009 12:00 PM PST

Merging duplicate contacts has been a necessity since people decided to use two or more email addresses, and have several contact numbers. Sometimes, a contact is added twice, or even more often, to your contact list as you update new information. I have some contacts that are duplicated four different times, and in the past I’d have to set aside an afternoon to sort through my contact list one by one and copy-paste new information into the most up to date entry.

Google already had a smart way of merging duplicate contacts, but you used to have to do it one by one. Now, Google has added the possibility of merging all duplicate contacts at once in Gmail. For those of us who are slightly paranoid about what is being merged, you can still see the details of each contact and the information being merged.

Here’s how it’s done

How to merge duplicate Gmail contacts in one click

Log into Gmail and click on “Contacts”
In the main screen, you will see a button with “Find duplicates” on it:
Once you click it, your duplicates are not merged yet. However, you get a new screen that lists all the duplicates that were found in your contact list.
For example, my list has 402 contacts in my contact list, but the total number of contacts saved by GMail surpass the 1800 mark. Of the 402 contacts there were 76 duplications.
You’ll see that you can choose not to merge certain contacts. This can come in handy if you know two people with the exact same name (trust me, it happens.. I know a man and a woman with the same first and last name). In this case, just don’t select the box next to that particular name.
If you want to see the contact info being merged, just click on “expand” to see the information in one large list of all contacts and the information in each file:
Once you are satisfied that you are merging the right contacts, you just need to click the button at the top of the page:

Gmail will take you back to your regular contact list, which is now quite a bit shorter and quite a bit more organized. I’ve cut down on 76 redundant contacts. Considering I merge my contact file with my phone, having less to scroll through is definitely helpful!

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