Why does the joined vCard file show duplicate contacts after phone import?

After joining different vCard files from old phone backups and Gmail export, the import worked, but many contacts appeared two or three times. Some duplicates have the same name and number, while a few have small changes in email, label, or saved name. I want to merge the files without creating a messy contact list.

 

I have encountered the same issue after merging contact information from my Android backup and Gmail. The import itself worked, but suddenly I had two or three copies of many contacts. At first I thought something went wrong during import, but the issue was that the contacts weren't exactly identical. Some had an extra email address, a different label, or even a small change in the contact name.

Checking for duplicate contacts before importing them is something else you can try, since some duplicates will be obvious. In addition, many mobile devices feature a Merge Duplicates feature in the Contacts app, which helped me to delete many of the duplicates.

With hundreds of VCF files in front of me, it was simply impractical to go through each of them individually. That's why I first used Softaken Merge vCard Pro software to merge all the VCF files into one without creating any duplicates.

One tip: always keep a backup of the original VCF files. It makes fixing mistakes much easier if the import doesn't go as expected.