duplicate detection

Under Contacts - Duplicate Detection you can find and merge duplicate contacts in your contact list.

Select comparison criteria in the view that now appears.
For example: Among your contacts there are several people with the same email addresses. Then choose as a comparison criterion E-mail.
You can also select several criteria to limit the search. Example: Last name and address (address consists of street, postal code and city).

Then click on the button "Duplicate Detection".
duplicate detection

The duplicates found are listed and can now be merged. A distinction is made between manual and automatic merging.

Automatic merge

Auto-merge means you do settings for all duplicates.

Handle all duplicates

The Type of treatment indicates which contact group provides the main contact or which saved the duplicate when merging.

The main contact is the contact that is in the selected contact group.
The duplicate is the one that is not in the contact group.

If both contacts or none are in the contact group, the contact found first is selected as the main contact.
The modus specifies how the data is merged. You can choose between Complete and Update choose.
If you select "main contact" and "Update", the main contact will be updated with the duplicate's existing data.
At the "Complete“ only the non-existent data of the main contact is updated.

If you choose "Duplicate" and "Update", the duplicate will be updated with the main contact's details.
At the "Complete", only the nonexistent data of the duplicate will be updated.

Different dates are always added.

If, for example, both contacts are in different distribution lists and have different memberships or functions, these will be listed with the merged contact.

For simplification the following examples:
Contact 1:            Contact 2:
First name:  Maximilian First name:  Max
Last name:  Doe Last name:  Doe
Date of birth:  01.01.1990 Department:  Development
E-mail:  max.mustermann@example.com E-mail:  max.mustermann@example.com
Document:  Offer.pdf Document:  Invoices.pdf
Contact group:  customers contact group  Employees
1.) If the following is selected: "Main contact, customers, complete"

You will now receive the following contact:

First name:  Maximilian
Last name:  Doe
Date of birth:  01.01.1980
Department:  Development
E-mail:  max.mustermann@example.com
Document:  Offer.pdf, Invoices.pdf
Contact group:  customers, employees
  • The department has been added.
2.) If the following is selected: "Main contact, customers, update"

You will now receive the following contact:

First name:  Max
Last name:  Doe
Date of birth:  01.01.1980
Department:  Development
E-mail:  max.mustermann@example.com
Document:  Offer.pdf, Invoices.pdf
Contact group:  customers, employees
3.) If the following is selected: "Duplicate, A, Update"

You will now receive the following contact:

First name:  Maximilian
Last name:  Doe
Date of birth:  01.01.1980
Department:  Development
E-mail:  max.mustermann@example.com
Document:  Offer.pdf, Invoices.pdf
Contact group:  customers, employees
4.) If the following is selected: "Duplicate, A, Supplement"

You will now receive the following contact:

First name:  Max
Last name:  Doe
Date of birth:  01.01.1980
Department:  Development
E-mail:  max.mustermann@example.com
Document:  Offer.pdf, Invoices.pdf
Contact group:  customers, employees
  • The  Date of birth was added.

Manual Merge

For each duplicate, you will find the "Duplicate treatment" button in the search result.

Manual Duplicate Merge

All duplicates will now be displayed. You can choose between "All"Or"Prefer" choose.
By clicking on "All“ you decide for exactly this contact, all data of this contact is saved and the other duplicate is discarded.
However, if you click "Prefer’ button, data from both duplicates will be adopted, but one duplicate will always be given preference over the other duplicate. For easier understanding see the following sketch:

duplicates

If both contacts are in the same contact group, which dynamic attributes owns, these are also listed and can be treated.

If you select "Transfer from lists", lists such as cars, awards, calendar events, comments, documents, invoices, contact groups, products... will be transferred and not discarded.