# Multiple iPhone phone contacts after Big Sur upgrade **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2021, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835 "2021-08-31T17:23:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/1 "2021-08-31T17:23:09Z")
After upgrading to Big Sur, I connected my phone to my MacBook Pro; mainly to keep it charged while I played a game of Freecell on it. This morning I went to call my wife and I discovered that my phone book has multiple duplicates. There are three of most names, and five of my office. 1. Why did this happen? 2. Will this continue to happen whenever I connect the phone to my computer? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/2 "2021-08-31T18:50:25Z")
My iPhone has done a similar thing over time. I have my gf in my contacts home/work/cell with 8-10 occurrences for each. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/3 "2021-08-31T18:53:32Z")
It’s a SW bug with the interface between Big Sur and iOS. I’ve seen this with my old PalmPilot and another 3d party tool. To recover, if you can export your contacts to Excel, then sort them in Excel and delete the dups. It’s a hassle, but not too much of a PITA. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2021, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/4 "2021-09-01T13:18:53Z")
The Contacts app on macOS has a “Look for Duplicates…” feature under the Contacts menu. It can then merge the duplicates. That’s not without its risks, so first you should go to File-Export-Contacts Archive… to save out your contacts database. It’s a fairly small file and good to keep around anyhow (you can do the same thing for Calendars). Anyway, if the duplicate merging gets b0rked then you can restore from the saved archive file. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/5 "2021-09-01T13:34:14Z")
I’ve already deleted the duplicates from the phone, but now I see I have dupes in iCloud. I googled for instructions on how to do what you suggest, but only got this far: > **1.** Make sure that iCloud contacts are syncing with your Mac. Do this by clicking the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen, clicking **System Preferences** , and making sure that Contacts is checked under **Apps on this Mac using iCloud.** You can exit out of settings after this. There’s nothing in System Preferences that says ‘Apps on this Mac using iCloud’, so I couldn’t see if anything is checked. Oh, well. I’ll google for better instructions later. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2021, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/6 "2021-09-01T13:37:32Z")
I had a similar problem when I used my iPhone with company software (Mobile Iron? MaaS360?) to sync mail, calendar, tasks and contacts with Outlook. Eventually I figured out that I needed to set the syncing to be only one-way, so any additions or changes need to be made in Google so they will then appear on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/7 "2021-09-01T13:48:26Z")
That’s not optimal @Dewey_Finn . ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multiple-iphone-phone-contacts-after-big-sur-upgrade/949835/8 "2021-09-01T13:49:28Z")
It was the simplest way to avoid duplications.