Google Contacts Deduplication Guide

Supported Objects

Dedupely supports deduplication for the following Google Contacts objects:

• Contacts

Google Contacts has one record type, so there is no cross-object merging to consider.

Permissions Required

Connecting Google Contacts uses OAuth, so there is no API key to generate or paste. You authorize Dedupely from your Google account, and the connection carries your own permissions: Dedupely needs read, write and delete access to your contacts in order to consolidate values and remove a duplicate.

Common Google Contacts Duplicate Issues

• Two accounts, two copies. Contacts synced from a phone, a work account and an import end up as three records for one person.
• Different email addresses for the same person. A personal address and a work address create separate contacts that nothing links together.
• Partial records from auto-save. A contact created from a single email exchange holds an address and nothing else, sitting alongside the complete record.
• Imports without a stable identifier. A CSV that does not carry the contact ids adds fresh copies rather than updating what is there.
• Merge suggestions only go so far. Google Contacts proposes merges when its own matching is confident, and Merge all accepts every suggestion in one click. What it leaves behind are the pairs it was not confident about, and those are usually the ones worth a look.

Google Contacts Native Merge Functionality

Dedupely resolves a duplicate by consolidating the field values onto the contact you keep, according to your Merge Rules, and then removing the duplicate.

Because the duplicate is deleted rather than merged, everything worth keeping has to be on the surviving contact first. Dedupely does that consolidation before anything is removed, and Merge History keeps the original values of both contacts.

Recommended Google Contacts Deduplication Process

1. Let Google's own suggestions run first: clear the matches Google Contacts is already confident about, so what reaches Dedupely is the set its matching cannot see.
2. Decide what a duplicate is for you: the same person with two email addresses is a duplicate; two people at one company sharing a switchboard number are not.
3. Build one Duplicate Search per scenario: a strict search on Exact Email, and a looser one on Similar Name plus the same organization for the cases that need review.
4. Check a merge before you automate it: merge a small batch and confirm in Merge History that the values you expected survived.
5. Automate the strict searches: Auto Merge for the ones you trust, and Auto Match on the looser searches so you are notified to review them instead.

FAQs about Google Contacts deduplication

• How is this different from "Merge & fix" in Google Contacts? "Merge & fix" acts on the matches Google proposes, and Merge all accepts them all at once. What it cannot do is take a match you define. Dedupely lets you set the match yourself, on any field, with Exact, Similar, Fuzzy, Similar Words or Domain Root.
• Can a merge be undone? Not a Dedupely one. Google Contacts can separate a contact merged with Merge & fix, but Dedupely consolidates the values and deletes the duplicate, which is a different thing. The deleted contact sits in Google Contacts Trash for 30 days, and Merge History keeps the original values of both, exportable as CSV.
• What happens to the contact that is removed? It is deleted from Google Contacts. Its values are consolidated onto the surviving contact first, and Merge History keeps the originals of both, exportable as CSV.
• Can I control which values survive? Yes. Merge Rules decide field by field, and you can pick the Primary by criteria such as the oldest, the newest or the most complete record.
• Does this cover my whole organization? No. The connection is to one Google account's own contacts. Each person connects their own.
• Are the "Other contacts" that Google saves automatically included? Those are a separate, read-only list, so they are not merged.
• Is anything merged automatically when I connect? No. Connecting and syncing never merges, edits or deletes a contact. A merge happens when you click Merge, or when you turn on Auto Merge for a search yourself.

Mentioned in this article: Duplicate Searches, Merge Rules, Merge History, Finding Duplicates, and Auto Match.