The same person can end up on your list more than once, for example when they use a form with one email spelling and a survey with another. Possible duplicates finds those records so you can combine them. Nothing merges on its own - you choose who to keep.
Review possible duplicates
- Open Contacts.
- Choose Possible duplicates.
Contacts are grouped when they share an email address (ignoring capital letters, +tags, and
Gmail dots) or a user ID. Turn on Also match on phone number to group by phone too.
Only your most recently seen 5,000 contacts are checked. If your list is larger, a notice says so.
Merge a group
- In a group, pick the contact to keep. The oldest record is chosen by default.
- Choose Merge the others into this one and confirm.
The merge runs in the background. The other contacts' responses, notes, and details move to the contact you kept, and anything the kept contact already has stays as it is.
You can also merge from a person's own page: the duplicates card lists look-alikes, each with Merge into this contact.
Check and undo a merge
Each merge is recorded on the kept contact's page with who made it, when, and its status: Merging, Merged, Failed, or Undone.
To reverse one, choose Undo merge on that entry and confirm. The merged contact comes back with its own details and responses.
Tips
- Check that the two records really are the same person before you merge - a shared family inbox can look like a duplicate.
- Merging is for tidying your list. To remove a person's data entirely, use Erase contact (see the overview).