Duplicating almost all my contacts in PC & android mobile

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yuwarajj
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:57 am

Duplicating almost all my contacts in PC & android mobile

Post by yuwarajj »

I installed Thunderbird and Birdiesync today.
I did the sync first time.

I found that almost 80% of my contacts are duplicated in both PC and mobile
One row with all the information about the contact and
Second row with just the name of that contact.

I am worried if I continue doing it then it will keep on duplicating it ?

Can some one help me in how to remove the duplicates and how to avoid the duplication.

Regards
Yuwaraj

Birdy
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Posts: 3118
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:43 am
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Re: Duplicating almost all my contacts in PC & android mobil

Post by Birdy »

Hello Yuwaraj,

Which synchronization mode did you choose when you first synchronized ? "Combine" or "Replace" ?
If you chose "Combine", it will copy mobile from the Android device to Thunderbird, and contacts from Thunderbird to the mobile device.
If you had similar contact on Android and Thunderbird before the first synchronization, that could could create duplicates (only strictly identical contacts are considered as duplicates and removed).
At first synchronization or after a synchronization reset, it's usually better to have all your contacts up-to-date in Thunderbird and then choose "Replace" to avoid any duplicates (be carefull if using this option, since it would delete all the contacts present in the contact accounts you selected to be synchronized on Android before the synchronization).

If duplicated contacts in Thunderbird are strictly identical you may try to remove them with Thunderbird menu "Tools/BirdieSync/Remove duplicates".

If duplicated contacts are not strictly identical, to remove them you may have a look at this extension for Thunderbird:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunde ... t-manager/
After installation, restart Thunderbird.

It adds a "Duplicates" menu in your address book.

It should be able to identify duplicates (for instance if two have the same email). You must first launch it and see if it finds duplicates (and simply lick on "Pass" for the first ones). Then if you are satisfied, you may relaunch and this time ask him to automatically remove duplicates if you don't want to check all your contacts one by one.

I strongly suggest you to have a backup of your contacts and to check your contacts after this tool was executed.
Birdy

yuwarajj
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:57 am

Re: Duplicating almost all my contacts in PC & android mobil

Post by yuwarajj »

Thanks for your reply.
First sync I selected "Combined" However I have ZERO records in Thunderbird.

Now I have situation like this on both Mobile and Thunderbird address book

John Smith nothing there
John Smith all the contact information
Tom Gibbs nothing there
Tom Gibbs all the contact information

In some cases it removed entire name from my Mobile.
For example I had few contacts "Sam Doe", "Rumold P" etc.... .... they just disappeared from my mobile
This is really terrible. I maintained these records for last 15 years starting from"Palm pilot" and was sucessfully able to migrate from one gadget to other BUT this is the first time I lost the records. I don't know how many I lost ?

Can you please help me.

Birdy
Site Admin
Posts: 3118
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:43 am
Contact:

Re: Duplicating almost all my contacts in PC & android mobil

Post by Birdy »

Presently, I'm not aware of a problem that could lead to unwanted deletions of contacts during synchronization or creation of contacts with only the name (if this contact doesn't exist on the other side)

How did you transfer your contacts from the Palm Pilot to Android ?
Which contact accounts did you select to be synchronized in BirdieSync app settings on Android ?
Which address books did you select to be synchronized in BirdieSync options in Thunderbird ?

Right after you have the synchronization, could you send your logs to support ?
First, transfer the mobile device log to the desktop with "Help/Transfer mobile device log" while your mobile is connected.
Then build the log archive BirdieSyncLog.zip with BirdieSync menu "Help/Archive logs..." and send it to support(at)birdiesync.com.

Before any operation, I suggest you to backup your data as mentioned in this FAQ topic.

Thanks.
Birdy

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