Vista - Deleting duplicate contacts in Windows Live Mail

Can I get Windows Live Mail to delete all unwanted duplicate
contacts? The only advice on this I did see somewhere was for Windows
Live Hotmail, which I am not using.

I have assumed that:

1. Your identity is based upon an email account @hotmail.com,
or @msn.com, or @live.com - and
2. When you open WLMail, you allow it to sign into the same
hotmail, msn or live identity

If these assumptions are correct, an easy way to clean your
contact list is via the webmail interface.

Close Windows Live Mail

Use your web browser to sign into your mail account at
http://mail.live.com.

Click on Options, followed by More Options.

Scroll down to "Customize your contacts", and click on "Clean up
duplicate contacts".

Use the wizard to merge or delete duplicates.

Sign out from the webmail interface

Open Windows Live Mail and allow the program to sign into your
identity.

When you select the contacts menu, WLMail should synchronize with
the contacts list on the central server.



"precise ali" <preciseali@xxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:69A50576-66F6-4937-ADA9-6E1E3B2EF95C@xxxxxx

Thank you very much for the response, Bob. In fact, my identity is none of
those you mentioned (unless I'm mistaken). I am using Windows Live Mail,
which is pretty good, to receive my email from a couple of personal accounts.
Am I right, therefore, in thinking that there is no easy way of cleaning up
the duplicates within the program itself (i.e. offline). I am inferring from
your reply that perhaps I should create an @live.com account and then do what
you suggest. Does that sound right?

"Bob Lucas" wrote:

Firstly, I am not aware of any automated way of removing
duplicate contacts within the WLMail program. The webmail
interface does a good job - but you can only use it for contacts
that are stored on the central server. Consequently, I don't
think it would help to create a new @live.com account, just to
manage your contacts list.

I wonder whether one of the MVPs could suggest a workaround
(possibly by exporting all of your contacts to a CSV file,
editing that file, and re-importing the data). However, I don't
feel sufficiently confident to advise.

However, we do need to establish whether WLMail has signed in to
an "identity", or whether the program is working independently.

If you are running the latest release of WLMail (2009 version,
build 14.0.8050.1202), look towards the top right hand side of
the WLMail window. Does it offer an option to "sign in" - or
does it show the address you have used to sign in? (The layout
of earlier versions of WLMail may be slightly different).

If WLMail quotes a sign-in address, please provide details (but
disguise the address, because we don't want to know your complete
email address - just the part after the @ symbol).




"precise ali" <preciseali@xxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:444AF32E-A9B6-47B8-8273-5EDE38C44FCB@xxxxxx

If the OP sets up a new Live account, he could copy the contacts.edb
file from his existing contacts to the Live ID contacts. Then after
synchronization occurs, he can use the web-based tool to eliminate
duplicates.

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)


"Bob Lucas" <bob@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:eWx1y3LhJHA.3812@xxxxxx

Thank you Gary, and thank you Bob (again)
How helpful! To answer Bob's question, my Windows Live Mail does not show a
sign-in button or link, so I appear to be using it locally only (although I
think I do recall creating a live account as well). I'm pretty sure it's the
latest version, as I only downloaded it a week or so ago and I get automatic
updates from Windows. In any case, I will follow Gary's suggestion and copy
my contacts to the Live ID contacts, then try eliminating duplicates.

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote:

Oops, I just realised I do have a sign-in option - I missed it earlier
because it only appears when I am looking at the inbox, not from within an
email.

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote:

If it says "sign in", then WLMail is working locally. Gary
VanderMolen has identified a method of transferring your contacts
to a new Live account. (Thank you for that useful info, Gary).

If that Gary's suggestion does not resolve the problem, another
thought has occurred to me.

Duplication can occur, if you have a contacts list or address
book on your local computer - and a similar contacts list on a
Live identity. If WLMail imports a local contacts list and then,
you synchronize with a Live identity, WLMail might import
duplicate entries from the central server.

I wonder how the duplicate entries managed to appear in your
contacts list, if you have always used WLMail locally (without
signing in). Did WLMail import your previous contact list from
another Mail client, such as Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows
(Vista) Mail? If so, does the previous contact list contain
duplicate entries?

If the original contact list is still complete (and without
duplicates), you could delete all of your contacts from WLMail
(working locally). Then, re-import the original contact list
manually (from your previous Mail client).



"precise ali" <preciseali@xxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:894C467A-8E20-4DA6-92C2-6C2F708F9745@xxxxxx

Thank you, Bob. In the meantime, I've gone one step forward and one back! I
now have a squeaky clean address book on the server, having used the
automatic clean-up. I then closed and re-opened Windows Live Mail, only to
discover everything is double again! So I am wondering, can I simply delete
the entire contacts list on my computer, then exit the program, re-open it,
thus (I hope) letting it download the clean contact list?

By the way, for your interest, yes, the original duplication came about when
I was using Outlook Express last year. I think I imported the address book
from my desktop computer onto my laptop, which already had contacts in it.
Hence the duplication.

"Bob Lucas" wrote:

And now the server has automatically synchronised with the contacts list on
my computer, so that the list on the server now also contains everything
doubled. I give up (almost)! Please help!

Also, I searched for a way of deleting the contacts list in my Windows Live
Mail on my computer, but it seems you can only delete one at a time. Madness!
I'm sure you know a way of deleting the lot?

"Bob Lucas" wrote: