Find and Remove Duplicate Contacts in an Excel Spreadsheet

Use the filter features in Excel to find and remove duplicate contacts

After exporting all of your contacts into a single spreadsheet, you can use the filtering tools in Excel to find duplicate contacts and delete them. Once the duplicates are found, you can then use the results to delete the duplicate contacts in your Constant Contact account before uploading your spreadsheet to update the existing contacts with any information you merged together.

1. In Excel, open your spreadsheet and click Home.
2. Click on the letter above the column you want to search for duplicate content to highlight it. You can also select multiple columns.
3. Click Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values.
   
   
    
4. Select "Duplicate."
5. Select the color option you want to use to highlight the duplicate content.
6. Click OK.
   
   
    
7. Highlight the column you want to sort and click Sort & Filter > Sort A to Z.
   
   
    
8. Click "Expand the selection." This sorts all of the content in the other columns together instead of just re-ordering the selected column.
9. Click Sort.
   
   
    
10. Look through the highlighted content to make sure they are truly duplicate contacts and not just contacts with similar names. If you need to, combine the information you want to keep for the contact into one row.
    
    
     
11. Right-click on the number for the row with the duplicate information you want to remove and click Delete. Repeat for each row with a duplicate contact.
    
    
     

Make sure you delete the same duplicate contacts from your Constant Contact account, then upload your spreadsheet into your account. Any information that you combined into a single contact row on your spreadsheet is automatically updated for the remaining contact in your account.

Questions?