Outlook Automatically Merging Contacts

kburrows

Senior Member
Outlook version
Outlook 365 64 bit
Email Account
Office 365 Exchange
Operating system::    Windows 10 & 11
Outlook version:     365 Classic
Email type or host:    Microsoft Exchange Online

Posted previously, but I never got a reply, and it appears to be getting worse.

As an example, if I have company ABC Distributing and there are multiple people in that company, I like to create a company contact with the main phone number and information and then separate contacts for each employee without the main company number. I do this so that when someone calls from the main number, I get just the company name for the caller ID instead of showing all the staff from that office number. Same for the employee. It's just cleaner for me that way. At some point, I will either get a call or will be in the company contact information and I will notice one of the employee's names and contact information is showing on the caller ID and will be merged in with the company only information. The original employee contact is also still there. I have an iPhone, so is it a function of the iPhone thinking it's being smart merging the information or a function of Outlook (Microsoft 365 version) merging the data? Why does it only do it with stand-alone company contacts only? Does it have to do with the primary business number not in the staff contact info? Could I trick Outlook by duplicating the primary number in the mobile number field? This happens very regularly, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
If you open the contact in Outlook in the regular contact form (not the contact card seen in the People view), are the contacts merged? If yes, it is apple. Outlook won't merge the physical contacts, but Outlook may display the information as one if you use People view, but not in the contact form or other contact views.

If Outlook is not doing it, do you have the company address in all of the contacts? Try removing it from the employee contacts. Maybe put it in the notes field in the business contact so there is nothing but the company name to merge them. If that doesn't help, remove the company name from the employees, replacing it with company initials or something so there is nothing to link.
 
Yep, having this exact problem, and yes it seems to be getting worse. You have a contact for a person and a company and hey presto the person's details get copied into the company card. And then you think the person is calling when it's the main company number. iOS has a merge contacts option but it seems to need manually activating.
 
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