Google Sync Creates Duplicate Contacts for Blackberry

I wanted my Gmail contacts and Blackberry contacts to be in sync with one another, as I didn’t have all the same email addresses on my Blackberry as I had in my Gmail contacts.

Fortunately Google Sync solves this problem. It can sync automatically throughout the day (syncing your contacts and calendar items too, if you wish). I’m syncing with a Blackberry Bold 9700. Upon setting it up, Google Sync was creating duplicate contacts on both my Blackberry and Gmail upon every sync. We’re talking over 100 contact entries for each contact, before realized it.

To turn off the creation of multiple contacts, first go to your Contact settings on you Blackberry. Go to Options > General Options. Under Actions where it says Allow Duplicate Names select No. Upon doing this, Google Sync may say it can no longer sync contacts, however I’ve found you can override this. Try it again in a little bit and it will then allow you to (that’s all I can say — I can’t explain it). From then on Google Sync will no longer create duplicate contacts upon sync.

How do you then clean up your contacts? In Gmail go to Contacts > More Actions > Find & merge duplicates…. You may have to do that multiple times before Gmail snuffs out all the duplicates. Upon next sync, the duplicates should be removed from your Blackberry as well.