How to combine contacts in Xiaomi phone: elimination of duplicates

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face the problem of a phone book being turned into a chaos of repetitive entries. SIM-Instead of one record, "Mom," you can see three or four identical numbers, making it difficult to find the right subscriber and making the interface cluttered.

Fortunately, MIUI and the new HyperOS have built-in, powerful tools to do this without installing third-party software. The process of merging records takes only a few minutes if you know where to look for the right features. In this article, we will discuss in detail all the ways to clean the phone book from garbage.

Getting your call list right isn't just a matter of aesthetics, it's also a matter of usability, and when you get rid of duplicates, you speed up your search and prevent dialing errors. Let's look at how to get your device in order as efficiently as possible.

Preparing for cleaning the phone book

Before starting a mass data consolidation, you need to make sure your data is safe. Although Xiaomi’s built-in tools work correctly 99% of the time, there is always a risk of accidental deletion of important information, and it is recommended to pre-synchronize contacts with your Google account or create a local backup.

It's also worth checking where the numbers are loading on your screen. Modern shells can display a list from multiple sources at once: SIM-Maps, phone and cloud account memory. For the proper operation of the unification function, it is better to have all the records in one place, for example, in a Google profile.

⚠️ Note: If you plan to manually connect contacts, make sure you have a stable internet connection, as changes can sync with the server in real time.

Make sure the device has the latest version of the Contacts app installed.Older versions may not have automatic merge mode or work with errors when handling large listings.The update can be found on the Google Play store or through the system updater.

Automatic combination of duplicates in MIUI and HyperOS

The fastest and most efficient way to get a phone book in order is to use a built-in duplicate search algorithm, which analyzes names and phone numbers by itself, suggesting that matching entries be combined, and this is ideal for those who want to get results quickly and without manual interference in each position.

To start the process, you need to open the standard Contacts app and go to the management menu. The interface may vary slightly depending on the firmware version, but the logic of actions remains the same for all Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco models.

Follow the following steps to automatically clean:

• 📱 Open the Contacts app on the home screen or in the Tools folder».
• ⚙️ Click on the three dots in the top right corner (or the menu button) and select Settings».
• 🔄 Find the item “Contact Duplicate” or “Contact Management» → «Unite».
• ✅ Confirm the action and the system will automatically merge the matches found.

Once the operation is complete, the system will report how many records have been combined. Automated mergers usually only affect pairs where both the name and the phone number match, so the risk of error is minimal.

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If the automatic search didn’t find duplicates but you can see them visually, check if there are no hidden gaps in the names or if the country codes in the phone numbers differ.

Manual contact merge via the control menu

Sometimes the automation fails, for example, if one contact is written as Alexey and the other as Lesha, or the numbers are in different formats, and in these cases manual control comes to the rescue, which takes longer, but gives you complete control over which fields will be saved in the final record.

To combine the entries manually, you need to go to list editing mode, in which you can select multiple cards and combine them into one, which is especially true for users who often import data from different sources, such as Viber, WhatsApp or old phones.

The manual combination algorithm is as follows:

• 👆 In the Contacts app, click on the control button (three dots) and select Contact Management».
• 🔘 Click on "Connecting Contacts».
• 📝 Choose the first contact from the pair you want to combine.
• 🔗 The system will suggest selecting a second contact for the merger or show a list of similar ones.

Once you select a pair, the system will show you a preview of the final record, and you will see which phone numbers, email addresses and addresses will be saved, so that you avoid losing important information if the duplicate records were different.

Contacts with your Google account

The most reliable way to store and manage your contact book is by using Google services. If your entries are synced with Gmail, you can manage them not only from your Xiaomi phone, but from any computer, which is especially convenient when working with large lists, where the mouse navigation is faster than the finger on the screen.

Google Contacts has a powerful “Combine and Fix” tool that often works more accurately than Android’s built-in tools. It analyzes not only exact matches, but similar names, offering a “smart” merger.

Instructions for work through the web interface:

1. Go to contacts.google.com from your computer or in your phone browser.
2. In the menu on the left, select “Combine and correct”.
3. The system will show a list of duplicates with a “Combine” button next to each group.
4. You can combine contacts one by one or use the “Unite all” button.

After making changes to the site, you need to make sure that the Xiaomi smartphone has updated the data. Usually, sync is automatic, but you can speed up the process by going to the settings of your Google account on your phone and clicking “Sync”.

Table of comparison of cleaning methods

The choice of method depends on the number of duplicates and your preferences. Below is a comparison table that will help determine how to clean the phone book on your Xiaomi device.

As you can see from the table, a built-in automatic tool is best for a one-time quick cleaning, but for a deep revision of the database accumulated over the years, it is preferable to use the capabilities of Google Contacts through the browser.

Using third-party apps from the Play Market is also possible, but it requires caution: Many of them request full rights to access your personal information, which may not be secure.

Possible problems and solutions

Users may encounter various difficulties in connecting contacts, such as the merge button may be inactive, or the system may claim that there are no duplicates, although they are clearly visible in the list, often due to the nature of the data storage.

One common reason is to split contacts between different accounts, where one number is stored in a phone's memory and a copy is in a phone's memory. SIM-map, the automatics may not see them as duplicates until you switch the display, and problems may arise if there are special characters in the name or non-standard format of the number.

⚠️ Note: When merging contacts with SIM-The card and memory of the phone are often given priority to data from the cloud or internal memory, and information from the phone is often given priority. SIM-The card may be truncated due to storage format limitations.

If you're in a situation where you've lost subscriber photos or extra numbers after you've merged, check your change history. Google Contacts has a Cancel Change feature that allows you to roll back the database state 24 hours or a week, and it's the only way you can guarantee that you can recover data in the event of a mass merger error.

It’s also worth remembering that some apps, such as instant messengers, can create their own phonebook entries to display avatars, and combining them with the main contacts sometimes leads to display conflicts.

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The safest way is to pre-sync all contacts with your Google account before any merger or deletion operations are initiated.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)