# vCard Duplicate Remover Find and merge duplicate contacts in a vCard (.vcf) file. Match on name, email, or phone; merge into one card or drop extra copies. Runs in your browser. ## Run it - **CLI:** `gizza tool vcard-deduplicate "BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 FN:John Doe EMAIL:john@work.com TEL:+1-555-111-2222 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 FN:John Doe EMAIL:john@home.com TEL:1 (555) 111-2222 END:VCARD"` - **Web:** https://gizza.ai/tools/vcard-deduplicate/ - **Agents:** machine-readable descriptor (parameters JSON Schema) at https://gizza.ai/tools/vcard-deduplicate/tool.json ## Inputs - `data` — vCard (.vcf) text _(field)_ - `match_by` — Treat as duplicates when they share _(field)_ - `merge` — Merge each group into one card (off = keep only the first) _(field)_ ## Output - Deduplicated vCard (text) ## Query parameters Open the tool pre-filled and auto-run via URL: - `data` — vCard (.vcf) text - `match_by` — Treat as duplicates when they share - `merge` — Merge each group into one card (off = keep only the first) Example: `https://gizza.ai/tools/vcard-deduplicate/?data=BEGIN%3AVCARD%0AVERSION%3A3.0%0AFN%3AJohn%20Doe%0AEMAIL%3Ajohn%40work.com%0ATEL%3A%2B1-555-111-2222%0AEND%3AVCARD%0ABEGIN%3AVCARD%0AVERSION%3A3.0%0AFN%3AJohn%20Doe%0AEMAIL%3Ajohn%40home.com%0ATEL%3A1%20%28555%29%20111-2222%0AEND%3AVCARD&match_by=any&merge=true` --- ## Remove and merge duplicate vCard contacts Exports from phones, mail apps, and CRMs often stack the same person into a `.vcf` file two or three times — one card with a work email, another with a mobile number, a third from an old sync. Paste the file here and get back a **clean vCard** with each contact appearing once. Matching runs across vCard **2.1, 3.0 (RFC 2426), and 4.0 (RFC 6350)**, and everything happens locally in your browser — your contacts are never uploaded. ### Worked example Two cards for the same person, each holding a different email and phone: ``` BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 FN:John Doe EMAIL:john@work.com TEL:+1-555-111-2222 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 FN:John Doe EMAIL:john@home.com TEL:1 (555) 111-2222 END:VCARD ``` With **merge** on, the two collapse into one card that keeps *both* emails while the repeated phone (same digits, written two ways) is kept only once: ``` BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 FN:John Doe EMAIL:john@work.com TEL:+1-555-111-2222 EMAIL:john@home.com END:VCARD ``` (The survivor keeps its own lines in order, then each new value from the other cards is appended.) ### Options - **Treat as duplicates when they share** (`match_by`) — pick how aggressively to group cards: - **Any of name, email, or phone** (`any`, default) — link cards that share *any* of those, so a renamed card and a card with a matching phone still merge. - **The same full name** (`name`) — match only on the display name (`FN`, or the structured `N` if there's no `FN`), compared case- and spacing-insensitively. - **The same email address** (`email`) — match only on a shared email (case-insensitive), regardless of name. - **The same phone number** (`phone`) — match only on a shared phone, compared by its digits so `+1 (555) 123-4567` and `5551234567` count as one. - **Merge each group into one card** (`merge`, default on) — combine every duplicate into a single card, unioning emails, phones, URLs, and addresses and filling empty singular fields (like `ORG` or `TITLE`) from later copies. Turn it **off** to simply keep the first card of each group and drop the rest without merging. ### Limits & edge cases - The **first** card of each group is the survivor: it keeps all of its own fields, and singular fields it already has are never overwritten by a later copy. - Repeatable properties are de-duplicated by value — two `EMAIL` lines with the same address (any case) collapse to one, and two `TEL` lines with the same digits collapse to one, even if written with different punctuation. - Phone matching compares **all** digits, so a number stored with a country code (`+1 555…`) will *not* match the same number stored without one (`555…`). Add or strip country codes first if you want those to merge. - Cards with no name, email, or phone (nothing to match on) are always left as separate contacts. - Input must contain at least one `BEGIN:VCARD … END:VCARD` block; text with no card returns an error rather than empty output. ## FAQ
How does it decide two contacts are the same? By the identifiers you choose in **Treat as duplicates when they share**. With the default **Any**, two cards are grouped if they share a normalized full name, *or* any email address (case-insensitive), *or* any phone number (compared by digits). Groups are transitive: if card A shares a phone with B and B shares an email with C, all three merge into one contact.
What happens to the different phone numbers and emails when merging? They're all kept. When a group merges, the survivor (the first card) keeps its own fields, and every *unique* email, phone, URL, and address from the other cards is added to it. Duplicate values — the same email in a different case, or the same phone written with different punctuation — are collapsed to a single entry.
Can I remove duplicates without combining their details? Yes. Turn **Merge each group into one card** off. Then for each set of duplicates the tool keeps only the first card exactly as it was and discards the rest, without copying any of their extra emails or phones into the survivor.
Which vCard versions does it handle? vCard **2.1**, **3.0** (RFC 2426), and **4.0** (RFC 6350), including folded continuation lines, group prefixes like `item1.TEL`, and multiple cards in one file. Each surviving card keeps its original property lines and formatting.
Is my data uploaded anywhere? No. The whole thing runs in your browser with WebAssembly — the `.vcf` text never leaves your device, so it's safe to clean up sensitive address books.
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