# A lot of duplicates in contacts **URL:** \ **Category:** Product Support\ **Created:** [November 3, 2017, 8:49am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835 "2017-11-03T08:49:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carlojbruno](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/carlojbruno/32/180_2.png) [@carlojbruno](https://forum.mautic.org/u/carlojbruno)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 8:49am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/1 "2017-11-03T08:49:03Z")
Hello, I’m finding strange results in my Contacts list: as you can see in the screenshot ([https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1On1s4a5OJYFug1xgEp-6q6M3oL\_DIWHf1RpXrCeEWOY/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1On1s4a5OJYFug1xgEp-6q6M3oL_DIWHf1RpXrCeEWOY/edit?usp=sharing)) most of the Anonymous contacts are duplicated (sometime even more than twice) Why this happens? Did I make some mistakes in configuring Mautic? Thank in advance, Carlo ---
**Author:** ![carlojbruno](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/carlojbruno/32/180_2.png) [@carlojbruno](https://forum.mautic.org/u/carlojbruno)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 8:49am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/2 "2017-11-03T08:49:03Z")
Hello, I’m finding strange results in my Contacts list: as you can see in the screenshot ([https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1On1s4a5OJYFug1xgEp-6q6M3oL\_DIWHf1RpXrCeEWOY/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1On1s4a5OJYFug1xgEp-6q6M3oL_DIWHf1RpXrCeEWOY/edit?usp=sharing)) most of the Anonymous contacts are duplicated (sometime even more than twice) Why this happens? Did I make some mistakes in configuring Mautic? Thank in advance, Carlo ---
**Author:** ![bizcrony](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/bizcrony/32/409_2.png) [@bizcrony](https://forum.mautic.org/u/bizcrony)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/3 "2017-11-03T15:47:34Z")
@carlojbruno have you imported the contact or they are come from website ---
**Author:** ![carlojbruno](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/carlojbruno/32/180_2.png) [@carlojbruno](https://forum.mautic.org/u/carlojbruno)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/4 "2017-11-03T16:49:55Z")
They are the anonymous contacts that visit the website ---
**Author:** ![bizcrony](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/bizcrony/32/409_2.png) [@bizcrony](https://forum.mautic.org/u/bizcrony)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/5 "2017-11-06T11:27:59Z")
@carlojbruno Oh means a visitor visit your website twice at different different pages. ---
**Author:** ![Warren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/warren/32/4292_2.png) [@Warren](https://forum.mautic.org/u/Warren)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/6 "2021-01-27T14:34:37Z")
I’m also seeing this – multiple anonymous contacts; same IP; duplicate contact created multiple times. The Mautic documentation says it automatically merges contacts with the same IP – so just wondering why it’s not happening? I read somewhere the user may be blocking cookies … but again, the Mautic documentation says it merges contacts with the same IP? Thanks in advance for any insight and how to resolve this … also as a stop-gap measure, is it possible to manually merge multiple anonymous contacts into one? I know you can merge known contacts, but I don’t see how to do that with anonymous ones. Thank-you in advance! ---
**Author:** ![EJL](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/ejl/32/12155_2.png) [@EJL](https://forum.mautic.org/u/EJL)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/7 "2021-01-27T17:47:16Z")
you can run **mautic:contacts:deduplicate** command or **mautic:unusedip:delete** ---
**Author:** ![mikew](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/mikew/32/5156_2.png) [@mikew](https://forum.mautic.org/u/mikew)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 8:51am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/8 "2021-01-28T08:51:39Z")
Nice @EJL never seen that command before. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Warren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/warren/32/4292_2.png) [@Warren](https://forum.mautic.org/u/Warren)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 10:38am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/9 "2021-01-29T10:38:24Z")
Thank you, @EJL, After running that command it shows 0 duplicates merged… Can this be made to work with anonymous contacts purely from their matching IP addresses? I found this link: [Mautic: Console Commands – Ricardo Malla's Blog](https://www.ricardomalla.com/2017/07/13/mautic-console-commands/) ) which says the deduplicate command has been deprecated? But it seemed to _try_ and do something? Also, I guess there’s no way to merge multiple anonymous contacts with multiple IP’s (for some reason) who are actually the same person? (I’m actually wondering if it’s some web crawler or something who seemed to access almost every page / post on my site, but with different IP’s, but from the same locale, at the same time.) Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![EJL](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/ejl/32/12155_2.png) [@EJL](https://forum.mautic.org/u/EJL)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/10 "2021-01-29T16:20:58Z")
> [@Warren](#): > > I found this link: [Mautic: Console Commands – Ricardo Malla’s Blog](https://www.ricardomalla.com/2017/07/13/mautic-console-commands/) ) which says the deduplicate command has been deprecated? This info is incorrect as I use the deduplicate and delete unusedip all the time in version 3.x ![Screenshot (8)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/mautic/original/2X/2/297f64206a524f3738b2b79a35e61ea32c5a79f6.png) It merges contacts based on your selection of “Unique Identifier” in the Custom Fields tab in settings. By default it is just email address in Mautic, but you can set to whatever you like. As a workaround you can add the naughty IP addresses in the Do Not Track box in settings. ![Screenshot (44)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/mautic/original/2X/a/a15c8504fa73e32b58dfc5578464b2e79be7cca9.png) You can also set up a segment with filter “email is blank.” add that segment to a campaign that deletes contact. It will catch all the “contacts” that are random IP addressed and delete them. You can also ignore it ---
**Author:** ![Warren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/warren/32/4292_2.png) [@Warren](https://forum.mautic.org/u/Warren)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/12 "2021-01-29T18:16:57Z")
Ahh, thank you kindly, I understand … However, I do not see the IP as an option in the Custom Fields (so I can’t set it as a unique identifier). I suppose because it tracks IP automatically and is supposed to merge contacts accordingly (as per the documentation). However, it’s not doing it, and that’s my issue. ---
**Author:** ![EJL](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/ejl/32/12155_2.png) [@EJL](https://forum.mautic.org/u/EJL)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/13 "2021-02-01T15:49:05Z")
Maybe this toggle in settings / tracking settings would help ![Screenshot (46)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/mautic/original/2X/4/480b1f7c9ebad1bf07eabcd7076ca81042538187.png) I understand it to be frustrating. I am not familiar with the frequency or mechanism Mautic uses to automatically merge the anonymous contacts. Maybe someone can chime in with a better solution. Maybe this toggle in settings / tracking settings would help ---
**Author:** ![Warren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/warren/32/4292_2.png) [@Warren](https://forum.mautic.org/u/Warren)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/14 "2021-02-01T18:25:10Z")
Hi. I have set that toggle to identify visitors by IP already – but it doesn’t seem to do it … The deduplicate command also has no effect. ---
**Author:** ![EJL](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/ejl/32/12155_2.png) [@EJL](https://forum.mautic.org/u/EJL)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/15 "2021-02-01T23:25:54Z")
Hey Paul, sorry that was vague. I was suggesting turning IP tracking off, apply, save and close. Then turn it back on, apply save and close. To kickstart the merge by ip process ---
**Author:** ![victor.j](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/victor.j/32/6600_2.png) [@victor.j](https://forum.mautic.org/u/victor.j)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/16 "2022-03-07T21:23:53Z")
Hello, Any update on this issue? I have the same issue. I’ve imported my clients database into Mautic (with emails, details, and IPs), when any user came through a Mautic link, he’s tracked as a different user and not merged with the contact with the IP. Another issue, when a user came and place and order, I created the user through the API when order is placed with the user’s IP. However, I found 2 users, the first is unidentified and anonymous and the second is the one I created through the API. Both of them have the same IP address but they are not merged. Any help will be much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![EJL](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/ejl/32/12155_2.png) [@EJL](https://forum.mautic.org/u/EJL)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 1:09am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/17 "2022-03-08T01:09:54Z")
run **mautic:contacts:deduplicate** ---
**Author:** ![victor.j](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mautic.org/victor.j/32/6600_2.png) [@victor.j](https://forum.mautic.org/u/victor.j)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 1:52am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/a-lot-of-duplicates-in-contacts/9835/18 "2022-03-08T01:52:12Z")
Hello EJL! Thank you for your reply but I got 0 merged 0 contacts were merged. Just to explain the situation: Contact A (identified) : email - name - 134.76.129.67 Contact B (unidentified) : no-email - no-name - 134.76.129.67 I already posted a topic with some screenshots, maybe it can help to better understand the issue: [Associate IP to existing users](https://forum.mautic.org/t/associate-ip-to-existing-users/22872) Thank you 🙂