Answers.Body: <p>Yes.  One of the questions to consider is what you mean by a duplicate.  If two contacts have the same first and last names, same address, same email and same date of birth, then you're fairly safe in assuming they represent the same person.  But real data is far messier and incomplete so Civi lets you choose what characteristics to look for - those are described by a 'Dedupe Rule'.</p>
  
  <p>If you have lots of duplicates you will need to repeat the process several times using different dedupe rules.  I tend to start with quite specific ones (eg first name, last name, postcode), deal with those, then broaden the criteria.</p>
  
  <p>In brief:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>go to <code>Contacts &gt; Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts</code></li>
  <li>click <code>Use Rule</code> on one of the Individual Rules, or <code>Add Rule for Individuals</code> to set up a new rule</li>
  <li>select a group - or leave it blank to search all contacts</li>
  <li>review the duplicates and merge them</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>For much more detail, see <a href="https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/stable/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/stable/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-05-11T19:30:31.417Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-05-11T19:30:31.417Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Aidan
Answers.Body: <p>In addition to Aidan's answer, CiviCRM does come with a Batch Merge tool which can resolve the most straightforward of matches and leave you to just deal with the odd or complex ones manually.</p>
  
  <p>This process is described in the section "Merging multiple contacts simultaneously" in <a href="https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/4.7/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/4.7/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-05-11T20:39:58.867Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-05-11T20:39:58.867Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Body: <p>I am new to using CIVI at my work place, and there are a ton of duplicate entries in the system (we did a merge from our previous system). Is there a quick and easy way to merge all duplicate contacts?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-05-11T19:33:22.927Z
Comments.Text: If you want to ask more detailed questions about duplicates and merging, make sure you include the version of CiviCRM that you are using.  This is an area that has seen significant changes between versions.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Aidan
Tags: <duplicate-contacts>
Title: Duplicate Contacts
ThreadText: # Duplicate Contacts
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-11)
  
  I am new to using CIVI at my work place, and there are a ton of duplicate entries in the system (we did a merge from our previous system). Is there a quick and easy way to merge all duplicate contacts?
  
  **Tags:** duplicate-contacts
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: If you want to ask more detailed questions about duplicates and merging, make sure you include the version of CiviCRM that you are using.  This is an area that has seen significant changes between versions.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-05-11. Score: 3
  
  Yes. One of the questions to consider is what you mean by a duplicate. If two contacts have the same first and last names, same address, same email and same date of birth, then you're fairly safe in assuming they represent the same person. But real data is far messier and incomplete so Civi lets you choose what characteristics to look for - those are described by a 'Dedupe Rule'.
  
  If you have lots of duplicates you will need to repeat the process several times using different dedupe rules. I tend to start with quite specific ones (eg first name, last name, postcode), deal with those, then broaden the criteria.
  
  In brief:
  
  * go to `Contacts > Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts`
  * click `Use Rule` on one of the Individual Rules, or `Add Rule for Individuals` to set up a new rule
  * select a group - or leave it blank to search all contacts
  * review the duplicates and merge them
  
  For much more detail, see <https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/stable/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/>
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2017-05-11. Score: 2
  
  In addition to username_1's answer, CiviCRM does come with a Batch Merge tool which can resolve the most straightforward of matches and leave you to just deal with the odd or complex ones manually.
  
  This process is described in the section "Merging multiple contacts simultaneously" in <https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/4.7/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/>
  
  
  ---
  
  