How to clean up your mobiles phones's contacts list

This article was taken from the January 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

You like your new phones -- but its inherited address book is a complete mess. Six entries for an ex-colleague, nine things that read "taxi" and 23 random contacts that are just defunct email addresses. It's time to make this right.

De-dupe

Make your phones do some of the heavy lifting. Start by installing an app that lets you merge or delete redundant contacts. For ioses, use Cleanup Duplicate Contacts (69p). For androids, use Go Contacts Pro (free).

Pick a storage space

Gmail, Yahoo!, outlook.com, Apple -- choose a repository for everything. Syncing to the cloud means the end of those embarrassing "I lost my phones, send me your number!" Facebook updates.

Export

(Already synced to the cloud? Go to step 5.) For ioses: use My Contacts Backup. The free app will save a .VCF file of contacts.

androids: go to People app, select Import/Export > Export to Storage. Email the VCF to yourself.

Start fresh

With that VCF saved somewhere safe, remove your contacts from your phones. For androids, you can use the free Contact Remover, and for ioses the Spring Cleaning app (69p) looks best. Delete them all.

Upload

Log in to your webmail inbox from your desktop and import the .VCF file. This is typically done in the settings, depending on your provider. In Gmail go to Contacts > More > Import and select the .VCF file you downloaded.

Clean up

Once your contacts have been imported, knuckle down and go through them one at a time, taking care of whatever the app missed (doubles, old info, wrong default numbers). Doing it right means not doing it again any time soon.

Fill your phones (ioses)

Once your contacts are squeaky clean, set them to stay in sync with your phones. In ioses, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Log in to your email account and flip the Contacts switch to On.

Fill your phones(androids)

For androids phoness, go to Settings > Add Account and log in to the Google (or any other email) account with your newly sorted contacts. Make sure that Contacts sync is turned on.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK