Overview
Contacts appear more than once on an Android device syncing with Kerio Connect over EAS, while the same contacts look correct in Kerio Connect Client (Webmail). The duplicates exist only on the device. The contacts on the server are not duplicated.
Confirm it's only on the device
In Kerio Connect Client (Webmail), open Contacts and search for a duplicated name. If it appears once in Webmail but multiple times on the phone, continue below. If it appears multiple times in Webmail too, stop and contact support; that's a different issue.
Do not delete duplicates one by one on the phone. Deletions sync back to the server, and since every copy came from the same contact, this can remove the original.
Cause 1: Extra contact folders are synced to the phone
If the mailbox has more than one contacts folder holding the same people (a subfolder, a working folder, or a folder a backup was restored into), the phone receives those people once from each synced folder. A newly created or restored-into folder starts out selected for sync, which is easy to miss.
Fix: In Webmail, go to your name > Settings > Folders to Sync, clear the check box for any contacts folder that shouldn't go to phones, and Save (see Synchronizing Kerio Connect Folders). The device removes those contacts on the next sync. Clear the check box right after creating or restoring into a new folder to prevent recurrence.
If a device has two Exchange accounts and the same person is in both mailboxes, that contact legitimately appears once per account — this is expected.
Cause 2: The sync app re-downloads a folder without clearing old copies
Occasionally the device's sync app restarts a folder's sync and downloads it again in full. Per the EAS specification, the client must delete its local copies before a full re-download (MS-ASCMD). If it doesn't, every re-downloaded item becomes a second copy. This is app/device behavior — the server sends each contact once and never tells the device to restart. Tapping Sync now doesn't create duplicates; it only runs a sync that was due.
Fix:
- Clean up existing copies by removing and re-adding the Exchange account (back up any calendar-app settings first, as this also removes calendars from the phone): device Settings > Accounts > the Kerio account > Remove account, then re-add it per Configuring Exchange ActiveSync Accounts on Android Devices.
- Make contact edits in Webmail where possible, so they save directly to the mailbox.
- Report the behavior to the app vendor (for the Gmail app: Menu > Help & feedback > Send feedback).
Zubair Farooq
Comments