GMail and Thunderbird - Rationalize contacts

[ChrisGreaves]

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I write "Rationalize" because I can't just delete duplicate entries. In the example of Contacts.CSV shown above, the telephone numbers vary for the post office entry. Doing a simple "eliminate duplicate rows" would reduce four entries to two entries, but I really need to aggregate data from different fields into a single contact row.

I have successfully exported my GMail contacts via a VCF format and imported them to Thunderbird. That has worked but to my horror I now have duplicates in the Thunderbird address book. (I am puzzled that GMail with its thirty? years expertise seems not to worry about duplicate contacts; but I may have missed that option).

Short of writing my own nifty "Rationalize Duplicates" code, does anyone know of an existing method to get the job done?

I suspect that this is a very personal thing as one has to wade between cases where the electrician "Bob Little" and his electrician dad "Bob Little" deserve separate records while they may share a common business telephone number but different domestic numbers.

Thanks
Chris

[StuartR]

Google contacts is quite good at this. See https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/7078226