I appreciate the replies, I really do however I'm still looking to get the contacts out to excel or to the pc so I can sort them all out in one step instead of going through each area, whatsapp etc
I know I can filter out the different areas but all lists are really messed up so cannot filter them properly
Sent from my HTC One using AC Forums mobile app
i understand what you want to do, but it will not work that way.
as others have said, your phone has been set up to pull contacts from various sources (incl. whatsapp in this case).
exporting your contacts to excel will either export only those stored locally on your phone or all of them (haven't done this since 2010) and once you import them back in, you will still be faced with the same mess as the phone app pulls duplicate contacts from whatsapp and other sources. what i am trying to say is that your excel work will not change the contacts from other sources (eg whatsapp) and they will re-appear on your phone.
what you need to do is select one source from where your phone uses its contacts. personally i prefer any service that acts as a cloud (such as google) but if you insist on keeping your contacts locally and are a fan of manual backups then choose your phone as the option.
if you choose a service like google you can then head over to gmail contacts on your PC and work to get them just right (and they will sync with your phone). you can then link these contacts to whatsapp, facebook, etc.
if you choose phone, check some of the many backup apps on the playstore (many are free) which will allow you to email (or otherwise) a file of your contacts which you can then edit in excel.
here is one i used in my iphone a couple of years ago which worked well (haven't tried the android version).
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...id=com.globile.mycontactbackup&token=84MhxJCR