SIM Contacts (Contacts doubled on new phone)

[Splagg]

Is there a way to delete the contacts on my sim card?

The issue I'm experiencing is that when I get a new phone and the store copies my contacts over I end up with doubles, triples, even quadruples of some older contacts. I assume that if I could delete what is saved on my sim and manually delete all the doubles (an incredibly long and painful process), then maybe I could sync up the sim again and only have 1 of each contact on it.

Is there a better solution to the repeat contacts issue that I have?

[redpoint73 ACE - Wizard]

What phone?  I wouldn't even bother saving contacts to SIM.   It doesn't hold enough info to be useful.

Do you use Gmail, and have all your contact saved there?   If so, there is no reason for the folks at the store to even migrate your contacts.   When you buy a new phone and boot up the first time, you just enter your Google login, and all your contacts will sync automatically from the cloud.  When I buy a new phone from AT&T, they ask if I want my contact moved over, and I just tell them "nope". 

But it all depends on how your are saving your contacts.  I'd suggest consilidating everything to Gmail.  This is the way Android is meant to be used, its makes your contacts available on any computer, and you never have to worry about losing contacts because a phone gets lost or breaks.

[Splagg]

I do use gmail but I don't keep my contacts saved there (yet). I've always just kept them on my phone (and fortunately haven't lost or broken any of them) (knock on wood). I upgraded from a Samsung Captivate to a Skyrocket.

[Splagg]

Also, My the contacts in my new phone (Skyrocket) are different colors whereas my old phone (Captivate) they were all just blue. Now I have doubles in shades of red, blue, and green; some of which have different information. What's up with that? I started skimming the PDF manual but haven't found anything yet.

[redpoint73 ACE - Wizard]

Can't specifically help you with Samsung phones, as I've only owned HTC.  But in your contacts, check settings and see if there are options to de-duplicate your contacts, and/or merge your contacts.  You may be able to get rid of your duplicate contacts, and also merge your contacts to Gmail with just a couple clicks.

[bmgoodman]

Are you doing any sync via Kies?  When I got my Galaxy SII in October, I quickly found Kies was duplicating my contacts very often during the sync process and I ended up with doubles, triples, etc., as you describe.  So I wiped my phone's contacts and used MyPhoneExplorer to sync my phone.  On the whole, it works well, and I rarely get a duplicate.