topic Re: Merging Contacts in CRM

Merging Contacts

realizeit — Wed, 24 May 2017 15:50:01 GMT

When I merge two contacts, it would be nice if the newly merged document included all the data of the two. I just did a merge and lost the phone number, job title, and all the other info that I'd spent much time collecting. A real PITA.

Re: Merging Contacts

Phil_Vallender — Wed, 24 May 2017 18:53:52 GMT

Hi @realizeit

The contact object in HubSpot only has one of each main property inside. So, when merging two contacts, losing some data is possible and is the intended behaviour of the app.

For most contact properties, merging two contacts will result in the fields that have updated most recently being kept. Full details on the merge function are here: What happens when I merge two contacts?

Hope that helps.

Re: Merging Contacts

realizeit — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 13:40:49 GMT

But..I don't like the "intended behavior of the app." %-)

Re: Merging Contacts

Evans4316 — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 16:20:07 GMT

I don't like the solution either....Especially if I want to designate one Contact as the primary and then merge the second Contact into it. Right now...the Contact with the most current activity is designated as the Primary arbitrarily (or by Hubspot design).

At a minimum, it would be nice if it created a note or something. I think more work is needed here.

Re: Merging Contacts

Gameblr-Vincent — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 08:18:28 GMT

Some fields (including lists) are just overrided ; it is not the most recent one kept up.

For example, if I merge a contact being part of a list into a contact without list, the result will have no list.

That makes no sens !

Best would be, in case of conflict of unruled case, to ask to the client : pop-in with two tables, primary and secondary info ; keep or don't.

Best example is the conflict resolution of GIT, your developers must know about it

Re: Merging Contacts

tankney — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 17:06:42 GMT

Merging contacts is always a horrible task for me. In a perfect world, I could merge through a screen that shows the properties for contact 1 on the left and contact 2 on the right and I can select which fields I would like to keep. Keeping the most up to date field is not always the best or relevant information to keep.

Re: Merging Contacts

Evans4316 — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 18:53:22 GMT

I so agree!! Drives me crazy~

Re: Merging Contacts

deborahfelicio — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 09:25:48 GMT

totally agreed! We have some serious issues with losing info as our check boxes gets replaced rather than merged or combined. Simpler CRMs (we came from Agile CRM) had that option and it was great.

Re: Merging Contacts

Rachel_KL — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 22:46:33 GMT

I really need the ability to "pick and choose" which fields overwrite when merging. Sometimes I want info from contact a and sometimes I want other info from contact b. Merging them together should give me the ability to have the best of both worlds, or in this case, contacts. I don't want the most recent. I want what's accurate or what most accurately applies to a contact.

Re: Merging Contacts

Evans4316 — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 00:25:52 GMT

I totally agree on this one! Well said Rachel!

@Rachel_KL wrote:
I really need the ability to "pick and choose" which fields overwrite when merging. Sometimes I want info from contact a and sometimes I want other info from contact b. Merging them together should give me the ability to have the best of both worlds, or in this case, contacts. I don't want the most recent. I want what's accurate or what most accurately applies to a contact.

Re: Merging Contacts

joseph_cone — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 02:33:42 GMT

Adding my two cents here to keep this conversation alive... we have many contacts that we NEED to be able to manually pick which property should stay on the merged contact. Most recent does not necessarily = most accurate. Even a more basic CRM like Keap allows for this:

Please HubSpot product team, make it so.

Re: Merging Contacts

TitiCuisset — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 09:01:31 GMT

Hi @joseph_cone

Thank you for reaching out.

This is not possible at this stage within HubSpot, I'd recommend upvoting this Idea in our Ideas Forum regarding this. You can also subscribe to the idea (Options > Subscribe) to get notified if the status changes.

Thank you

Best

Tiphaine

Re: Merging Contacts

RBozeman — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 15:10:43 GMT

Hi @realizeit,

Data retention features when merging still need to be fully fleshed out. I've seen this on the HubSpot ideas forum several times. HubSpot keeps the most recent value across the duplicate record, except for a handful of fields where they have specific rules for how those fields are handled. There is no way to customize this as far as I know without custom coding a solution. It is also potentially possible through Ops Hub, but you'd have to build out your rules and code them into there as well.

Also wanted to mention that Insycle could help with this. Full disclosure, I work for Insycle.

With Insycle, you can set rules for choosing the resulting post-merge master record, or even choose how to retain data in each and every field. You can set rules on the field-level. For example, you could instruct Insycle to combine and append all values held by the duplicate records for a custom multi-select picklist field, so that you don't lose selections when HubSpot chooses the data that has been most recently updated.

Here is a recent article we published on data retention when merging that you might find helpful. If you have any questions about it let me know.

Ryan

Re: Merging Contacts

kvlschaefer — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 19:53:29 GMT

Hi @RBozeman,

Thank you for sharing this insight with @RBozeman!

Best,

Kristen

Re: Merging Contacts

musabmalik — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 10:26:59 GMT

I completely understand your frustration. Losing valuable information after spending time collecting it is definitely not ideal. It would be great if the merge process allowed for retaining all data or gave an option to choose what to keep. Hopefully, this feedback will lead to improvements.

Re: Merging Contacts

karstenkoehler — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 05:23:10 GMT

Hi @realizeit and everyone,

HubSpot has launched a public beta (Settings > Product updates) that provides more clarity around what's happening during the merge 🙂

Data Quality

Property Control in Record Merges

March 6, 2025

What is it?

You can now select which properties will be retained on the final record when merging records, giving you unprecedented control over your data consolidation process.

Why does it matter?

As businesses grow, managing duplicate records becomes increasingly complex. By providing granular control over property selection during merges, this new tool allows users to maintain data integrity with precision.

It offers the flexibility to tailor the merge process to specific business needs, ensuring that every data consolidation aligns perfectly with your organization's data management strategy.

How does it work?

To access this functionality, customers should navigate to a record page within HubSpot. Customers will now see a new modal when they attempt to merge, replacing the previous version.

This enhanced interface allows you to review the properties of records side-by-side and select the winning properties for your final, merged record.

By choosing which data points to keep, you can ensure that the most accurate and up-to-date information is preserved during the merge process.

Who gets it?

All hubs and tiers

Have a great day!

Re: Merging Contacts

MCollins38 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:56:22 GMT

This should not be the case with properties that allow for multiple selections. That defeats the purpose of a property like that, if it can be overwritten. This seems common sense, that if I am choosing to create a property that will allow for multiple data points, that it should actually allow for those multiple data points to be retained when it is merged.