Currently the merge function takes contact A and pushes it into contact B.
A) It is very buggy. Often times information from A will override B even though B is the primary
B) If a mistake is made and the intention was to merge B into A you lose all of the data from B and cannot get it back no matter what! (whereas, if you just delete a contact, it is saved for 90 days).
In short, this method is problematic to the extreme.
In other leading CRMs (the kind that may be associated with thunder or *lightning*) the merge function is such that it doesnt matter which is merged into which since after selecting the two contacts you get a page where you can confirm which overlapping properties you prefer so that you can, for example, keep the contact owner from A, the email from B, the address from B and a custom property from A.
Please do this soon because your current merge feature is TERRIBLE and has caused problems so many time.
Hi @JShalev ,
I agree that it would be nice to see the fields that are not the same in a comparison view and determine which to keep, but I think HubSpot has it set up in a way that automates the thinking.
When you click “Review” from the Manage Duplicates screen, you can select which of the two records is the primary.
That determines which email will be retained as the primary (the other will still be reflected in the record and you can change it manually later if you mess up).
The rest of the properties are based on which one was updated most recently - so if your sales rep called from record A and updated the phone number in February, and the number on record B was from January, then the number will come from record A if they are not the same.
Hope this helps clarify the functionality a bit better, it isn’t just randomly choosing which property to keep.
Hi @Jnix284
I am familiar with this process.
It is, for lack of a better term, a hot mess.
The idea of the most recent change being correct is, wrong. Especially when automations, add-ons and integrations are involved.
Hubspot can try to defend this system all it likes but the reality is that it is very bad and needs change. Especially because the “automated merging” means information gets erased and is not recoverable. If the system was perfect, then maybe that would be ok. But it is not perfect so at the VERY LEAST let me be able to recover what was overritten.
This current system is like getting into a self driving car that doesnt always notice traffic lights and has no manual override for the driver.
@JShalev Ah, I see. When I read your idea, it sounded like maybe you weren’t sure why it was accepting which property, I was only trying to clarify how it currently works.
I do think more control over the process would be beneficial, especially for the many reasons you’ve listed.
Hopefully, your idea will gain some traction and this is something they can improve 
Totally agree. I have this issue very often! Please fix this.
