# Change primary key **URL:** \ **Category:** APIs & Integrations\ **Tags:** contacts\ **Created:** [November 19, 2018, 11:25am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366 "2018-11-19T11:25:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/system/32/124_2.png) [@system](https://community.hubspot.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 11:25am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/1 "2018-11-19T11:25:52Z")
Its been over a year since i was on this forum. Im praying there has been some development since then. We really need to be able to create multiple contacts with the same email address - this is specific for brokers who work on behalf our other clients. Please let me know what is happening with this - ive searched around and there have been alot of queries around this, It would be great if we could turn on/off the duplicate check? or assign the duplicate check to another contact field (Whether default or custom) Any feedback on if this has been done? will it ever be done? will be great ---
**Author:** ![IsaacTakushi](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/isaactakushi/32/70387_2.png) [@IsaacTakushi](https://community.hubspot.com/u/IsaacTakushi)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2018, 1:52pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/2 "2018-11-20T13:52:02Z")
Hi [@carolynebrownlee](https://community.hubspot.com/u/carolynebrownlee), I sympathize with your frustration; that use case is legitimate. That said, this is unlikely to ever change. Email addresses are not just the identifying property of contacts, but the foundation upon which most of the CRM is built. Removing the deduplicating power of email would affect every other tool and necessitate restructuring all HubSpot products. If you do need “duplicate” contact records to work off as brokers, however, you could create a new contact with the original contact’s email as long as you append `+something` before the domain. For example, if the original contact is `johnny.appleseed@example.com`, HubSpot would allow you to create a contact with the email `johnny.appleseed+1@example.com`, as well as `johnny.appleseed+2@example.com`, etc. [Gmail](https://gizmodo.com/how-to-use-the-infinite-number-of-email-addresses-gmail-1609458192) (and I believe other mail servers) will still deliver these emails to `johnny.appleseed@example.com`. ---
**Author:** ![SathyaG](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/sathyag/32/68963_2.png) [@SathyaG](https://community.hubspot.com/u/SathyaG)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 9:21am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/3 "2020-01-21T09:21:00Z")
The addition of + doesn’t work with all the e-mail providers and we get bounce backs :(. I also read that some providers will mark them as spam! ---
**Author:** ![CFregozo](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/cfregozo/32/61646_2.png) [@CFregozo](https://community.hubspot.com/u/CFregozo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/4 "2023-10-18T15:50:42Z")
Hi Isaac! Can you elaborate on how the +something works in the email? ---
**Author:** ![SathyaG](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/sathyag/32/68963_2.png) [@SathyaG](https://community.hubspot.com/u/SathyaG)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 8:59am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/5 "2020-01-21T08:59:01Z")
Hello Carloine, Greetings. We have the same issue , so thought of asking you whether you have managed to find any work-around for the problem. Thank you. Regards Sathya ---
**Author:** ![Lini](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/lini/32/2490_2.png) [@Lini](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Lini)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:43pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/6 "2021-01-25T22:43:38Z")
Hi Carolyne Did you manage to find a work-around for this issue? We too have the need to use the same email for multiple users whose companies are in different industries. Currently it’s cumbersome to filter on the contacts/industries, identify those contacts who don’t have an email in their email property but we know another contact in a different industry is this companies point of contact, phaff about to send separate emails to these other contacts. We’ve not tried adding the +something. Has this method work for anyone? Thanks Lini ---
**Author:** ![EPoshtiban](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/eposhtiban/32/28756_2.png) [@EPoshtiban](https://community.hubspot.com/u/EPoshtiban)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/7 "2021-05-24T22:56:03Z")
Hi HubSpot Support Team, I have a question about the primary key, can we use our database users id as a primary key instead of an email address ? the only problem for us for using an email address is that if the user signs up with apple or Facebook we don’t have any email address from our customer! I’m looking forward to your solution. have a wonderful day. Thanks Elham ---
**Author:** ![GShen](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/gshen/32/99949_2.png) [@GShen](https://community.hubspot.com/u/GShen)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/change-primary-key/11366/8 "2021-07-19T21:55:34Z")
Hi HubSpot Support Team, I have the same issue right now, I seriously think you should consider that the clients need the ability to change the primary key of a list or table. Currently I have customer couples registered with different phone numbers and same email address and the +1 method didn’t work, thanks Kind Regards, Gareth