I created a custom company property called Organisationsnummer and accidentally created it without enabling Require unique values.
I then archived and permanently deleted the property so I could recreate it correctly.
However, when I now try to create a new property with the same internal name and enable Require unique values, HubSpot says the property already exists or that the internal name is still reserved.
The Archived properties list is empty, so there is nothing left for me to restore or permanently delete.
My questions are:
Will the deleted property’s internal name eventually be released automatically?
If so, how long does that normally take?
Is there any other way to fully release the internal name on a Free account?
As far as I know, HubSpot has not specified the exact mechanisms behind reserving a name or how long such a reservation holds. This might be a limitation of the free CRM: I fully deleted properties this week and was able to use the internal name again shortly after.
One way to explore and troubleshoot this would be through HubSpot support - which is however only available on the paid tiers. If you’re open to a Professional subscription trial, that would give you access to support.
The quickest solutions here is pivoting a bit and use an internal name like “orgnummer”, “organizationnumber”, “org_id” or similar.
Hi!
How important is it to standardize internal names for custom properties and property options in HubSpot?
For example, should internal names always:
use lowercase letters
avoid spaces
avoid Swedish characters such as å, ä and ö
use underscores between words
HubSpot accepts internal names with capital letters, spaces and Swedish characters in my account, so I’m trying to understand whether changing these is actually necessary for reliability and future integrations, or if it is mainly a naming convention / best practice.
I’m currently setting up our CRM from scratch and would prefer to establish a consistent structure now rather than change it later.
@Ves that’s mostly up to your naming convention. HubSpot will look at your property label, then - for your internal label - it’ll:
apply lower case
autoremove special characters
replace space characters with underscores
Generally, I’d stick to non-ambiguous letters, avoid special characters, and only touch up / clean up the internal name that HubSpot autogenerates based on the provided property label.
I made the mistake of keeping the internal names exactly as they were generated when I entered the property labels. It wasn’t until I had almost finished setting everything up that I realized I probably should have standardized them differently from the start.
I assume the best approach is to recreate the custom properties now, while I’m still setting up the CRM, rather than risk compatibility or integration issues in the future. Would you agree?
@Ves are there specific compatibility issues you’re thinking of?
You may now have internal values which aren’t perfectly standardized in terms of naming convention - but that shouldn’t affect their functionality at all.
I don’t have a specific compatibility issue in mind. My concern is mainly whether internal names containing capital letters, spaces and Swedish characters such as å, ä and ö could cause issues with future API integrations, data synchronization or other functionality I may not have considered.
Since I’m still setting up the CRM and there is currently little or no data in these custom properties, I still have the option to recreate them.
If you were setting this up yourself, would you keep the existing properties as they are or recreate them now using a consistent naming convention such as lowercase letters, no special characters and underscores instead of spaces? What would you consider best practice in this situation?
Thanks, I understand now what happened. I realized that I had confused the property’s internal name with the internal values of the options within the property.
I checked some of my properties and, just as you described, HubSpot has automatically standardized the internal name of the property itself. For example, Köpta tjänster was given the internal name kopta_tjanster, and when I tested creating a new Leadkälla, HubSpot generated leadkalla.
What I had actually noticed was the internal values of the property options. There, HubSpot has kept the label as the internal value. For example:
Label: Aktiv försäljning Internal value: Aktiv försäljning
So these internal values can contain capital letters, spaces and Swedish characters such as å, ä and ö.
That leaves me with just one question regarding these internal option values. Would you recommend leaving them exactly as HubSpot has generated them, or is there any reason to standardize these as well, for example to aktiv_forsaljning? Is there a practical difference between the requirements for a property’s internal name and the internal values of its options?
@Ves for work just inside of HubSpot, I haven’t encountered any issues with special characters. When working with the HubSpot API or integrations in general, I would consider it best practice to follow the rules that HubSpot enforces for the internal property name
