# Deleting Selected Records **URL:** \ **Category:** Tips, Tricks & Best Practices\ **Tags:** crm, best-practices, how-to\ **Created:** [June 15, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/deleting-selected-records/38965 "2021-06-15T17:58:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MDuncan8](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/mduncan8/32/44643_2.png) [@MDuncan8](https://community.hubspot.com/u/MDuncan8)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/deleting-selected-records/38965/1 "2021-06-15T17:58:15Z")
Hi - I’m trying to remove the majority of the records (company and associated contacts) from our DB while only leaving select records of current customers and active opportunities. For the records being removed, I need to export them to a spreadsheet (for some reason “Export View” is greyed out). Anyone have any best practices to do this efficiently (and how to solve the “Export View” problem)? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![karstenkoehler](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/karstenkoehler/32/68554_2.png) [@karstenkoehler](https://community.hubspot.com/u/karstenkoehler)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 4:29am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/deleting-selected-records/38965/2 "2021-06-16T04:29:09Z")
Hi @MDuncan8, The fact that you cannot export records is related to your [permissions in your HubSpot portal](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/settings/hubspot-user-permissions-guide). Export access can be enabled or disabled for users by a super admin and it seems like this is what’s happening here. I’d recommend reaching out to your super admin to request the additional permission. Regarding your question on contact deletion, you’d have to define first what “current customers and active opportunities” means exactly for you. Usually, that would be contacts with “_Lifecycle stage_ is any of Opportunity or Customer”. However, you might also consider previous lifecycle stages (Leads, MQLs, SQLs) as active. Before deleting any records, I’d make 100% sure that you’ve got the criteria right. Also keep data quality in mind: Not every user is maintaining records perfectly, some contacts might be a customer but not have the corresponding _Lifecycle stage_. Once you’ve defined these criteria, you can create active lists for those contacts and companies. Navigate to _Menu_ \> _Contacts_ \> _Lists_ and create an active contact-based list, followed by a company-based list with the same criteria: ![karstenkoehler_0-1623817484921.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/1/a/1ab3b79f1b7d85c19bf7bf7fa191a41c339ff721.png) Armed with these two lists, you can now navigate to _Menu_ \> _Contacts_ \> _Contacts_, find the “More filters” button, click it and filter for “_List membership_ is none of [the contact list that you just created]”. These would be the contacts that you want to export and then delete. You can then switch to Menu \> Contacts \> Companies and repeat the same steps, filter for “_List membership_ is none of [the company list that you just created]”. If you want an export file that includes both contact and company information (in one file), you’d have to create an active list filtering for “_Lifecycle stage_ is **none** of Opportunity or Customer”. In the list editor, you’ll have more exporting options: You can include company properties in the file, something that is not possible when exporting from the contacts home: Let me know if you have any follow-up questions. Hope this helps! ---
**Author:** ![MW5](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/mw5/32/76793_2.png) [@MW5](https://community.hubspot.com/u/MW5)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 9:30am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/deleting-selected-records/38965/3 "2021-06-30T09:30:56Z")
I’m new to HubSpot but I had the greyed out problem with deleting records and by trial and error found this. View contacts, select check box for one, some or all (you can only do 100 per page and I had 4543 !!) then where it displays 100 or whatever number, click in that box and type 100 and hey presto the delete button activates. Hope that helps someone HAGD