Inability to Retrieve USER_DEFINED Associations Between Deals and Contacts

Developer Support APIs & Integrations
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Hello HubSpot Team and Community,

I’m working on an integration that requires retrieving `USER_DEFINED` associations between deals and contacts, using a custom label. Although I can see the `USER_DEFINED` label listed correctly in `/crm/v4/associations/deal/contact/labels`, I’m unable to retrieve it in any of the association read endpoints.

I’ve tried both:
- `/crm/v4/associations/deal/contact/batch/read`
- `/crm/v4/objects/deals/{dealId}/associations/contact`

To cover all possibilities, I’m aware of the bi-directional association issue, so I also tested:
- `/crm/v4/objects/contacts/${dealId}/associations/deal`
- The batch equivalent for contact-deal associations

Unfortunately, in all cases, the responses only return `HUBSPOT_DEFINED` associations.
Could you confirm if there is any solution or workaround for retrieving `USER_DEFINED` associations, or if this is a known limitation of the API?
Additionally, are there any planned updates that might address this gap?

Thanks for any guidance you can provide!

2

@j4y - Without access to your data, I can’t be sure of the outcome of your calls, but I can give some assurance and context from my own work that:

- https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v4/associations/{fromObjectType}/{toObjectType}/labels give as summary of the possible association definitions that exist between two object types. It’s a sound option for discovering the schema at the API level.

- https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v4/objects/{objectType}/{objectId}/associations/{toObjectType} gives the actual use of these defintions on any given records.

I have my doubts about the functionality of the ‘read’ APIs along the lines you have mentioned, and even raised a question in these pages previously when the documention of the 'label’s call went missing for a while.

Good luck!

Steve