# Making Email property unique **URL:** \ **Category:** CRM\ **Created:** [August 31, 2022, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166 "2022-08-31T12:22:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bethesda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bethesda](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Bethesda)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166/1 "2022-08-31T12:22:08Z")
Is it possible to make the Email property unique once data already exists? Currently this is grayed-out. Is that because there’s duplicate Email values, or because I cannot select this option once there are any Contacts? ---
**Author:** ![danmoyle](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/danmoyle/32/91166_2.png) [@danmoyle](https://community.hubspot.com/u/danmoyle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166/2 "2022-08-31T12:26:17Z")
@Bethesda can you elaborate a bit, maybe add a screenshot? The email property is unique, and it’s what identifies a Contact record and keeps duplicates managed. But you should be able to edit the email. Here’s a screenshot: ![danmoyle_0-1661948723342.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/2X/5/52f36781c61719fcf9cf87412959a78def9623d0.png) Or when you hover over the name there’s an edit button: ![danmoyle_1-1661948759421.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/2X/f/fe4f031cb455b21a1aa226556885045fc155131a.png) Is that what you’re referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Bethesda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bethesda](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Bethesda)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 12:47pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166/3 "2022-08-31T12:47:32Z")
Thanks Dan. So what you’re saying is that the built-in Email property has a unique constraint **no matter what**? I would have expected the "_ **Require Each Value for this Property to be Unique"** _ checkbox / text to be gray. Since it is not, it suggested that there were cases where it I **could** allow duplicates in the Email property. Hope that makes sense. ![Bethesda_1-1661949772867.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/f/4/f4fc40db18fdc3411e180614c92816562605bb76.png) ---
**Author:** ![danmoyle](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/danmoyle/32/91166_2.png) [@danmoyle](https://community.hubspot.com/u/danmoyle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 1:01pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166/4 "2022-08-31T13:01:10Z")
@Bethesda this looks like a recent update. @karstenkoehler have you seen this or used it yet? I’m looking in my portal, and it says it’s not yet available for Contacts. Short answer is that yes, HubSpot uses the email property to uniquely identify a contact record. So honestly, I’m not sure why this option would exist for the email in the contact properties. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2022, 12:41pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166/5 "2022-08-31T12:41:15Z")
Hi @Bethesda, Adding to what @danmoyle, the email property on the contact property is already enforced by HubSpot as a unique identifier. There can be no two contacts with the same email address: [Deduplicate records in HubSpot](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/crm-setup/deduplication-of-contacts-companies-deals-tickets#deduplicate-contacts-by-email-address) Should any tool (import, form, API) try to create a record with an existing email address, the existing contact record will be overwritten/updated. Best regards! ---
**Author:** ![Bethesda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bethesda](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Bethesda)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 12:53pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166/6 "2022-08-31T12:53:01Z")
Maybe I’m just stubborn 🙂 but details really really matter in a UI -- if HubSpot always requires that the Email property is unique, then why is the checkbox **not** checked? ![Bethesda_0-1661950293371.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/1/3/13c1fab7b6477dba68c9a555adb0b6f0d43d2745.png) ---
**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:** [August 31, 2022, 1:00pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/making-email-property-unique/64166/7 "2022-08-31T13:00:58Z")
Hi @Bethesda, The email property is as old as HubSpot itself and HubSpot has been around for a while. Enforcing unique values has been introduced fairly recently – it’s probably an oversight that you could flag with HubSpot support or here: [https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Require-a-property-to-be-a-unique-value/idi-p/324225](https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Require-a-property-to-be-a-unique-value/idi-p/324225) Best regards!