Bulk updating via CSV export > modify > re-import & reconfiguring extant properties

[MisterKennedy]

Hi, is this scenario supported, and is there an easier way to bulk modify records?  Is there a better "Hubspot way"?

CONTEXT: the ops team I am working with is rapidly iterating and developing with a startup company.  The company is without the structure of a Product Manager to field the wishlists of the company departments and turn them into well thought out technical specs prior to implementing schema for operational suppport.

TLDR: #startupthuglife we're still winging it.

SCENARIO: I have a property on the Deal object that was set up as a multi-line text field.  I'd like to retain most of the existing values and change it to a Dropdown select.  Given that the extant text does not entirely corresponds to our Dropdown select options, I was thinking I could:

1. Export the existing data to CSV
2. Reconfigure the field (and presumably lose all the data?)
3. Manually modify the CSV values so they match the Dropdown options
4. Re-import the CSV data and match back to the Record ID or Email

Is such supported in Hubspot?

Partly I am asking because I am used to working with databases such as Airtable which has a CSV merge tool, and where you can change a field configuration from text to single-select and retain all the extant values.  With Hubspot, I also understand that to make such a change I will first need to remove the use cases of the property (e.g. views, workflows, etc.)  Am I correct that reconfiguring will wipe out the data entirely and that there is no "undo"?

Fortunately, the particular field in question was only recently made and there isn't a lot of cleanup to do and it isn't in any views or workflows yet.

Mostly, I just want to make sure I am thinking about this correctly before I start testing.

Thanks 🙂 

[Camille_Balhorn]

Hi MisterKennedy,

You've proposed a sound solution. Either editing the CSV manually or using Excel functions that perform a "contains any of" action. If you have some sort of delimiter in the field, you could also perform a Text to Columns option and consolidate your list this way. 

Within HubSpot, you could create a complex "contains any of" workflow to grab all of these values. However, as you mention, this could result in some data loss as not all options are represented in the dropdown and it would require manual effort on your part to identify each option. I wouldn't recommend simply switching the property type, especially with how easy it is to clone and delete properties if needed. 

Ultimately, decide if you want a record of all of the data, why, and for how long. You could always keep an "archived" property of the original multi-line text and create the dropdown property to store the most relevant information.

[MisterKennedy]

Thankyou, @MiaSrebrnjak !

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @MisterKennedy,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community!

I'd say this is the right approach, you can also see that updating records with an import is one of the recommended ways for bulk updates in this Knowledge base article (the unique object IDs that are referenced in the article are included in the export file).

But let's also invite a couple of subject matter experts to this conversation: 

Hi @AdamLPW, @deepikaverma, @Camille_Balhorn, do you have any advice for @MisterKennedy? Thanks!

Cheers
Mia, Community Team