Delete email addresses from contact record

[Stanczak]

I know it's seen as bad practice and I know why HubSpot doesn't currently allow it.

But really guys, sometimes we actually do need to delete an email address from a contact record.

I have historical contacts with important notes and history that have never had a valid email address in the email property. Or, someone in our organization entered a bad email address years ago and now it's permanently enshrined on the contact record, causing confusion and bounced marketing emails.

Perhaps when a HubSpot user attempts to clear an email address you can present us with a dire warning and then let the user make that decision themselves. Or, make it an advanced permission that only administrators can enable for themselves.

Either way, deleting the contact record or creating custom properties (as suggested here) are not viable solutions.

[#2]

How do I simply delete an email address from a contact record... Each time I try to delete it and save, the old email pops up again. I just want to remove the old incorrect email until I get the correct one to replace it..... How to do dat?

[#3]

Hello @pvinci,

Thank you for your question!

Once a contact has an email address added to their contact record, the Email property cannot be replaced by a blank value, it can only be replaced by another email address.  I certainly understand the logic behind wanting to clear it out, but the tool isn't built to allow that to happen.  

A couple workarounds that might help are:

- Remove the contact record entirely, and create a new one without an email address.  The downside to this is that any data associated with the current contact record will be lsot if you delete the contact record.

- Create a custom contact property that acts as a flag to indicate which contacts need to have their email address updated.  Once you change the email address you can remove the value from the custom contact proeprty so you'll know that the email address is then the valid one.  I picture the property as a single checkbox property like "Need updated email address" and you can check the box if so and leave it blank if not.

I hope this helps.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Brett

[#4]

Please make this change.

It's unbelievable not to be able to change our own data.

Or try to detect / tag wrong email adresses.

For example : some of my email adresses are wrong (the contact leaves his company, but i still need to keep him as i want to be in touch in the futur). 

[#5]

Hi @Elliot, 

Thank you for providing feedback regarding the how the product is currently working. If you do want to be able to update the email address, I would recommend adding a personal email address until you have a new professional email address for the user. If you would like the functionality to change, I would recommend creating an idea in our ideas forum so that our developers can see your idea, other users can vote for your idea, and to increase the likelihood of your idea being implemented in the future. 

Thank you,

Jenny

[#6]

I also have this problem. I let someone put their email address in through a form from my computer and now both email addresses are assigned to me.

~Dmac9000

[#7]

Nevermind. It resolved after I logged back in.

~Dmac9000

[#8]

Currently, if I have a contact with an email address entered in the email field, I cannot delete the email and leave the email field blank.

Sometimes an email address is incorrect or old and it bounces. I don't want to use that email address anymore, and I don't want any of my present or future colleagues wasting their time trying to use that email address.

Thus, if I can't find a good email address for a contact, I want to leave the email field for that contact blank. 

Thanks.

[#9]

I'll just put in a hubspot support or sales email address in that field.

Then your software can be all happy, and any unwanted email it forces me to create can go back home where it belongs.

[#10]

I agree there should be a blank option for email adress.

I stumbled across this lovely "feature" when I found out a valuable contact changed jobs but I didn't have the current email adress at that time.

My choices at the momentare: Leave the old adress or create a fantasy adress. 

Both options do not relect the reality. 

#Please fix

[#11]

@ASHUMMELT

We need this feature as well, although for a different reason. We have a few contact records that contain legitimate notes and history, but the email address has always been wrong.

However, for your needs (contact leaves company) I would suggest you look into the Lead Status field and filters. For us, once an account rep learns that someone has left a company, we set lead status to "No Longer With Company". Now the dead contact can be filtered from view and automatically removed from future marketing emails. Leaving the old contact record as is does not present a problem. Once our people reconnect at this person's new job we create a new contact record at the new company with a note pointing back to his previous record. This allows us to preserve the full record of where they came from and what they did at the old company while continuing the relationship.