Sometimes one person ends up on your list twice, for example as ava.thompson@example.com and as ava.thompson+shop@example.com. People shows these as possible duplicates so you can merge them, and the person gets one email instead of two.

What counts as a duplicate

Two addresses count as the same when they match once capital letters are ignored and anything between a plus sign and the @ is removed. So Grace.Lee@example.com and grace.lee+studio@example.com are listed together. Two different addresses for the same person, such as a work and a home email, aren't picked up.

Reviewing possible duplicates

  1. In People, look at the top of the panel on the left. When there are any, a yellow link shows how many possible duplicates there are. Click it.
  2. Each set shows the addresses, whether each is subscribed and when each joined. The oldest is chosen to keep. To keep a different one, click its round button.
  3. Click Merge 2 into 1 to combine them (the numbers follow the size of the set), or Not duplicates if they're different people.
Choose which record to keep, then merge.
Choose which record to keep, then merge.

Nothing changes until you click Merge. A set you mark as Not duplicates stays hidden, unless another matching address joins later.

On a team, only an admin or the account owner can merge. A team member sees the Merge buttons greyed out, with a note at the top of the page, and no Merge duplicate in a person's Actions menu. They can still mark a set as Not duplicates.

Merging two people by hand

If you know two records are the same person, open the one you want to keep and click Actions, then Merge duplicate. Search for the other record by name or email, pick it, check which one is kept, and click Merge and delete duplicate.

The Merge a duplicate window, showing the duplicate, the person who is kept and a warning that it can't be undone.

What a merge does

  • Emails, opens, clicks, orders, form answers, drips, lists and details move to the person you keep. Where both have a value for the same detail, the kept person's value stays. Notes from both are kept, and so is the earlier date they joined.
  • If either record had unsubscribed, or had its emails stopped, the kept one takes that status. Any topic either of them turned off stays off. If they asked to hear from you at different rates, the less frequent one is kept.
  • The kept person keeps their own email address.
  • The other record is deleted, and a merge can't be undone.
  • Each person merged in comes off your count for your plan's limit.