Duplicate contacts can clutter your CRM, skew reports, and cause confusion in communication. The Duplicate Management & Merge Tool helps you easily find, review, and merge duplicates based on key identifiers like email, phone, or name — all within a guided, intuitive interface. This article shows how to use the tool to manage and merge duplicate contacts in HighLevel.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is the Duplicate Contact Management & Merge Tool?
• Key Benefits of Duplicate Contact Management & Merge Tool
• Permissions & Restrictions
• Additional Limits
• Best Practices
• How To Merge and Manage Duplicate Contacts
• Troubleshooting
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Related Articles

What is the Duplicate Contact Management & Merge Tool?

HighLevel’s Duplicate Management & Merge Tool scans your entire Contacts list for identical or near-identical records, groups them, and lets you merge up to ten contacts into one “master” record without losing notes, tasks, tags, emails, or custom fields. 

Key Benefits of Duplicate Contact Management & Merge Tool

• Fast deduplication: Eliminate redundant records in minutes—no CSV exports required.
  
  
• Unified history: Consolidate messages, notes, tags, and custom fields for a 360° contact view.
  
  
• Better deliverability: Prevent multiple sends to the same person to protect sender reputation.
  
  
• Smarter automation & analytics: Boost automation accuracy and reporting reliability.
  
  
• Lower support burden: Reduce headaches caused by fragmented or conflicting data.

Permissions & Restrictions

Additional Limits

• Only 10 records can be merged per batch.
  
  

• Duplicate detection supports primary email and primary phone fields only.
  
  

• Merge results cannot be undone once processed.

Best Practices

• Run duplicate scans periodically to keep your CRM clean.
  
  

• Always review field conflicts before merging.
  
  

• Use the Reject option only when you’re sure a record isn’t a duplicate.
  
  

• Encourage your team to standardize data entry to prevent future duplicates.

How To Merge and Manage Duplicate Contacts

Step 1: Accessing the Duplicate Management Tool

Note: Only Admins can use this feature and works on both the classic and new Contacts List View.

1. Click on Contacts from your sub-account.
   
   
2. Click on the ⋮ (three-dot menu)
   
   
3. Click on the Manage Duplicates option.
   
   
   
   

Step 2: Finding Duplicates

1. Choose a Find By criterion:
   
   

   • Email (recommended default)
     
     
   • Phone
     
     
   • Name
     
     
2. Click Find Duplicates.
   
   
3. The system will start scanning your contact database and display duplicates that match the selected field
   
   

Step 3: Viewing Duplicate Records

• Once duplicates are found, you’ll see a list of potential duplicate groups.
  
  
  
  
• Click on the Down Arrow sign beside a group to expand it.
  
  
  
  
• You can expand a group to see all the contacts detected.
  
  

Step 4: Reviewing and Resolving Conflicts

1. You can also choose to review the changes in more details by clicking on Review.
   
   

2. Conflicting fields (like phone number, tags, country, etc.) are displayed side-by-side.
   
   

3. You can:
   
   

   • Select which value to keep for each field.
     
     

   • Combine multiple tags or additional details.
     
     

   • Choose primary email or phone number.
     
     

   • Ensure no duplicate opportunities are created.
     
     

4. Once reviewed, click Merge Contacts to proceed.

Step 5: Rejecting Duplicates

If you find that certain duplicates should not be merged:

1. Click Reject.
   
   

2. Confirm the rejection in the popup:
   
   

   • “This email address will not be used to find duplicates again.”
     
     

   • This action cannot be reverted.

Note: Rejected emails, phone numbers, or names will be excluded from future duplicate scans.

Step 6: Selecting Records to Merge

Note: Once merged, the process cannot be reverted. Review carefully before confirming.

1. Select up to 10 records to merge at once.
   
   

   • The tool will notify you when the limit is reached (Limit reached 10/10).
     
     

2. Choose one record as the Master — this record will retain key details like name, main email, and main phone number.
   
   

3. All related data (tasks, opportunities, notes, products, etc.) from other records will be combined into this master record.
   
   

4. Click on Merge. Before merging, a confirmation dialog appears:
   
   

   You’ll see:
   
   

   • A reminder that this action cannot be undone.
     
     

   • A note that emails, phone numbers, notes, opportunities, and tasks from all selected records will merge into one.
     
     

   • An option to confirm your understanding by checking the acknowledgment box.
     
     

5. Click Merge Duplicates to finalize.

Troubleshooting

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What if my “Allow Duplicate Contacts” setting is ON?

You can still create duplicates via forms or Zapier. The Manage Duplicates scan will find them later so you can merge manually. 

Q: Can I undo a merge?

Merges are permanent. Always verify field selections in Smart Merge Preview before confirming.

Q: Will conversations, opportunities, or appointments be lost?

No, All related objects move to the Master record during the merge if you don't deselect during review.

Q: How often should I run a scan?

High-volume accounts typically scan weekly; others may prefer monthly or after bulk imports.

Related Articles

• Getting Started - Import Existing Contacts
  
  
• Adding Multiple Phone Numbers for a Contact
  
  
• Contact Profile Picture
  
  
• Contact Types
  
  
• How To Delete Contacts and Their Data