CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hello,


We have a great start on our new site, but in learning on CiviCRM works, we have made some import mistakes.  Is there a way to purge all Contact Records without effecting all of the custom fields, profiles, and other configurations we have done?


Thanks,

Curtis

If your only goal is to delete all Contacts in the database, and you don't care if new Contact IDs start over at #1 (Contact id #1) again, then this is easily done with core CiviCRM funtionality.

1. Go to "Find Contacts"
2. Do not enter any search criteria, simple click the button
3. The result should be ALL the contacts in your database, regardless of type
4. Click "All contacts" on the results page.
5. Choose "Delete Permanently" from the options menu
6. Click Go.

All your Contact's data will be gone, but the structure you have created, with Custom fields and Profiles, will still exist.   They will just be empty.

It goes without saying (I hope) that a backup before taking this drastic action is necessary.