CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

We are using sub-types for a particular implementation (3.4x).  There were some individuals that were given a particular sub-type inadvertently. 

I see that in 4.1, the contacts sub-types can be changed, but that all of the data held on on sub-type specific data set will be deleted.  It seems to me that we can just delete the sub-type for a particular contact and the only effect would be that the sub-type specific custom data will simply not display (it will still be connected to the contact). 

I tried this and it seems to work as expected.  I am planning to delete the other incorrect sub-types (through direct database update). 

Three questions:
 1) Am I missing anything? Will making this change in the database have any effects that I am missing
 2) Why in the 4.1 update was the custom data associated with the contact removed?  It seems that step is not necessary.
 3) Could a future update eliminate the removal of data?  This would be advantages for many reasons....

Thanks

It's not that there are benefits to keeping data that you can not display, its that if a contact moves from subtype A to subtype B and then back to subtype A, I don't want to loose the data that is specifically related to subtype A .   I guess I don't see  the value of deleting the data and forcing data reentry.

There are scenarios where moving contacts between subtypes is beneficial so that only certain data is exposed to users at any given time, but my current case is driven by user error.  If someone inadvertently moves a contact from one subtype to another and realize they made a mistake, I would like to be able to recover the custom data (over 80 fields).  If that data there isn't any easy way to recover.

Paul