Author Topic: Duplicates not being caught during import (Read 1970 times)

duchnmex · September 26, 2008, 01:02:18 pm

Over the last couple of days I have been preparing data from an old database for a contact import. About a month ago I imported basic contact information for some mass mailings (full name, email, basic address). And now I wish to update (and create new for those who didn't have email addresses) individuals with their external identifier, so I can import contributions in another future import.

Basically, the duplicate catcher has worked in the past (3 days ago it was working fine) but since I changed the "Duplicate Matching Rules" a couple times I can't get Import to catch any potential duplicates.

I have set the Rules back to the default, (email AND first_name AND last_name) and CiviCRM is still not catching duplicates. For a cherry on top of it all, I exported 3 contacts with Primary Fields and Imported them back in to see if they would be caught, and they weren't. CiviCRM let me import them! and those 3 records have zeros in a couple of the fields.

I have also set the "For Duplicate Contacts" setting to Skip, Fill, and Update.

I read in another post that one thing to try was to clear the Smarty Cache. But the Debugger is not turned on, and I am not the person who installed CiviCRM. I'll wait it out, maybe some cache will clear on a cron job?

Help please... I've Fallen and I can't get up!

Michał Mach · September 30, 2008, 04:46:42 am

Hey,

Which version of CiviCRM are you using? (please fill in your forum profile with this information, it will make support easier in future)

If you are using 2.1, you might want to check "Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts" section in administration, those rules are used for duplicate matching on import as well.

Thx,
m

sammoscheck · November 13, 2008, 10:54:23 am

I am using a fresh 2.1 install on Drupal. I split my list in order to import. The first import went off without a hitch. But I keep getting an error on the 2nd import (which I'll post in another thread). I have always selected "Fill" option for duplicates. I just discovered that many of the records have been importing and that I now have tons of duplicates (having tried the import over a few times with a smaller number of records just in case that would help).

I'm running the Find and Merge Duplicates like you suggested, but it is not finding them under either Fuzzy or Strict definitions. It should be; the data is completely identical (as was imported from same records).

Argh! Frustrated. I'm a new CiviCRM consultant but I've been building Drupal sites for many years. Please help. Thank you!

sammoscheck · November 13, 2008, 11:12:01 am

I have not worked out the import issue but I just discovered that if, instead of editing the the default "fuzzy" duplicate rule, I create a new one which does not contain the email address, then it works. It turns out that the import was adding the duplicates because it was basing its match criteria off the "Strict" setting in the Find & Merge Duplicates feature rule, and this contained only Email Address for matching. However the records I'm importing, many of them have no email address, so those just kept getting imported.

Seems to be working now (If I can just get the import to complete successfully!)

Hope this helps the original poster or somebody else.

YMNathaniel · October 29, 2009, 08:07:49 am

Worked for me too, thanks!! Had to create a new "merge" rule for it to come into affect with my imports.

CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

News:

Author Topic: Duplicates not being caught during import (Read 1970 times)

duchnmex

Duplicates not being caught during import

Michał Mach

Re: Duplicates not being caught during import

sammoscheck

Re: Duplicates not being caught during import

sammoscheck

Re: Duplicates not being caught during import

YMNathaniel

Re: Duplicates not being caught during import