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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived) / Duplicate contacts all...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Duplicate contacts allowed

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Posted on by Community Member

Hi,

1) I'm using CRM Online 2016 and I have a custom field in Contact entity with a running number in it. I'm using it as a criteria for duplicates. 

2) However, when using 3rd party data import service, the CRM allows inserting a contact with duplicate value in this custom field.

3) When searching for these imported contacts and opening the newly imported contact I get a dialog telling me that "Duplicates have been found" and whether I should allow the new contact to be created.

I'd like the CRM to bluntly prevent creation of a contact that already exists in the CRM database based on the running number without any confirmations. (I'm using the same criteria for a custom Entity with similar custom field and it works great, but for Contacts it shows me the dialog. )

Is this possible?

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  • Verified answer
    Yadnyesh Kuvalekar Profile Picture
    Yadnyesh Kuvalekar 4,102 on at

    Yes. Make the field as an alternate key and it will prevent creation of the records. Follow below link.

    technet.microsoft.com/.../29e53691-0b18-4fde-a1d0-7490aa227898.aspx

  • Suggested answer
    PS Profile Picture
    PS 23,577 on at

    First of all you must have a duplicate detection rule set up for your custom fied. Here's how to create & publish rule :[View:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/set-up-duplicate-detection-rules-to-keep-your-data-clean.aspx:750:50]

    Before import you must enable dedup in your CRM. Go to settings>>Data Management>>Duplicate Detection Settings

    8640.2.PNG

    This way you can get rid of duplicate contacts as well as of the pop ups

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    I have the duplicate detection set on in the settings as well as I have published the detection rule that uses the running number as criteria.

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    Hi, I did this but still the Contact gets imported as a duplicate and the option to delete it comes only after opening the Contact from the search list. I.e. it still doesn't prevent the creation.

  • Suggested answer
    PS Profile Picture
    PS 23,577 on at

    Enable the setting shown in my screenshot

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    It is enabled. All the three tick marks are enabled.

    To further elaborate:

    1) I have the detect duplicates settings on for all cases (i.e. all the ticks are marked as shown in your screen capture)

    2) I have published a Duplicate Detection rule that refers to my custom field which contains a number

    3) When doing an import from another system using a third party import the Contact gets imported but a similar custom entity doesn't get imported. This custom entity has an identical duplicate detection rule and similar custom field with a running number

    4) When going to contacts list and searching for the imported contact (which is already in the database, let's call it "John Doe") I get two John Does in the list. When selecting the bottom one (the just imported one) I get a dialog that tells me that "A duplicate is found" and gives me neat options to delete this new John Doe as a duplicate.

    However - I don't want users to face this dialog every time an import is made. The system should just automatically prevent duplicate Contacts from entering the database. This works fine with my Custom entity but for Contacts the automatic background prevention doesn't happen in the import phase. It only triggers in when actually selecting the newly imported duplicate contact as described in 4).

  • Suggested answer
    PS Profile Picture
    PS 23,577 on at

    When you import the file, import window appears where you specify & map fields; just before the last 'next', You have to say no to allow duplicates. have you tried this? When I try it, it does not allow duplicates.

    Following are the screenshots:

    0550.2.PNG

    0550.2.PNG

  • Suggested answer
    Yadnyesh Kuvalekar Profile Picture
    Yadnyesh Kuvalekar 4,102 on at

    Did you try my suggestion of using alternate key?

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    Hi Yadnyesh,

    I haven't had the opportunity yet - I will try it when possible.

    The problem I encountered was that when creating the alternative key the given field cannot be empty. I have thousands of records and I need to populate the custom field with auto number before the creation of alternative key can be successfull.

    I wonder why this exactly the same field works for my custom entity (it's not an alternative key in that entity) in automatically preventing the creation of new records, but I need to explicitly set it as alternative key for Contact entity.

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    I tested it now - works perfectly.

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