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Home > User Guide > Configuring and Administeri... > About Contact Management > Deleting Multiple Contacts

# Deleting Multiple Contacts

Keeping a contact database complete and up-to-date is a challenge. Over time it is inevitable that you accumulate records that are incomplete, contain incorrect data, or the contacts have indicated that they want to be removed from your emailing lists. Oracle CRM On Demand Marketing provides a bulk delete utility to help you periodically delete your database of contact records that are unusable and are taking up space. The bulk delete feature does not delete contact records flagged with Global Email opt out.

## Guidelines Before Performing a Bulk Delete

Before bulk deleting contacts, consider the following:

- No cancel option. When you have confirmed your request to delete contacts you cannot cancel or stop the deletion.

- Global email opt outs. Oracle CRM On Demand Marketing does not delete records of contacts who want to be removed from all your outgoing emails and subsequently are included in the master Opt Out table. The records for these contacts remain in the database.

- Delete in other applications also. Contacts deleted from Oracle CRM On Demand Marketing also must be manually deleted from other applications. Otherwise, the same contacts might be recreated during the next data synchronization between the two applications.

- Activity history. When contact records are deleted, all activity history related to those records is also deleted.

- Target list validation. Using the bulk delete contacts function there is no validation performed for the following:

  - Contacts targeted for deletion to determine if they are included in target lists for programs not yet launched

  - If contacts are present in the inclusion lists for automated campaigns. Records identified for deletion are deleted regardless

- No recovery of bulk delete contacts. Deleted records cannot be recovered. However, before the bulk delete request is confirmed, the exclusion list used to create the bulk delete can be exported and then later reimported to recreate contacts, if necessary. All previous contact activity is lost.

- Delete count: no limitation. There is no limit to the number of contact records that can be included in a single bulk delete request.

- List count could increase before execution. The exclusion list count might increase between the time that the list is created and the delete job is executed if new contacts become eligible for the list during this time.

- Delete request execution timing. When you confirm your bulk delete request Oracle CRM On Demand Marketing begins reviewing the list and creates the delete job. Because of the potentially high number of records that might be included in any single bulk delete request, bulk delete jobs run during nonpeak hours late at night or early in the morning. This delayed processing does not provide the opportunity to cancel bulk delete requests when they are confirmed.

  If you want to delete contacts immediately, using the single-contact, delete functionality or multiple-contact, delete functionality, the deletions occur immediately.

## Guidelines for Doing Bulk Deletions

This topic provides guidelines for doing bulk deletions. Consider the following:

- No recovery. Use caution when performing bulk deletion of contact records. When records are deleted, they cannot be recaptured in full.

- Plan. Develop a record deletion plan with your team to periodically perform mass deletions of unusable contact records.

- Privileges. Assign bulk delete privileges to only a few members of your team, for example, those with system administrator roles.

- Exclusion lists. Consider the exclusion lists currently in use and determine whether these can be used to periodically delete records that meet the exclusion list criteria, for example, invalid email addresses.

- Count. Verify the list count and display contacts before confirming a delete request.

- Export. You might want to export the exclusion list set up for each bulk-delete request as a safeguard before you process the bulk deletion. When the exclusion list is associated with a bulk delete request you cannot edit the list filters. Also, by exporting the list from the list screen you can select all attributes to be exported. Exporting the deleted contacts from within the bulk delete configuration allows only the following fields to be included in the export file: Contact Id, First Name, Last Name, Email, Company Name, and Contact Type.

- Maintain. Keep your Global Exclusion Lists because new contacts might meet the exclusion list criteria at any time.

## Performing a Bulk Deletion

The following procedure shows you how to delete multiple contacts.

To perform a bulk delete of contacts from the Contacts tab

1. Navigate to the Contacts tab.

   The default screen is All Contacts view.

2. Search for the contacts that you want to delete.

3. Select a single or multiple check boxes to the left of the contacts that you want to delete.

4. Click Delete.

5. Confirm your deletion request.