The HubSpot Pre-Merge Checklist: 6 Steps Before You Merge Anything

Confirm the right survivor

The single most consequential choice in a merge is which record you make the primary. Per HubSpot's Merge records documentation, "the primary record's property values are prioritized," and a secondary value is used only where the primary has no value at all. Make the primary the record whose data you trust.

Know the documented exceptions before you rely on primary-wins. For contacts: the secondary's email becomes a secondary email on the survivor, lifecycle stage keeps the stage furthest down the funnel, form submission counts are added together, the most marketable status is kept, and legal basis properties keep the most recent values from both records. For companies: the secondary's domain is kept as a secondary domain name and analytics properties like page views and visits are combined.

If a property matters and the two records disagree, decide now which value should win, because after the merge the losing value no longer appears among the record's current values.

Export both records

Before merging, copy or export the property values of both records, and write down both Record IDs. Wherever the primary already has a value, the secondary's conflicting value will not carry over, so your export may become the only convenient reference for what the losing record said.

The Record IDs matter later: after a merge, HubSpot's Merged [record] IDs property (Merged contact IDs, Merged company IDs, Merged deal IDs) will contain the Record ID values of all records previously merged into the survivor, and hovering the value and clicking Details shows who performed the merge and when. Having the IDs written down makes that audit trail immediately useful.

Screenshot or export property history

For the fields you care about most, capture the property history of both records: screenshots are fine. Property history is the evidence trail of which value belonged to which record, and it is the raw material any post-merge reconstruction depends on.

Do not count on exporting this after the fact. HubSpot's merge history export (Data Management > Data Quality > Manage Duplicates > Actions > Export merge history) reaches back only 90 days and, per the documentation, only covers merges performed in the Data Quality tool, not manual record-page merges. The Data Quality duplicate tool itself handles contacts and companies and requires a Professional or Enterprise subscription, per HubSpot's deduplication documentation.

Check associations on both records

Review the companies, deals, tickets, and other records associated with each side. Per HubSpot's documentation, "all associated records of both records included in the merge will appear on the new record," and where both records carry a Primary-labeled company association, the primary company from the primary merge record wins. If the wrong record is primary, the survivor ends up with the wrong primary company.

While you are checking, note static list memberships too. The same article states that on merge "the secondary record is removed from all static segments," and those memberships are not carried over. If a static list membership matters, record it now so you can re-add the merged record afterward.

Check the setting that prevents accidental cookie-based overwrites

Many "HubSpot merged my contacts by itself" reports trace back to a form setting, and while HubSpot frames the behavior as contacts being overwritten via browser cookie rather than a literal merge of two records, the damage feels identical. HubSpot's forms documentation warns that with cookie-based matching, "This may result in contacts being overwritten if the same form is submitted multiple times from the same device." And per the visitor tracking documentation, "if two people share a single computer, HubSpot can associate their HubSpot or non-HubSpot form submissions with the same contact record."

The guard setting has two names. In the current form editor it is Automatically create new contacts from unknown email addresses, found via the Settings icon on the General tab. In the legacy editor it is Always create contact for new email address, on the Options tab. When turned on, every submission with a unique email creates a new contact and HubSpot will not use an existing browser cookie to associate the submission with a previously tracked contact.

One documented tradeoff: turning it on automatically disables "Pre-populate form fields for returning visitors" and "Add link to reset the form." For kiosk, event, and shared-computer scenarios, that tradeoff is usually worth it.

Take a Pre-Merge Backup (or a portal backup)

The last step is the safety net: snapshot the records before you merge them. Pre-Merge Backup, a feature of Emergency Unmerge, captures every property and association on both records before the merge. If the merge turns out to be wrong, the restore is free, instant, and 100% accurate, with no reconstruction needed, and you can re-snapshot anytime for free to capture the latest state. Snapshot a single pair from the record's CRM sidebar card, or back up in bulk via CSV upload or a HubSpot List from your account dashboard. New to the app? The setup guide covers installation.

For portal-wide protection beyond individual merges, CRM Data Backup & Restore by Third Space runs automated backups of HubSpot contacts, companies, and deals with one-click restore, free up to 2,000 records.

HubSpot's native Backup & Restore (Settings > Data Management, Starter and above) is worth knowing too, with its documented limits: backups can run at most once per week on Starter and Professional or once every 24 hours on Enterprise, download as CSV files, and explicitly exclude associations and activity data, which are exactly what a merge rearranges.