Resolve duplicate Salesforce records syncing with HubSpot

When syncing HubSpot with Salesforce, duplicate records can cause your HubSpot records to be repeatedly overwritten with incorrect information. This article explains how deduplication works for leads, contacts, companies, tickets, activities, and custom objects, and outlines steps you can take to keep your synced data accurate.

Duplicate Salesforce leads and contacts

Duplicate Salesforce leads/contacts with different email addresses

HubSpot identifies duplicate Salesforce leads and contacts using their email addresses. If you have two records in Salesforce for the same person that share some matching fields but have different email addresses, HubSpot does not consider these records duplicates. 

Duplicate Salesforce leads/contacts with the same email address

In Salesforce, you can have two lead or contact records with the same email address. However, this isn't possible in HubSpot, because it doesn't allow multiple records to share the same email address. When a contact is created for the first time in HubSpot, HubSpot searches Salesforce for lead/contact records with that email address. Salesforce returns all records that match (in no particular order), and HubSpot syncs with the first record returned. Moving forward, HubSpot will sync with whichever record was most recently updated in Salesforce.

It's best to avoid having multiple Salesforce leads or contacts with the same email address, as this can cause your HubSpot contacts to be repeatedly overwritten.

To manage duplicate contacts in Salesforce and their sync to HubSpot, it's recommended to: 

• Remove duplicates in Salesforce.
  • If you clean up duplicates in Salesforce by merging leads or merging contacts, choose the lead or contact record that is currently syncing with HubSpot as the primary record. To identify which Salesforce record is syncing with HubSpot:
    • Navigate to the contact record in HubSpot.
    • In the left panel, in the About this contact card, click Actions > View all properties.
    • Search for the Salesforce Lead ID or Salesforce Contact ID property. Then write down the value. In Salesforce, identify the lead or contact record with that record ID.
  • If you have set up HubSpot contacts to be deleted when the corresponding Salesforce lead or contact is deleted, the HubSpot contact that corresponds to a secondary (non-primary) Salesforce lead or contact record will be deleted when the secondary record is merged into the primary record.
  • If you choose a primary record that is not currently syncing with HubSpot, a message will appear in the Salesforce Sync card on the corresponding HubSpot contact record showing that the contact is no longer syncing with Salesforce. To associate the HubSpot contact with the new primary record in Salesforce, click Resync.
• Prevent all potential Salesforce duplicates from syncing: consider using Salesforce Selective Sync to limit which contacts sync from Salesforce to HubSpot, ensuring that duplicate contacts don't sync to HubSpot. 

Duplicate HubSpot contacts with different email addresses

If you have multiple HubSpot contacts with different email addresses that correspond to one Salesforce lead or contact record, merge the duplicate contacts in HubSpot, and choose the HubSpot contact that's currently syncing with the Salesforce lead or contact record as the primary contact.

Duplicate Salesforce opportunities

By default, HubSpot does not deduplicate deals with Salesforce opportunities. When a new deal is created in HubSpot, it'll create a new opportunity in Salesforce. Or when a new Salesforce opportunity is created, a new deal is created in HubSpot.

If you're using the updated deal sync, you can configure deduplication between HubSpot deals and Salesforce opportunities based on a mapped field. Follow the steps in the section below to set up deduplication.

Duplicate Salesforce accounts, opportunities, cases, activities, and custom objects

For companies/accounts, deals/opportunities (using the updated deal sync) tickets/cases, activities, and custom objects, you can configure deduplication based on a mapped field of your choice. This gives you more control over the sync behavior and helps you prevent unwanted duplicates for these objects. 

Before setting up deduplication using field mapping, please note the following: 

• The field you want to use for deduplication needs to be mapped in the property mappings for the relevant object first. 
• Deduplication based on field mapping is not applied retroactively. If you change the deduplication field mapping, the new mapping will only affect records syncing after the change. 
• The field values must match exactly in both HubSpot and Salesforce for deduplication to occur. 

• The field must be a single-line text field in both HubSpot and Salesforce.

To set up deduplication by field mapping: 

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Integrations > Connected Apps.

2. Click Salesforce.
3. Navigate to the Data sync tab. 
4. In the left sidebar menu, click the tab for the object you want to configure the deduplication (e.g. companies, deals, tickets, activities, or a custom object). 
5. Then click Sync rules. 
6. Under the object's sync rules, click the Deduplication by field mapping dropdown menu and select the field mapping you want HubSpot to use to deduplicate records as they sync with Salesforce. 

7. Then click Save.