Removing Duplicate Records in a Form

This article describes what a duplicate is, and how you can use the Duplicate Scanner to remove duplicates from your Form .

Being a Database owner, or having View and Resolve Duplicates permissions are prerequisites for this function. For more information, see Understanding permissions.

In a Form, different records may actually refer to the same object. For example, they may refer to the same person or place. These are duplicate records, that may be created when:

• Merging datasets collected from different sources
• Encountering discrepancies in the typology, transliteration, language, synonyms or measurements of the data

You can find and resolve duplicate entries in ActivityInfo using the Duplicate Scanner.

The Duplicate Scanner is available to users with at least a View records permission for the Form in question.
For more information on permissions, see Understanding Permissions or contact your administrator.

Finding duplicated records in Forms 

To find duplicate records in your Form, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your Form.
2. Click "Tools" and select "Scan for duplicates."

If you cannot see “Tools” in the Toolbar, then you do not have sufficient permission to perform this action. For more information, see Understanding permissions.

3. Select at least one of the fields to include in the Duplicate Scan. For quick selection options, click “Select” and choose from the following:

• Key fields
• Unique fields
• All fields
• Reference fields
• Unselect all fields
  

4. Set the sensitivity of the search by sliding the toggle between “EXACT” and “LOW.”
   The duplicate scanner picks up possible matches based on the similarity of the record field values:

• EXACT: Identical matches only.
• HIGH: Almost identical matches, most likely misspellings, such as Anna / Anne or Rabiya / Rabiyä.
• LOW: Matches that may be transliteration errors, such as: Isa / Äysa.
  

5. Click "Start duplicate scan" to confirm your selection and run the scan.

You cannot start the scan while the “Start duplicate scan” button is grey. The button is activated when you select at least one field to scan.

The scan might run for a long time, depending on how many fields you select and how many records are in your Form. You can navigate away from your Form while the scan runs, and review the results once the scan is complete.

6. Filter the search results in the "Table View" if the maximum number of 100,000 scoped records is reached.

Reviewing Duplicate Scan Results 

The Duplicate Scanner groups and displays the possibly duplicated records. If there are multiple groups of duplicated records, then the results are displayed in separate pages for review.

Use the "Skip to next group" or “Previous” buttons to navigate between groups of duplicates.

Resolving Duplicate Scan Results 

To resolve duplicate entries, you can edit, ignore selected, merge, or delete records.

To edit or delete duplicate records, you must have been granted the permission to Edit or Delete records in the Form in question.

• Click "Edit record" to make changes to the selected duplicate record, then click “Save record” to apply the change.

Clicking "Save record" navigates you back to the "Table View" of your Form. Click “Review results” to continue browsing the duplicate scan results.

• Click “Ignore selected” to skip certain records without any alterations.

• Click "Delete selected" to delete a duplicate record, then continue reviewing the Duplicate Scan results.

• Click “Merge records” and select the duplicates you wish to merge into a singular, Primary record. Use the Ctrl + Click or Shift + Click combination to select the options.

Once you selected the Primary record, review each Field in the Record to ensure data correctness.

The Record you select as Primary record receives the information and the dependencies contained in the secondary records, including Subform records, attachments, references, reverse references.
After all this information is added to the primary record, the Secondary record(s) are then deleted as part of the merging process. This means that references and dependencies that pointed to the secondary data now point to the primary record.

Merging records is irreversible, even from the Audit log.

Run the duplicate scan on the Subform(s) as well, if necessary.

Exiting the Duplicate Scan 

To exit the Duplicate Scan, click "Return to table" on the bottom of the page. This takes you back to “Table view.”