If your automation shows more contacts in it than there should be, you may have added the same contacts to the automation twice. To remove duplicate contacts from an automation, they need to be removed and added again. Follow the steps below to remove duplicate contacts.
Using a Goal step to remove duplicate contacts in an automation
When you open your automation, you should see a point that indicates the number of contacts currently in the automation. Click on this queue number to see the list of unique contacts. If the number displayed in the automation view is different than your list of unique contacts, this means there are duplicates.
To remove these duplicate contacts, you will need to use a Goal step in your automation. The Goal step ensures that the contacts begin back at their correct position where they were removed from rather than back at the beginning of the automation. That way, no contact progress is lost.
Here are the steps for using a Goal in your automation to remove duplicate contacts:
1. Open the automation and scroll to where the duplicate contacts are.
2. Click on the plus sign above where the duplicate contact group is currently at in the automation.
3. Click on "Conditions and Workflow" and select the "Goal" option.
4. Once you click to add a Goal to your automation, a modal will appear for you to create the Goal and a tag. Create a tag that will trigger the Goal and pull the appropriate contacts. The example here labels the tag as "Remove Duplicates" but you can name the tag as you prefer.
5. When the Modal appears, type in a name for your tag and then click on "Click to add a goal."
6. A new modal will appear and prompt you to create the Goal action which will be triggered by the "Remove Duplicates" (or other named) tag you've created.
7. Click "Save" in the Goal editor and then click "Save" again in the first modal once the tag is created.
8. After you create the Goal, click on the contact queue in the automation action.
9. Click on "Edit All" from the contact page to use bulk editing.
10. Click “Remove from an automation.” Choose the automation you want to remove contacts from. Click “Remove.” You will notice that action will be queued to the left of the editing options.
11. In the same bulk editing window, click “Add a tag.” Type in "Remove Duplicates." Click “Add.” That way, the contacts in the automation with this tag will be removed. Both actions will be queued to the left of the editing options.
12. Click "Apply" and confirm that you want to perform both of these actions.
13. When the second confirmation modal pops up, click "Apply change to contacts" to confirm the change.
14. Click back to your automation to confirm that your contacts have been removed from the automation.
15. To add the contacts back into your automation without the duplicates, click on the general Contacts page.
16. Use the tag filter to find the contacts that have the "Remove Duplicates" (or your name preference) tag attached to them. This will show the contacts that you just removed and need to add back into the automation.
17. Once the tag filter shows your original group of contacts from that automation, click on "Edit All" and use the bulk editing menu options to add them back into the automation. The Goal step you added previously will pull them back to their original position.
18. Refresh your automation to confirm that your contacts are back in the automation without the duplicates.
19. Remove the Goal step as well as the "Remove Duplicates" tag you used for this process, as it does not serve a purpose once the duplicate contacts are gone. You can always recreate this process if you need to remove duplicate contacts from an automation in the future.