Conflict resolution in data merging means deciding what to keep when duplicate records contain different non-empty values in the same property.
| Name | Job title |
|---|---|
| Jane Carter | Head of Sales |
| Jane Carter | VP Sales |
The records may be duplicates, but the Job title property needs a rule before they can be merged safely.
Common conflict types
Conflicts often appear in job titles, phone numbers, notes, company names, addresses, tags, lifecycle stages, CRM owners, and external IDs.
⚠️ Do not hide conflicts
Review conflicting fields before merging so useful CRM data is not overwritten.
Ways to resolve merge conflicts
Datablist provides three field-level strategies:
- Combine values for text properties, using a semicolon, comma, space, or line break.
- Keep the selected record's value and discard the other non-empty values.
- Choose values with rules such as newest, oldest, highest, lowest, longest, shortest, or most frequent. These survivorship rules are available on paid plans.
Notes and tags can often be combined. Status fields, owner fields, CRM IDs, dates, and numbers usually need one winning value.
Datablist workflow
Datablist detects conflicting properties before processing a merge. A group stays in Needs review until every conflict in that group has a rule.
The preview shows which values will survive before the collection changes. You can process Ready groups first and leave unresolved groups for manual review.
Read the merge duplicate leads guide for a practical workflow and the conflict-resolution reference for every current rule.