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TL;DR

  • Two blank values don't count as a match, because empty fields say nothing about who a record is.
  • If blanks matched, every record without an email would land in one huge duplicate set.
  • Records with a blank in a matched field are left out of that search.
  • To find their duplicates, match them on other fields like name, phone or company.
  • In Dedupely, two blank values never match, so blanks can't cause a false match.

You run a search on email and notice something odd: hundreds of records have no email at all, and none of them show up as duplicates of each other. That isn't a bug. Two empty fields don't count as a match.

It's one of the rules that keeps deduplication safe. This post explains why blanks are left out, what that means for your searches and how to find duplicates among records that have no email.

Why two blanks don't match

A match says two records share something that identifies them. An empty field doesn't identify anyone. If you counted two blank emails as equal, every record without an email would match every other record without one.

In a CRM with 5,000 contacts missing an email, that's one duplicate set of 5,000 unrelated people. Merging it would combine them all into one record, with one name and one owner.

So matching treats a blank as "unknown," not as a value. Unknown can't be equal to unknown.

What this means for your searches

When a search matches on a field, records with that field blank are left out of the search. They aren't ignored by your CRM, and they aren't treated as unique. They just can't be compared on that field.

That has two effects:

  • Your email search covers fewer records than you think. If 2,000 of your 10,000 contacts have no email, an email search only looks at the other 8,000.
  • Duplicates without an email are still there. A contact added twice from a phone call, with no email either time, won't appear in an email search at all.

Placeholders are the opposite problem

Blanks that are really empty are safe. Blanks that were filled with filler are not.

Some forms and integrations write a placeholder when a field is required: "none@none.com", "n/a", "test@test.com". Those aren't blank, so they do match each other, and they group unrelated records exactly like real blanks would. Placeholder values that make records look like duplicates covers how to spot and handle them.

How to find duplicates among records with no email

Records without an email need a search built on the fields they do have. Common combinations:

Records that have Match on
Name and phone First name, last name and phone
Name and company First name, last name and company, reviewed by hand
Phone only Phone, with a review step
Name and address Name, street and postal code

Run these as separate searches, alongside your email search. Each one covers records the others can't see. Records with no email and how to find their duplicates goes into each case.

Since these fields are weaker than email, review a sample before merging in bulk. Two people can share a name, and an office can share a phone number.

When one record is blank and the other isn't

A related case: one record has an email and its duplicate doesn't. An email search won't pair them, because one side is blank. A name and phone search will. When you merge, the email from the filled-in record should be the one that's kept, since an empty value shouldn't overwrite a real one.

How Dedupely handles blank fields

In Dedupely, two blank values never match, so blanks can't cause a false match. Records with a blank in a matched field are left out of that search, and you can build separate searches on name, phone, company or address to cover them. Safety Settings, on by default, also hold back matches built on placeholder or test data like test@test.com.

When records merge, blank values never win, so a filled-in email or phone is kept over an empty one.

Find duplicates that have no email

Blanks keep your merges safe

Leaving blanks out of matching is what stops thousands of unrelated records from collapsing into one. The trade-off is that a search on one field can't see records where that field is empty.

Cover them with searches on the fields they do have, review those matches before merging and watch for placeholder values that look like data but aren't.

Frequently asked questions

Why don't records with empty emails show up as duplicates?

Because two blank values don't count as a match. An empty field doesn't identify anyone, so matching on it would group every record without an email into one set.

Do blank fields cause false duplicates?

Real blanks don't, because they're left out of the match. Placeholder values like "n/a" or "none@none.com" do, because they're treated as real values.

How do I find duplicates for contacts with no email?

Build a search on the fields they have, like name and phone, or name and company. Review those matches before merging, since these fields can belong to more than one person.

What happens to a blank field when two records merge?

A blank shouldn't overwrite a filled-in value. The value from the record that has it is kept on the merged record.

How many of my records does an email search miss?

Every record with a blank email. Check how many contacts have no email to see how much of the database that search can't compare.