Guide
See also: Required fields
Prevent duplicates by requiring all values in a given Field to be unique:
This feature is available on Pro and Enterprise plans.
Why enforcing unique values
Inevitably, from time to time, users and scripts create duplicate data. If you don't know that you are looking at a duplicate entity, you might rely on outdated or incomplete information.
For example, there can be two Contacts in CRM representing the same person: an older entity shows the outdated job title but contains a LinkedIn link while the newer entity has the up-to-date title but no LinkedIn info. Obviously, this is no good.
To prevent duplicates, require the values in a certain Field to be unique.
How to prevent duplicates and guarantee unique values
Go to Field settings and enable the corresponding toggle:
Show Databases in the sidebar for the relevant Space
Expand your Database and navigate to Fields
Select the Field that should be used to detect duplicates
Expand Advanced section
Enable Require values to be unique toggle
What to do with existing duplicates
When you try to require values of a Field to be unique, we look for existing duplicates:
If the duplicates are found, we suggest either merging them automatically (if there are no conflicts in data) or creating a temporary Table View to merge them manually.
You can also try asking Fibery AI Agent to do the deduplication for you (at your own peril 😅).
How automatic duplicates merging works
Whenever there are no conflicts in the data, we suggest merging the existing duplicates automatically. The automatic merge doesn't allow for the same level of control (e.g. can't pick the primary record) but it resolves the duplicates with a single tempting click:
We can always merge these Fields without a conflict:
Other Field values should either be identical or empty for all the duplicates in a cluster—otherwise, we'll ask you to resort to manual merge. In this example, Salary is the only Field that prevents the automatic merge:
Email
(email, unique) | Name ✅
(text) | Job Title ✅
(text) | Salary ❌
(money) | Tags ✅
(multi-select) | Notes ✅
(rich-text) |
mara@fibery.io | Mara | CDO | $100,000 | smart, loyal
| "Surround with extra love and car" |
mara@fibery.io | Mara | | $125,000 | resourceful
| "A pleasure to work with" |
How to merge duplicates manually
If the automatic merge is not possible or you'd like to have more control over the process, you can merge the existing duplicates manually. We generate a temporary Table View in your private space so you can compare duplicate entities and ensure the surviving one has all the right values:
The duplicate values in the View are sorted and color coded to help you navigate. Display the Fields that help you to decide which record to preserve and use Merge entities action (or copy-paste + delete) to eliminate the rest.
Once you are finished, delete the View and go back to the unique values toggle to repeat the check. If things have gone well, you'll see that there are no duplicate left and you can finally ensure the future values will be unique:
One auxiliary Table View can handle up to 20 duplicate values. If you have more, you'll have to repeat the procedure a few times.
What happens if someone tries to enter a duplicate value?
Once you require the values to be unique, Fibery will prevent any duplicates by displaying an error toast:
The user will have an option to navigate to the original entity and update it instead of creating a duplicate.
What kinds of Fields can be unique?
Here are the supported Field types:
Text
Email
URL
Phone
Number (0 decimal places aka Integer)
Date (without time or range)
You can require unique values for up to 5 Fields per Database.
So far, we don't prevent duplicates based on the combination of Fields (e.g. First Name + Last Name). If that's what you need, please let us know in the community or via support chat.