The Duplicate Listener Merge Utility allows you to search for all duplicate listeners in your station database & merge them into a single record.
- Go to Front Desk > Listener Database > Utilities > Duplicate Listener Merge
- The first time running the utility, it is best to leave all settings as default for the first 5 characters of the first name, last name, & address.
- Click on Search for Duplicates
- A grid will display all duplicate listeners matching the criteria.
- The utility will assign each duplicate the same number for the Group it detects. If there is a listener with a similar name, but not an actual duplicate, you need to remove the number from the Group column & leave it blank.
- Check the Select box for the record of the duplicate that has the most correct information. There are multiple Select check boxes for separate fields such as the Home Address if one record has more information than another record & you want to keep that information.
- You do not need to merge all listeners at once, it will only merge the listeners with the same Group number & if a Select box is checked.
- Once all selections are made, click on the Manual Merge button.
You can adjust the numbers for characters to match to get a wider or narrower field of potential duplicates. The higher the number, the most precise it will match duplicates. The lower the number, the more likely it will show listeners that are not actual duplicates, but this can be helpful for finding misspellings with names or addresses.
It is NOT recommended to use the AutoMerge option the first time this is run, as it may merge listeners that are not actually duplicated, but have close match on name or address.
If you accidentally merge a non-duplicate listener, you will be able to un-merge by going through Front Desk > Listener Database > Utilities > Restore Merged Listeners.