Import contacts "Skip Duplicates" -- what is difference between "Overwrite" and "Update"?

zmiller

Member
Hello,

On the import contacts page, in the drop down menu under "Duplicates", there are three options:

Skip
Overwrite
Update

What is the difference between "Overwrite" and "Update"? I've tested and they appear to do the same thing... basically update custom fields if there is new data in the import file...

I notice that if Rocket Import is not selected, then both "Overwrite" and "Update" are selectable, however, if you toggle Rocket Import to "ON", then the "Update" option is grayed out.

However, if Rocket Import is de-selected, and in the "Duplicates" menu you select "Update" first and THEN you toggle Rocket Import afterwards, it shows "Update" as selected with a checkbox, but it is grayed out.

Can you please provide some clarity on the difference here?

Thank you!
 

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Skip Duplicates: It skips the duplicate records if found within the same list
Overwrite: It imports the new records and then removes the old duplicate records for the same list
Update: If the duplicate records are found, it updates the customs fields of those records with the new fields in the import file

And yes update functionality can't run in Rocket import as rocket import loads the file directly into database without making any extra SQL queries
 
Thanks Wasif for explaining. I have a couple more follow up comments/questions....

Our ideal scenario is fastest import possible, i.e. Rocket, while still giving users ability to update custom fields in bulk.

Standard import is quite slow even with 4 threads... it took nearly 10 minutes to import a CSV with 100k email addresses.
I watched the network panel in my browser and it made almost 2,400 requests just to do this import! Guessing it does a batch of 50 or so at a time?

Rocket import on the other hand imported the 100k list in under a minute.

What is the feasibility of updating Rocket import to support custom field update? I.e. could this be added in a near-term update?

If not, is there anything server-side we can do to increase the performance of normal importing?

Thank you!
Zach
 
Rocket import already imports the custom fields. It became compatible with earlier editions. Where you are finding it not compatible with custom fields?
 
Oh, the update isn't technically possible using rocket import. It can just overwrite.
 
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