From time to time, duplicate profiles might end up in your athlete database. They can be two or more versions of the same name, or could be the same person with a slightly different spelled name (for example, Josh Smith and Joshua Smith). These are known as Duplicates or Double ups.
This article explains:
- how to merge duplicate profiles with our easy merge tool
- how duplicates occur and the steps you can take to prevent them
How can we fix or merge duplicates?
Note: Below you'll find the process for merging duplicate athlete profiles. Please note that this action will merge the athlete's profile everywhere they appear on LiveHeats in the past and future, even outside of your organisation, and it cannot be undone. For example, combining the wrong athletes will edit the rankings of completed series and events, so please proceed with caution.
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- Navigate to the Athletes area once logged in as a Director
- Use the search or page numbers to find the athletes you'd like to merge and click their Avatar to select them:
- Once you've selected the profiles you'll combine, click Merge:
- Select the Primary profile which is the version and spelling of the name you'd like to keep. Note, all other data relating to the athlete will be merged into the Primary profile (E.g. all emails, contact numbers, results, and rankings, everywhere on LiveHeats):
- Click Continue and if you are 100% you have selected the right athletes, click Merge
- If there are no conflicts that require resolving, the profiles will be merged and all data combined. If there are conflicts, you will have to resolve them before merging profiles.
Why do duplicates occur and how can we reduce them?
Duplicates can occur due to:
- athletes or parents registering for events using different user accounts (e.g. work email one month, Facebook the next), or;
- director adding an athlete manually using different name spelling, or by not selecting the existing version when adding them to a division or draw
- when using our federation solution, new accounts being added to the federation after they have an established database
You can reduce the prevalence of duplicate profiles in your database by:
- encouraging athletes to register using the same user account each event, and if they can't access their old account, you can link a new user for them with their new details
- if adding athletes to an event manually, ensure you use the version of the athlete already in the rankings. Existing versions will be suggested as you type in the athlete name
- if part of a federation, be sure to add accounts to the federation account on LiveHeats before any athletes have been added to the account