---
title: "Merge duplicates, archive and restore"
description: "How to combine duplicate companies or people with Merge, hide records with Archive, and bring archived records back."
url: https://help.k3x.ai/en/articles/64-merge-duplicates-archive-and-restore
collection: "Companies, People and Pipelines"
updated: 2026-10-04
language: en
---

# Merge duplicates, archive and restore

How to combine duplicate companies or people with Merge, hide records with Archive, and bring archived records back.

Duplicates and stale records are normal in any CRM. K3X gives you two tools for them: **Merge** to combine, **Archive** to hide without deleting.

## Find duplicates

-   Sort the **Companies** grid by the Companies or Website column. Duplicates sit next to each other.
    
-   Sort the **People** grid by Email or Phone.
    
-   Use the top-bar search for a name or domain to see every match at once.
    
-   Ask Claude or ChatGPT: "Find companies in K3X with the same website."
    

## Merge

1.  Select the duplicate rows in the grid.
    
2.  Click **Merge** in the Action Bar.
    
3.  Review the merge and confirm.
    

The merged record carries the combined information, so people, deals and history from the duplicates end up on one company instead of being split. Check the result after your first merge so you know how your fields were combined, then merge the rest with confidence. Treat a merge as permanent: when in doubt, archive instead, which is reversible.

## Archive

Archiving removes a record from the All records view and your Smartviews without deleting it. Use it for companies that went out of business, people who left their roles, or test data.

1.  Select the rows.
    
2.  Click **Archive** in the Action Bar and confirm.
    

Archived records keep their timeline, files and fields. Deals on an archived company are no longer worked; move them to a lost stage first if you want your pipeline numbers to reflect the outcome. Agents stop acting on archived records.

## Restore

Archived records can be brought back with everything intact. Ask Claude or ChatGPT ("Restore Acme Roofing in K3X") and the assistant restores it with the K3X tools, or contact support at `hey@k3x.ai` or through the in-app chat with the record name and we will restore it for you. If your workspace shows an archived filter in the grid, you can restore from there as well.

## Archive versus delete

K3X does not expose a hard delete in the grid, by design. Archiving keeps your history and your reporting honest, and a mistaken archive is reversible. If you need data permanently removed, for example for a privacy request, email `hey@k3x.ai`.

## Keep duplicates from coming back

-   Import with the website as the company key and the email as the person key.
    
-   Database reveals are deduplicated against what you already own, so they will not create a second copy.
    
-   For webhook-fed agents, write the goal as "find or create the company by website" rather than "create a company".
    

## Related

-   The Action Bar: Assign, Merge, Commands, Agents, Email, Call, SMS, Archive
    
-   Add records: manually, by CSV import, from the Database, or from Claude and ChatGPT
    
-   Import your data and migrate from another CRM