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I need to delete 2M Contacts from All contacts.

Actually, my colleague synced the Contact object from Salesforce without checking the box "only import contact with email address". I checked it later in order to only get contacts with email address in the Contact synchronized DE.

However, it seems that all the contacts that have been imported once on SFMC through MC connector stay in the SFMC in All Contacts... Is there any to query the All Contacts table in order to get all the contacts without email address and import them into a Data Extension, so that we can use the delete contact feature on a Data Extension ? If not would you have some solution that could address my need ?

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No need to create a support case, this doc has ways to accomplish your use case: 'Permanently remove Contacts or Subscribers and associated data from Contact Builder'

Prepare to delete any Contacts without channels Note: You must have MobileConnect or MobilePush to complete these steps.

  1. In MobileConnect or MobilePush, create a filtered mobile list that meets 4 conditions:

Contact Key is not null AND Email Address is null AND Mobile Number is null AND Device ID is null ​

Note: This is sourced from these attribute paths:

System Data | Contact | Contact Key System Data | Email Addresses | Email Address MobileConnect Data | MobileConnect Demographics | Mobile Number MobilePush Data | MobilePush Demographics | Device ID

This provides every record that does not belong to any channel (Contact Key with no source in All Contacts). Follow the below only if you need to review your data. Otherwise you can delete Mobile Filtered Lists using Contacts Delete.

  1. Use an SQL Query Activity to query from this list into a new Data Extension (DE).
  2. Create a new DE with two fields, one titled SubscriberKey, make this field a Primary Key. Create one non-primary key which can be nullable. Make the DE sendable.
  3. In Automation Studio, create an SQL query that resembles the below.

select subscriberkey from [name of MobileConnect/MobilePush filtered list name]

  1. For the target Object, select the newly created DE. Save it, then place it in an Automation and run the Automation once to populate the DE.
  2. Per our best practices documentation, create a backup of this DE should you need it at a later date.
  3. Follow the 'Contacts Delete' documentation to delete the DE and the Contacts contained within from your account.
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  • Finally, I need to suppress all the contacts that have been synchronized at the very first time in SFMC and that don't have the checkbox "Synchronize with SFMC" checked in Salesforce. This filter has been set after the first sync. So now in the Synchronized DE, we have the contacts we really want to synchronize in SFMC. However, there are many contacts that we don't need anymore from the first sync in SFMC in the backend (in All Contacts). We would like to suppress those that don't have the checkbox "Synchronize with SFMC" checked in Salesforce.
    – Ludivine L
    Nov 20, 2019 at 18:04
  • But its seems that we can no more target them and add them in a DE for deletion...! Is there a way to do that ? Otherwise, i will go for adding contacts without email address in a Mobile List (as this filter exists) and suppress that List. Also could you confirm me that a deleted Contact (with the Contact Delete feature) can be synchronized again and be added in SFMC if he fills the criteria/filter defined in "Configure Synchronization" ? thank you.
    – Ludivine L
    Nov 20, 2019 at 18:11
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Available since May 2020 release!

We have just achieved this without MobileConnect / MobilePush.

What we do is we use Automation Studio's Data Extract activity to create an extract of All Contacts without a channel.

Simply select 'Contacts Without Channel Addresses' as the Extract Type.

This will result in a Data Extension with the Name 'Contacts Without Channel Addresses'

You can then Create a sendable Data Extension Filter (in Email Studio) to create a DE for which ContactKey begins with 003 (=Salesforce Contacts)

Follow the 'Contacts Delete' documentation to delete the DE and the Contacts contained within from your account.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This solution assumes you only use ContactKeys from Salesforce - if there is another system generating ContactKeys - you might have keys begin with 003 from that system - so careful there not to delete these as well!

PS Here is the documentation of this feature released May 2020: https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=mc_rn_may_2020_cab_extract_contacts_without_channel_address.htm&type=5

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We discussed with support at length on this one. Depending on your set up the way to do this without opening a support ticket is to create a mobile push or mobile connect list in Mobile studio. Based on that you will be able to filter for contacts which are not linked to synchronised data extension and then select them for deletion in the Contact Builder UI. The reason this works is that Mobile Studio and Journey Builder use the Contact Builder (and therefore All Contacts) data model so even if you do not have a relevant mobile subscription for the contact they can be returned in a list.

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Been there myself... No, there is no such query. Here's hero to do it:

  • open support ticket with a request for the complete list based on contact key.

  • tell them if you want it as csv attached to the case or in a data extension (preferable)

  • once you have the data extension populated you can segment down against records you want to keep or delete directly

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