Profile Merging & Duplicate Resolution - Genius CE & Enterprise

In This Article:

• Overview
• How Duplicate Detection Works
  • Detection Prerequisites
  • Detection Limitations
• Navigating to the Duplicate Users Page
• Understanding the Duplicate Comparison
  • User Information Columns
  • The Keep Selection
  • How the System Suggests Which User to Keep
• Performing a Merge
• What Happens During a Merge
  • Student Data
  • Teacher Data
  • User Account Data
  • What Gets Deleted
• Merge Blocking Rules
• Known Limitations
• LMS Considerations
• Troubleshooting
• Best Practices

Overview

Over time, duplicate user profiles can accumulate in Genius CE & Enterprise — for example, when a learner registers with a different email address, or when a bulk import creates a new record for someone who already exists. The Duplicate Users page helps administrators identify potential duplicate profiles and merge them into a single record.

Merging consolidates all enrollments, grades, communications, financial records, and other data from the duplicate profile into the profile you choose to keep. The duplicate profile is then permanently deleted. This article covers how to find duplicates, how to perform a merge, and what happens to data during the process.

 

How Duplicate Detection Works

The system identifies potential duplicates using two matching criteria:

• Same email address — Two or more user accounts that share the same email address.
• Same first and last name — Two or more user accounts with identical first and last names (the comparison is case-insensitive).

The system groups potential duplicates and presents them as pairs for review. Matches by email are shown first, followed by matches by name.

Note: Not every match is a true duplicate. Two different people can share the same name. Always review the details (enrollments, roles, login history) before merging.

Detection Prerequisites

The duplicate detection query silently excludes any user record that is missing an email address, a first name, or a last name. If a user profile has any of these three fields blank, that user will never appear on the Duplicate Users page — even if a true duplicate exists.

If you suspect duplicates exist but do not see them on this page, check whether one or both records have empty name or email fields. Fill in the missing data and the pair should appear on the next page load.

Detection Limitations

• Email matching is exact — The system does not normalize email addresses before comparing. Differences in capitalization or extra spaces may prevent a match depending on your environment settings.
• Name matching trims trailing spaces only — The system handles trailing spaces and capitalization differences, but leading spaces in a name field can still prevent a match.
• No fuzzy or phonetic matching — Misspellings, nicknames, abbreviations are not detected.
• Same pair can appear in both sections — If two users match on both email and name, they will appear in both the email and name sections.

 

Navigating to the Duplicate Users Page

Navigation: Administration → Users and Access → Duplicate Users

The Duplicate Users page shows all detected potential duplicates in a comparison grid. Each row represents a pair of users the system believes may be duplicates.

 

Understanding the Duplicate Comparison

User Information Columns

For each pair, the grid displays two sets of information side by side — one for the left user and one for the right user:

Column	Description
Login / UserIndex	The user’s login name (username) and their internal User Index number, displayed as "username (index)".
Name	The user’s first and last name.
Email	The user’s email address.
Roles	The user’s privilege level listed first, followed by any assigned roles. Multiple roles are separated by line breaks.
Info	Activity summary: the number of Active Enrollments (for students) and Active Sections (for teachers/instructors).

The Keep Selection

Between the two user columns, a set of radio buttons lets you choose what to do with each pair:

• Keep Left — Merge all data from the right user into the left user. The right user is deleted.
• Keep Both — Take no action. The pair is skipped during the merge operation. Use this when two records are not actually duplicates.
• Keep Right — Merge all data from the left user into the right user. The left user is deleted.

 

How the System Suggests Which User to Keep

The system automatically places the user it recommends keeping on the left side of each pair. The recommendation is based on a scoring system that favors accounts with more activity and higher-privilege roles:

Criteria	Score Weight
Has ADMIN role	High — strongly preferred as keeper
Active teacher with active sections	High — same weight as ADMIN
Inactive teacher	Moderate
Active student with active enrollments	Moderate — weighted by number of active enrollments
Inactive student	Low
Has assigned roles (non-student)	Low — small bonus per role
INACTIVE privilege status	Bonus (known issue — currently preferred as keeper instead of penalized)

⚠ Warning: There is a known issue: accounts with INACTIVE privilege status receive a bonus rather than a penalty, which means the system may recommend keeping the inactive account. Always verify the suggestion before merging.

Note: The system’s suggestion is a starting point. Always verify the recommendation makes sense for your situation before merging.

 

Performing a Merge

To merge duplicate profiles:

1. Navigate to the Duplicate Users page.
2. Review each pair of potential duplicates in the grid.
3. For each pair, select Keep Left, Keep Both, or Keep Right.
4. After making your selections, click the Merge button at the bottom of the page.
5. A confirmation dialog appears: "Are you sure you want to merge the selected user(s)?" Click OK to proceed.
6. The system processes the merges and displays a summary showing how many were merged successfully, how many failed, and how many were blocked.

⚠ Warning: Merging is permanent. There is no undo. Once a merge is complete, the only way to reverse it is through a database restore by the Genius Support team. Review each pair carefully before clicking Merge.

What Happens During a Merge

When you merge two profiles, all data from the duplicate user is transferred to the user you chose to keep, and then the duplicate user is permanently deleted. The categories below cover the most significant data that moves. The system also transfers additional related records (including waitlists, credit requests, subscriptions, agreements, inventory, and other associated data) that are not individually listed here.

Student Data

• Enrollments — Active enrollments are moved to the kept user, unless the kept user already has an active enrollment in the same section. In that case, the duplicate’s enrollment is removed to avoid conflicts.
• Grades and assignments — All activity records, test history, and grade data transfer with the enrollments.
• Applications and waiting lists — Pending applications, course plan entries, drop requests, and waiting list positions are moved.
• Financial records — Ledger entries, transactions, and payment information are moved. Financial account identifiers are updated to match the kept user.
• Affiliations — Affiliation memberships transfer to the kept user. If the kept user is already a member of the same affiliation, the system attempts to skip the duplicate membership to avoid duplicates.
• Programs and external courses — Student program enrollments, credit requests, and external course history are moved.

Teacher Data

• Section assignments — Teaching assignments transfer to the kept user. If the kept user is already assigned to the same section, the system attempts to skip the duplicate assignment.
• Performance history — Teacher performance records are moved.
• Manager and school assignments — Manager-to-teacher and school-to-teacher relationships are transferred.

User Account Data

• Communications — Message history, auto-email records, and announcements are moved.
• Roles — The system attempts to transfer roles from the duplicate user to the kept user. However, if both users share any of the same roles, the merge will fail for that pair. The entire merge for the pair is canceled, and neither user is modified. To work around this, manually remove the shared role(s) from the duplicate user before merging.
• Files and reports — User files, saved reports, favorite reports, and custom queries are transferred.
• Tasks — Tasks assigned to or created by the duplicate user are reassigned to the kept user.
• Addresses — User address records are moved.
• Activity logs — User activity and log entries are transferred.

What Gets Deleted

After all data has been transferred:

• The duplicate user account is permanently deleted from the system.
• Any enrollment records that could not be moved (because the kept user already had a matching active enrollment) are removed.
• Duplicate affiliation memberships, role assignments, and section assignments that already existed on the kept user are discarded.

 

Merge Blocking Rules

The system will block a merge in the following situation:

• The duplicate user has an ADMIN role — If the user being deleted (not the one being kept) has an ADMIN role, the merge is blocked entirely. This prevents accidental deletion of administrator accounts.

When a merge is blocked, the system displays: "Blocked merge operation for [count] users, because it would delete a user with ADMIN role."

To resolve a blocked merge where you need to merge two admin accounts, you must first remove the ADMIN role from the user you intend to delete, then retry the merge.

Note: The ADMIN role check matches on the role name text. Any role whose name contains "ADMIN" (such as ADMINISTRATOR or SUBADMIN) may also trigger the block.

 

Known Limitations

• Bulk merge is not atomic across pairs — Each pair is processed independently. If one pair fails, other pairs that were already processed are not rolled back. The page shows a summary of successes and failures.
• Hard delete — The duplicate user is permanently deleted from the system. There is no way to undo this from the Genius interface. Recovery requires a database restore by the Genius Support team.
• No audit trail — The system does not maintain an accessible record of who performed the merge, when it happened, or which users were involved. Keep your own records of merge operations for compliance purposes.
• No notifications — Neither the kept user nor the deleted user receives any notification that a merge occurred.
• No simultaneous merge protection — If two administrators merge the same user simultaneously, unpredictable results may occur.

LMS Considerations

⚠ Warning: The merge operation only affects data within Genius. It does not merge or modify any data in connected LMS systems (Canvas, Brightspace, Blackboard, etc.).

After merging duplicate profiles in Genius, you should be aware that:

• LMS enrollments remain linked to the original user — If the duplicate user had enrollments synced to an LMS, those enrollments will still reference the original user in the LMS.
• The duplicate user is not deleted from the LMS — You must manually deactivate or remove the duplicate user’s account in the LMS.
• Grade sync may be affected — If the duplicate user had active LMS enrollments, grades will continue syncing to the old user in the LMS. You may need to re-map enrollments or manually merge LMS accounts.

If you have LMS integrations enabled, plan to review and clean up LMS data after performing merges in Genius.

 

Troubleshooting

Issue	Possible Cause	Resolution
No duplicates found on the page	There are no users with matching email addresses or matching first and last names.	The system detects duplicates automatically. If you know two records are duplicates but they don’t share an email or name, you cannot merge them from this page. Contact Genius Support for assistance with manual merges.
Merge blocked with ADMIN role message	The user being deleted has an ADMIN role assigned.	Remove the ADMIN role from the user you intend to delete (the one you are NOT keeping), then return to the Duplicate Users page and retry the merge.
Merge failed — shared roles	Both users have the same role assigned. A known issue causes the merge to fail when the duplicate user shares roles with the kept user.	Before merging, go to the duplicate user’s profile and remove any roles that are also assigned to the user you plan to keep. Then retry the merge.
Merge failed for one or more users	A database error occurred during the merge, such as a constraint violation.	The system rolls back the entire merge for that pair if any error occurs. Note which pair failed and contact Genius Support with the user indices for investigation.
Known duplicate not appearing	One or both user records have an empty email address, first name, or last name. The detection query excludes records with missing fields.	Fill in the missing email, first name, or last name on both user records. The pair should appear on the Duplicate Users page after the data is updated.
Enrollments missing after merge	The kept user already had an active enrollment in the same section as the duplicate user.	When both users have an active enrollment in the same section, the duplicate’s enrollment is removed rather than moved (to avoid duplicate active enrollments). Check whether the kept user already has the enrollment.
LMS data out of sync after merge	The merge only affects Genius data, not LMS data.	Log in to the LMS and manually deactivate the duplicate user’s account. Re-map any enrollments that were linked to the old user in the LMS.

Best Practices

• Review before merging: Always check the enrollment count, roles, and login name before selecting which user to keep. The system’s suggestion is a good starting point, but you know your users best.
• Keep the account with more activity: When in doubt, keep the user with more active enrollments, section assignments, and roles. This minimizes the amount of data that needs to move.
• Check for shared roles before merging: If both users have roles assigned, compare the role lists and remove any duplicates from the user you plan to delete. This prevents merge failures caused by the known roles deduplication issue.
• Handle LMS data promptly: If you have LMS integrations, clean up LMS accounts immediately after merging to avoid grade sync issues.
• Use "Keep Both" for uncertain matches: If two users share a name but you’re not sure they’re the same person, select Keep Both. You can always merge later, but you cannot un-merge.
• Merge in small batches: Rather than merging all duplicates at once, work through them in batches. This makes it easier to verify results and catch issues early.
• Record merges manually for auditing: The system does not maintain an audit trail of merge operations. Keep your own record of which users were merged (note both user indices and the date), especially for financial or compliance-sensitive accounts.
• Address the root cause: After cleaning up duplicates, investigate why they were created. Common causes include bulk imports without deduplication, learners self-registering with a different email, or manual account creation when an account already exists.