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Troubleshooting: Remove Duplicate Answers in Bulk via API

Summary

If you find yourself facing hundreds of duplicate answers and deleting them manually one by one is not efficient, this article explains how to use the delete: answers  API call to bulk-delete duplicates. We also show a method to extract the list of duplicate IDs from an export (e.g., Excel), so you only remove the redundant entries once.

 

IN THIS ARTICLE

  1. Pre‑requisites

  2. Context

  3. Step‑by-step: find duplicate answers and get their IDs

  4. Step‑by-step: bulk delete using the API

  5. Post‑deletion check

 

1. Pre‑requisites

Before you begin:

  • You have a spreadsheet tool (Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc, etc.) or similar means to filter and process the export.

  • You have technical knowledge or know how to do API calls.

  • You know which metadata uniquely identify an answer (for example, a metadata containing unique ids), or any other unique identifier in your conversations.

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2. Context

Duplicate answers may appear when:

  • A process or script accidentally inserts the same response multiple times.

  • A user resubmits the same data, causing duplicates.

  • Bulk imports or automated tasks failed to detect uniqueness, resulting in duplicates.

Manually deleting duplicates one-by-one is tedious and error-prone. Bulk removal ensures consistency and saves time, especially when dealing with large volumes.

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3 Step-by-step: find duplicate answers and get their IDs

These steps show how to identify duplicates and compile a list of unique IDs for deletion.

  1. Filter the answers for the relevant period (e.g., month of August) on the Conversations section of the platform and export them

  2. Open the export on a spreadsheet tool (in this article we use Excel). 

  3. In the spreadsheet, add a new column. Call it for instance duplicates.

  4. Use a formula to count duplicate entries based on the unique identifier. For example, if your unique identifier is in column V: 

    =COUNTIF($v:$v, v2)

  5. This counts how many times the identifier in V2 appears in column V (paste the formula on V2 and extend the formula to the last row with data). 

  6. Use the spreadsheet’s filter function to show only rows where duplicates ≥ 2. These represent duplicates (or more than one occurrence).

  7. Use your spreadsheet tool’s “Remove Duplicates” or “Unique” function (on the identifier column) to reduce the list to one entry per duplicated group preventing double deletion (keeping 1 of the duplicates). 

  8. Now you have a list of conversation IDs that can can be used with the API call.

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4 Step-by-step: bulk delete using the API

Once you have the list of IDs:

  1. Prepare the payload for the delete: answers API call. The payload should include the list of IDs you want to delete.

  2. Send the API request.

  3. Verify the API response to ensure all specified duplicates have been removed successfully.

Note: Always make sure you have a backup or that the data is exportable before bulk deletion. Once removed via API, recovery is impossible

 

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5 Post-deletion check

After deletion:

  • Export the answers dataset again for the same period.

  • Compare with the previous export — ensure the count of answers matches expectations (duplicates removed, no unintended deletions).

  • Spot-check a few conversation IDs (or unique identifiers) manually to ensure no unique answer was accidentally removed.

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