How would I be able to merge profiles? Name and explain all possibilities
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Mixpanel does not support merging user profiles directly within the product UI or via API for user profile properties. Here’s a summary of the possibilities and limitations based on the knowledge sources:
1. Merging Events and Properties (Not Profiles)
Mixpanel allows you to merge events and event properties in Lexicon. This is useful for consolidating similar events or properties (e.g., “Purchase” and “purchase item”) so you don’t have to query them separately. However, user profile properties cannot be merged at this time within the Mixpanel UI or Lexicon. If you attempt to merge user profile properties, the system will not allow it and will display a warning if a conflict is detected during sync creation. Only the latest value for a property is retained if the same property name is sent through multiple syncs for the same user profile Lexicon: Merging Data User Profile FAQ.
2. Merging User Identities (Clusters)
Mixpanel supports merging user identities (distinct_ids) so that events from multiple identifiers (e.g., device ID and user ID) are attributed to the same user. This is done via:
- Simplified ID Merge: Automatically merges $device_id
and $user_id
when both are present in an event. This merges event streams, not profile properties Understanding Simplified ID Merge.
- Original ID Merge: Uses special events like $identify
, $create_alias
, and $merge
to merge identity clusters. The $merge
event can merge any two identity clusters, but this only affects event attribution, not profile property merging Original ID Merge Mechanism.
3. Deduplicating Profiles with External Tools
There is a utility script (deduplicate_people
) in the open-source mixpanel-utils
project that can deduplicate people profiles by a property (e.g., $email
). This tool can optionally merge properties between duplicates, but it is not an official Mixpanel product feature and requires exporting, processing, and re-importing data Mixpanel-utils: Deduplicate People.
Summary Table
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