Hi,
Is there a way to prevent duplicate items on a board? (same name)
Regards,
Marie
8 Likes
Good, question. I need to prevent the creation of duplicate items. For instance, if I already have a customer name as an item, i don’t want this to be added again. How can I do that?
3 Likes
There is currently no native functionality for this. I wish there was!
If we do get it, lets allow for any column to be the dupe checker. I do not care if the item name is the same, but maybe I want to make sure I do not have the same email adress more than ones.
5 Likes
Following this one to see if Monday responds. This is the need for a unique constraint, and hopefully it can be made on one or multiple columns on platform.
1 Like
Hey @Marie, @Thomas-Omnitas, @horeb, and @morhriveion,
thanks for posting about this one! I think having a way to prevent duplicate items on a board would be a great idea and would first and foremost recommend submittting it as a feature request: https://community.monday.com/c/feature-requests
As a workaround, you can do the following:
- Open the board > Add Chart view
- Chart time - Bar; X Axis - Name; Y Axis - Count Items.
It’ll help you to check how many duplicates of the same items you have on your board. Then you can Search the name > delete duplicates.
You can also easily search the board for duplicates and delete them using the board filters - How can I search or filter within a board?
Let me know what you think!
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It is not a question about identifying or finding the duplicates. There are several ways of doing that.
This whole thread is about having native duplicate prevention functionality.
In my case, the need for this is biggest when building complex CRM modules where we do not want to multiple contacts with the same email-adress.
3 Likes
@Thomas-Omnitas absolutely!
@TRB-monday.com for the use case I’m actively investigating, unique entries must be native as far as user experience is concerned. In the SQL world, I would set various rules on a table. For instance, column 1 must only have unique entries, or the combination of column 1 and 2 must be unique. Sometimes the unique requirement stretches across more than two columns. When thousands of entries are involved doing this manually is not an option. This is a huge need. It is a need I am working to resolve via API and off platform data management.
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Actually Thomas, I was wondering if you could shed some light on that topic. I have large groups that have some duplicates (names) and I would like to “flag” those that are duplicates directly on the board. I was looking at way of doing that through a formula column but haven’t figured it out yet.
Any suggestions?
As far as I know, there is no way to prevent duplicates. Also tried formulas but it is not robust enough to find duplicates.
Doing a chart is a useful way to identify duplicates, doing a count per elements you will find exact duplicates, then you know what to fix.
We use the find tool to see duplicates, and that’s really quick and works for us.
- Horeb
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Hey @Ednar!
There are several ways of identifying duplicates. The only thing that does not is having them flagged in the board. Here are a few examples:
- Open up the board filter, it will show you a small number next to he variables, that number indicates how many times that variable occurs, works on all columns except long text and Link to item.
- Create a Chart board view and put X to the value you want to duplicate check, Y is count.
- Set up a Pivot table similar to no 2.
Good luck!
1 Like
Hello everyone,
This is Alfred from Kolaai. We just released an app recently which addresses the issues listed here.
Here is a demo video showing a fraction of the capabilities of the app.
You can add the app to your boards by following this link
Lastly, this community post shows even more details about the app.
We hope you find the app useful 
Is there an update on this feature as yet? When Monday.com will have this available without the need to have to integrate another application?
1 Like
Hi @Mich 
Welcome to the Community!
I’m afraid we don’t have any updates on this at present. Our development and release schedules are ultimately decided by our product team and are subject to change depending on requirements.
That said, the team do try to prioritise the most in demand features, so I would highly recommend opening a thread in our Feature Request section.
Here other users who would also like this added to the platform will be able to upvote the feature!
You can find this here: Submit an Idea - monday Community Forum
Best,
Dani
Hi @Marie
As mentioned earlier in this thread, this is not something we internally support at this time. However, this is a great idea and we would love for you to actually submit this as a feature request so that other users can vote in support if it being added! You can do so within the Community here: Feature Feedback
@TRB-monday.com also pointed out a great workaround you can try in her [earlier comment]
Another workaround from @Thomas-Omnitas can be found in this comment.
Finally, you also have the option of trying out apps from the monday.com marketplace, like the Duplicates and Uniques app by Kolaai! You can see their demo and contact info in this comment.
Keep in mind that apps like the Duplicates and Uniques app were not developed by the monday.com team. As such, we don’t have any control over its functionality – and do not provide support for setting it up. Our team has reviewed it against our security and privacy guidelines, but we cannot fully certify it.
If you do want to try it out, I’d recommend checking out the app details in the marketplace here: The monday apps marketplace . You can review the app’s documentation (and applicable privacy policies) and install it if you choose.
To learn more about security in the monday apps marketplace, check out this article: Understanding apps marketplace security
I hope this helps! Remember to submit any feedback you have or make an official feature request for this so that our Product team can keep up with what our users are wanting and needing
Cheers,
Jenna
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