Deleted and restored records

Deleting a record in KudosCRM is generally not an immediate erasure. Records are marked as deleted and filtered out of what you see, which is what makes recovery possible at all.

It also produces one behaviour worth understanding, because it looks like a bug when you meet it.

Who this is for

Anyone who deletes records, and admins investigating something that looks wrong.

Before you start

• Permission to delete the record type in question.
• A moment's thought about whether you want it gone or just out of the way.

A deleted record can leave a visible gap
Because deleted records are filtered out rather than erased, something that still references one can show a blank where a name used to be — a deal whose contact was deleted, for instance. That is the deletion behaving as designed, not data corruption. If a name has gone missing from a record that still exists, a deleted counterpart is the first thing to check.

Delete carefully

1. Ask whether you want it gone or just hidden
   Archiving, closing or reassigning often achieves what people actually want without removing the history.
2. Check what references it
   A contact attached to open deals is not a good deletion candidate — the deals will show a gap where the person was.
3. Delete it
   The record stops appearing in lists, searches and pickers.
4. Look for the restore path if you need it back
   Because deletion is a soft delete, recovery is possible for record types that expose a restore action. Ask rather than assuming it is gone forever.
5. Prefer merging for duplicates
   If the reason you are deleting is a duplicate, merge instead — that keeps the history rather than discarding half of it.

What you get

• Deletion that removes clutter without immediately destroying history.
• An explanation for blanks appearing on records that still exist.
• A recovery route rather than an immediate dead end.
• A reason to merge duplicates rather than delete them.

Frequently asked questions

Is a deleted record gone forever?

Deletion marks the record and filters it out rather than erasing it immediately, which is what makes recovery possible. Restore paths differ by record type, so ask rather than assuming either way.

Why does a deal show a blank where a contact used to be?

Because the contact was deleted. It is filtered out of view while the deal still references it. That is the expected behaviour, not corruption.

Should I delete a duplicate?

Merge it instead. Deleting throws away whatever history was on that record; merging keeps it.

Does deleting free up storage?

Not in the way you might expect, since the record is retained rather than erased. If storage is the goal, attachments are where the volume actually is.