The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is now in force and I’m getting many queries regarding how to delete Mailchimp contacts that have unsubscribed or where email addresses have a status of cleaned.
In the past it hasn’t been possible to delete from a list those people that have unsubscribed or where the status of an email address is cleaned.
Mailchimp have very recently changed a few things so that their customers may comply with the GDPR. Deleting unsubscribed and cleaned contacts is something that is now possible.
Instructions for deleting Mailchimp ‘unsubscribed’ contacts
Deleting a contact that has unsubscribed or has a status of cleaned is as simple as:
- In your list, click the name of the person that you want to delete.
- Click Actions.
- Click Delete.
- TYPE DELETE (all uppercase).
- Click the Delete button.
Using the steps above you will delete the contact from your list. The only way that the deleted contact will be able to be added again as a subscriber is if the contact signs-up using a Mailchimp signup form or landing page or via a Shopify integration.
Please leave a comment below if you have questions regarding deleting contacts from your Mailchimp list.
Hi Gary,
How do I delete multiple contacts who have unsubscribed from a list? I need to delete thousands of contacts in Mailchimp, surely I don’t have to do it one at a time?
Thanks,
Abby
Hi Abby, please see https://organicweb.com.au/24477/email-marketing/mailchimp-delete-many-unsubscribed/
Hi Gary. Is it possible to bulk-delete cleaned contacts? My list has hundreds of them, and it would be a tough job deleting them all one at a time 🙂 I looked at the link you posted for Abby, but I only seem to be able to make this work for the unsubscribed contacts.
Best Camila
Hi Camilla,
Unfortunately there isn’t a way to mass delete contacts with a status of ‘cleaned’ 😒
Thank you for this! I’ve been trying to figure out how to mass delete cleaned contacts for a few hours. Now I can just get to deleting the 300 of them one by one :/
Hi Gary. What I need is a function where users who unsubscribe are deleted automatically. Is that possible?
As far as I’m aware there is no means of automatically deleting unsubscribed contacts within Mailchimp
@Kasper Egeberg I have made a segment in our list that filters unsubscribed and cleaned contacts. That way it becomes easier to isolate and bulk delete them, I find. Just an idea (would love the automatic delete function, though!).
hello Gary. I have cleaned my list but have 3 contacts which i cannot delete. They are showing in my subscribed list, but there is not action button to allow me to delete them. I also cannot delete them by ticking the box next to their name and deleting that way either – any ideas please?
@Paul, is there anything different about those specific three contacts?
Hi Gary, in the source column, one entry shows ‘mailchimp for shopify’, and the other 2 entries in the source column show ‘mycompany,mycompany’ (i have put a generalized title in here as opposed to my actual company name). These 3 entries do not show the action button.
All other entries show the action button and allow me to delete and just show in the source column ‘mycompany’
Does this shed any light?
Thanks
Paul
Paul,
That helps. Unfortunately without spending some time on this I don’t know the solution. It seems however that the three contacts are being added by an external source (which means that even if you delete from Mailchimp they may be added again from the external source). Just having a guess, I imagine that you aren’t able to delete from Mailchimp because of the action (e.g. delete) being meaningless in Mailchimp because of the feed from the external sources. You may also find that there is no value (empty) in the ‘Email Marketing’ column of your list; this signifies that the email addresses are available for transaction emails only (and not email marketing).
Hi Gary,
i imported a list through Google Sheets, but somethings went terribly wrong there, as it merged the first column as number to the list of emails. Result high rate hard bounce.
Now i have almost 800 email address as cleaned and i can’t import anymore. Now i’d like to import the correct 800 emails addresses. Any ideas please?
Thanks
@Claudio,
Depending on the error message that Mailchimp have given you, you may be able to create a new list and import the correct addresses into the new list.
This is it: “Imports are disabled for this account
Please use our double opt-in forms to add subscribers to this list.”
Is there a way to re-enable the import?
Thanks Gary
I am having the same experience with not being able to delete a contact. They are spam, but when I mouse over the check box, it gives the circle with the line through, as if checking the box is not an option. Any ideas?
@Claudio, please see https://organicweb.com.au/24629/email-marketing/mailchimp-imports-disabled/
Hi Gary, thanks for this great information! If I delete a contact – do they get notifed or is a ‘silent’ delete? Many thanks 🙂
@Jodi, the contact will not be advised that their contact record has been deleted.
Excellent! Thanks so much for your help. Much appreciated!
hi Gary,is cleaned contact part of the 2000 quota for the free Mailchimp account ?
if i cleaned say 200 email, i can add another new 200 email addresses ?
Hi Lee, Cleaned and Unsubscribed email addresses in your list do not count towards the 2,000 on the free account.
noted with thanks, Gary !
I tried deleting unsubscribed accounts from my list using the segment | delete options. The message returned says the accounts are at first queued for deletion and then deleted. Yet, they remain in the list.
Are spam complaints automatically deleted from a campaign email list
No. They are marked as unsubscribed.
I have an address in my List that is “cleaned” but i have confirmed that the address is correct. Should I delete and re-enter? I’m afraid it won’t let me re-enter the same address if I do that. The contact is requesting to be added back on the list. Any ideas?
I have a campaign (call it CAMPAIGN 1) that uses a particular list (call it LIST 1). Let’s assume a small proportion of unsubscribes occur when I send out this campaign.
Now I have a new campaign (call it CAMPAIGN 2) that uses a particular list (call it LIST 2).
If any of the unsubscribes from CAMPAIGN 1 are also present in LIST 2, will they be deemed as unsubscribes in LIST 2?
I want my LIST 2 to all be classified as subscribes because CAMPAIGN’s 1+2 have no relation with each other. They are very different topics.
Please confirm. Thank you. Paul.
Hi Paul,
Unsubscribes are at the list level. If you have the same email address in two lists and a person unsubscribes from a campaign sent from one list, they won’t be unsubscribed from the second list.
Thanks Gary for your prompt reply. That behaviour is what I was hoping for. You’re a gentleman. Thanks mate.
I use the free account. If I re-add a previously unsubscribed email, will mail chimp automatically realize it’s previously unsubscribed and block it from becoming subscribed? I am adding both newly corrected and already correct emails to my list through the copy and paste function after I correct wrong email addresses. Just want to make sure the folks who previously unsubscribed don’t start getting emails again. Thank you.
Hi Chris, importing people as Subscribed won’t override the Unsubscribed status.
Hello Gary, Just to clarify, If I archive mass unsubscribers so they dont count towrad my total contact count, and they get re added from an imported sheet for whatever reason, they will still be displayed as unsubscribers correct? Thanks.
Hi Anthony. You are correct. More details are here: https://organicweb.com.au/marketing/mailchimp-import-unsubscribed/
Hi, ‘Delete’ is not showing. Any ideas, please?
Hi Gary. I’m looking for a simple solution to what appears to be a complicated problem highlighted in the self-published community. Mailchimp charges are based on subscribers plus unsubscribers. So, logically I would think, delete unsubscribers. But, as I understand it, you have to keep unsubscribers on your Audience as it is illegal to delete the records. It sounds nonsense to me. What is your view?
James, you are correct that Mailchimp calculates billing based on Subscribed, Unsubscribed and an “Empty” value in the “Email Marketing Status” field. To avoid paying for Unsubscribed contacts there are two options: delete or archive the Unsubscribed contacts (details may be viewed at https://mailchimp.com/help/delete-contacts/).
The “elephant in the room” with data (in this case) is that there are so many privacy and marketing laws out there. In Australia for example I am not aware of any circumstance where one has to store the data for Unsubscribed contacts (I could be wrong however). GDPR, CASL, CCPA and other recent statutes may well vary in their requirements.
If you are concerned that you may need to store data of Unsubscribed contacts however don’t want them to count towards billing then archiving contacts may suit your needs.
Hi Gary, than you for the information. When I archive a contact, next time I select the same audience, I can be sure that person won´t receive the newsletter right? I am always concerned if a contact that has unsubscribed gets bothered again with my newsletter could tag my email as spam. Rephrasing the question: when someone unsubscribes, do I need to take action, delete or archive the contact? If let them be, will they continue to receive the newsletter? Thank you
Antonio, best practice is to leave unsubscribed contacts in your Audience. Mailchimp won’t send to contacts that have unsubscribed from an Audience.
Great, many thanks Gary!
I am trying to delete some unsubscribes and cleaned addresses, but when I tick their email addresses, there is no ‘delete’ option under actions. What can I do please? I am using a free 2000 account.
Hi Francesca.
Mailchimp have changed the way that contacts may be removed. Please see https://organicweb.com.au/marketing/tutorial-archive-mailchimp-contacts/
I have some subscribers that were using (county) government computers to receive emails. It appears the IT Systems Administrator tightened the server up or there was a temporary server issue that cause a hard bounce and the emails were cleaned. Is there any way to make them subscribers again? They signed up to receive the info. I saw where they can sign up using a form, but how do I direct them to do that? When they signed up, they just put their email address on a form we had on the table.
You’ll be able to find the URL for the signup form per the instructions at https://organicweb.com.au/marketing/resubscribe-unsubscribed-mailchimp/
Dear Gary,
I have deleted about 40 contacts from my audience list.
Now it says: “This audience has 91 contacts. 91 of them are subscribers.
But in Recent Growth and Tags it counts 131. Why does it also count the deleted contacts?
How can I fix that?
Gunter, it can take a short while sometimes for the data to reflect across Mailchimp. Is all ok now?