An attendee to one of my Mailchimp classes asked the question is there a way we can permanently delete a “segment” and its subscribers from the list?
NOTE: It’s now possible in Mailchimp, since GDPR, to delete unsubscribed and cleaned contacts. Read more.
It’s simple enough to perform these actions. The steps involve first deleting the subscribers in the segment and then deleting the segment itself. If you merely delete a segment without first deleting (or unsubscribing) the subscribers then you’ll receive the message Deleting a segment is permanent, but it won’t remove any subscribers from your list. Are you sure you want to delete the segment?
To delete the segment subscribers:
- From the Mailchimp dashboard click ‘Lists’ near the top of the page.
- Click your list name.
- In the black horizontal line click ‘Segments’.
- Click your segment name.
- To the left of the column title ‘Email Address’ click the down arrow then ‘Select Visible’.
- Click the ‘Delete’ button that now shows.
To delete the segment itself:
- From the Mailchimp dashboard click ‘Lists’ near the top of the page.
- Click your list name.
- In the black horizontal line click ‘Segments’.
- Click ‘Delete’ next to your segment.
- Follow the prompts.
The Mailchimp segment and subscribers have now been deleted.
How to delete more than 100 contacts from a segment at a time?
View your segment then click the down arrow to the left of the column header ‘Email Address’. You’ll be able to ‘Select All’ then delete.
I’m not seeing Select All here. I can choose Select Visible, but when I click on the down arrow again a Select All option doesn’t then appear.
Yes, it looks like Mailchimp have removed the ‘Select All’ option.
I have 25 contacts on my list, they are all unsubscribed, and not in a segment. I want them removed from my list, but i cannot seem to figure out how to do this. I tried to resubscribe them but that ended in an error. Any suggestions. Thanks
It isn’t possible to delete unsubscribed contacts. You aren’t charged for unsubscribed addresses so no need to delete.
There certainly is a need to delete unsubscribed contacts because of new GDPR requirements and Mailchimp is not making this easy.
@S A O, I’m certainly not familiar with the details of GDPR. Mailchimp describe some of what they’re doing in this regard at http://eepurl.com/c97Tcr
I have exactly the same problem. There MUST be a way to delete unsubscribed contacts. It’s absolutely against the GDPR to keep the email addresses in your lists after the contact has unsubscribed!!
@kaegi this post was written some time ago and Mailchimp have/are making changes around this. Please see https://kb.mailchimp.com/lists/manage-contacts/delete-contacts#Ways-to-Delete