Remove From a List vs Delete a Contact
There are two ways to take a contact out of your way, and they do very different things. Picking the right one takes a second and saves a lot of rework.
Remove from this list
This takes the contact off the list you are currently looking at, and nothing else. The contact stays in your account, stays on every other list it belongs to, and keeps all of its history. Use it whenever you are tidying up a list.
Where to find it: open the Contacts page, click a list in the sidebar on the left so that list is in view, then either use the three-dot menu on a row and choose 'Remove from this list', or tick several contacts and click 'Remove from list' in the bar that appears at the top.
This option only appears when a list is open, because 'this list' has no meaning in the all-contacts view.
Delete contact
This is the stronger action. It takes the contact out of every list, and stops it in every campaign it is currently part of — any email that was queued for that person is cancelled. What it keeps is the history: replies, bounces and the record that you had already reached out. That is on purpose, and it is what keeps the 'do not contact the same person again too soon' rule working, and what stops an address that once bounced from quietly being emailed again after a re-import.
Where to find it: the three-dot menu on a row, or the red button in the bar when you have contacts selected. Both ask you to confirm first, and the confirmation says exactly what will happen.
A worked example
Say Maria is on two lists: 'SaaS founders' and 'Webinar signups'. You are cleaning up 'SaaS founders' and she does not belong there.
- Open 'SaaS founders', use her row menu and choose 'Remove from this list'. She disappears from that list. She is still in your account and still on 'Webinar signups', and any campaign she is running in carries on.
- If instead you used 'Delete contact', she would come off BOTH lists, her campaign would stop sending to her, and she would no longer count toward your contact limit.
Which one frees up space on your plan
Only deleting does. Removing a contact from a list just unfiles it — the contact is still in your account and still counts toward your contact limit. If you are trying to make room, delete the contacts you do not need, or move to a plan with a larger limit.
If you delete someone by mistake
Import them again. Uploading a list that contains the same email address brings the contact back, along with the details already on file, and re-files it into whichever list you import into. The contact counts toward your limit again, so it needs a free slot.
One thing that does NOT come back: if the contact had unsubscribed, bounced, or was on your do-not-contact list, it stays that way after re-importing. Re-importing someone never makes an unsubscribed address mailable again.
FAQ:
Q: What is the difference between removing a contact from a list and deleting it?
A: Removing takes the contact off the one list you have open and changes nothing else — it stays in your account, on its other lists, and in its campaigns. Deleting takes it off every list and stops it in every campaign.
Q: Does deleting a contact erase its replies and bounces?
A: No. That history is kept on purpose, so the rule that stops you contacting the same person again too soon keeps working, and so an address that bounced is not quietly emailed again later.
Q: Does removing a contact from a list free up space on my plan?
A: No — the contact is still in your account and still counts. Deleting is what frees a slot.
Q: I deleted a contact by mistake. Can I get it back?
A: Yes. Import a list containing the same email address and the contact comes back with the details already on file. It counts toward your limit again, so you need a free slot. If the contact had unsubscribed or bounced, it stays that way.
Q: Why do I not see 'Remove from this list'?
A: You are in the all-contacts view. Click a list in the sidebar on the left first, then the option appears in the row menu and in the bulk bar.
For the full walkthrough, see /documentation/remove-from-a-list-vs-delete-a-contact.