Reactivate systemwide deactivated contacts

Reactivation Methods

Engage offers three methods for reactivating contacts that were deactivated in error and need to be reinstated:

1. Bulk Reactivation by Bounce Category: This method reactivates all deactivated contacts within a group based on their bounce category. It's the simplest approach but may reactivate contacts that were legitimately bounced, especially if the issue is isolated to a specific ISP with deliverability problems. Full instructions are available here.

2. Individual Contact Reactivation: This method allows you to manually reactivate a specific deactivated contact by editing their profile and toggling the "Activation" switch back to active.

3. Reactivating a Specific List of Contacts: This process is more involved as it requires segmenting the deactivated contacts, transferring them to a group, and then exporting and re-importing their profiles.

Procedures

Bulk Reactivation by Bounce Category

This method is simple but may unintentionally reactivate contacts that were legitimately bounced. To avoid this, use it selectively when you are sure the issue pertains to specific ISPs or deliverability problems. For detailed instructions, refer to the online help guide.

Individual Contact Reactivation

If only specific contacts need reactivation, you can manually reactivate them by following these steps:

1. Go to Audience > Contact Management > All Contacts and search for the contact in the Engage system.

2. Access the contact’s profile.

3. In the "Attributes" tab, locate the deactivation status.

   

4. Toggle the "Activation" switch and save the changes.
   

Reactivating a Specific List of Systemwide Deactivated Contacts

Step 1: Create the Segmentation

To identify the systemwide deactivated contacts, follow these steps:

1. Create a new segmentation, filtering for contacts based on the affected messages, domains, or time frames.

2. Ensure the segmentation includes only contacts where the attribute "System-wide Deactivated (S)" is set to True.

3. Once the segmentation is created, perform a "Fast Count" to verify the approximate number of systemwide deactivated contacts identified.

4. If the segmentation looks accurate, go ahead and publish it.

Step 2: Transfer the Segmentation to a New Group

Once the segmentation is published:

1. Navigate to Audience > Segmentation and select your newly created segmentation.

2. Click the "More" menu at the top right and select "Transfer" to open the Transfer Segment popup.

3. In the popup, go to the Create New Group tab.

4. Assign a meaningful name and email address to the new group.

5. Ensure the "Transfer Amount" drop-down is set to Transfer All Contacts.

6. Click the "Transfer" button.

At this point, the segmentation is transferred to a new group, and the system begins populating it with the members identified in the segmentation.

Step 3: Export the Group Member List with All Attributes

After the new group is created and populated, you’ll need to export the members to ensure their profiles can be re-imported with the necessary changes:

1. Navigate to Audience > Group Management > Groups and locate the group you just created through segmentation.

2. Click the 3-dot menu next to the group name and select Members.

3. All members of this group will display a yellow warning triangle, indicating that their profiles are systemwide deactivated.

4. Click the Export button at the bottom of the page to begin exporting the list.

5. In the export settings:

   • Set List Type to All Members.

   • Expand the Standard Attributes section and select Select All to include all standard attributes.

   • Do the same for Custom Attributes by selecting Select All.

   • Under Advanced Options, select the appropriate encoding. If you’re working with European data, choose UTF-8 encoding.

6. After adjusting the settings, click Export.

7. You will receive an email notification when the export is complete. Once notified, log back into Engage, click the link in the email, and download the file in CSV format.

Step 4: Re-import the Member List

Now that you have the exported list follow these steps to re-import it and update the systemwide deactivation status:

1. Navigate to Audience > Groups and select the group you exported the list from.

2. Open the group's options menu and select Members.

3. Click the Import button at the top of the page.

4. In the File section, click Browse to select the CSV file you downloaded from Engage.

5. Make sure the File Type is set to CSV and the Separator to a comma (,).

6. Ensure the Character Set matches the encoding used during export, which is generally UTF-8 for Europe.

7. Set the Import Mode to Update Current Members.

8. Tick the box for Overwrite Existing Profiles Completely. Make sure the option "Overwrite Only Attributes from File" remains unchecked.

Step 5: Complete the Import

1. A popup warning will appear, notifying you that "Existing user profiles will be overwritten." Since you are re-importing the full profiles, this is expected. Click Ok to proceed.

2. Wait for the import process to finish. You will receive an email notification once it is complete.

Step 6: Verify the Reactivation

1. After the import, return to Audience > Groups and select the group to verify the results.

2. Check the member list. You should no longer see the yellow warning triangle next to their profiles, confirming that the contacts have been successfully reactivated systemwide.

Knowledge Base Reference ID: 202207270849