When you use Add and update all, the numbers shown in the import recap can appear inconsistent. In particular, the Added and Updated totals can sum to more than the number of Processed records.
This is expected behaviour.
The reason is that these figures do not measure the same thing, so they should not be added together.
How contacts are managed in Engage
In Engage, contact data is managed at two levels:
A contact profile exists at the system level.
A group member is a contact profile that has been added to a specific group.
A contact can therefore exist in the Engage system without being a member of the current group.
What Add and update all does
When you run Add and update all, Engage processes each valid record in the file as follows:
If the contact does not already exist in Engage, the system creates a new contact profile and adds that contact to the current group.
If the contact already exists in Engage but is not yet in the current group, the system adds that contact to the current group.
If the contact already exists in Engage, the system updates the existing contact profile using the data in the file.
Because one record can affect both group membership and profile data, the import recap includes counts that overlap in meaning.
What each total means
Processed
Processed is the total number of valid records handled by the import.
Added
Added is the total number of contacts added to the current group.
This includes:
contacts newly created in Engage and added to the group
contacts that already existed in Engage but were not yet members of the current group
Added does not mean “new to the system only.” It means “added to this group.”
Updated
Updated is the total number of existing contact profiles updated by the import.
This includes:
All contacts that already existed in Engage before the import, whether or not they were already members of the current group
This excludes:
Contacts whose profiles were newly created by the same import
Why the totals should not be added together
Added and Updated are based on different criteria:
Added counts contacts added to the current group
Updated counts existing system-level profiles that were updated
Because of this, a pre-existing contact who is newly added to the current group can be counted as both:
Added, because they were added to the group
Updated, because their existing profile was updated
This is why adding the Added and Updated totals together can produce a number greater than Processed.
Summary
When using Add and update all:
Processed = total valid records imported
Added = contacts added to the current group
Updated = existing Engage contact profiles updated
These values measure different outcomes. They are not intended to be summed.
If required you can calculate the individual values as follows:
Newly created contacts added as members = Processed - Updated
New members, from existing contacts = Added - Newly created contacts added as members