The deleted records may be connected to companies, deals, tickets, notes, emails, workflows, lists, and reporting. The good news is that HubSpot provides a recycle bin for many deleted CRM records.
In most cases, restorable contacts can be recovered for up to 90 days after deletion. However, permanent deletions, older deletions, and some associated information may not be recoverable through HubSpot’s native tools.
This guide explains how to restore deleted HubSpot contacts and what to check after restoring them.
Can you recover deleted contacts in HubSpot?
Yes, provided that:
- The contact received a restorable deletion.
- The deletion occurred within the previous 90 days.
- The contact was not permanently deleted for privacy or GDPR-related reasons.
- You have the necessary HubSpot permissions.
Contacts that are permanently deleted are not placed in the recycle bin and cannot be recovered through HubSpot’s restore-records tool.
How to restore a deleted HubSpot contact
To recover one or more deleted contacts:
- Open your HubSpot account.
- Click the Settings icon.
- Navigate to the restore-records or recycle-bin section under data management.
- Select Contacts as the record type.
- Filter the records by deletion date, deleting user, or workflow.
- Select the contacts you want to recover.
- Click Restore.
- Confirm the number of records being restored.
HubSpot allows eligible deleted records to be filtered by date, user, or workflow. This can be particularly useful when a bulk deletion affected hundreds or thousands of contacts.
How long does HubSpot keep deleted contacts?
HubSpot keeps restorable deleted contacts in the recycle bin for up to 90 days.
After that period, the records can no longer be recovered through the native restore-records tool. The 90-day period begins when the deletion takes place, not when the mistake is discovered.
For example, if contacts were accidentally deleted on January 1 but the problem was only noticed in April, HubSpot’s recycle bin may no longer contain them.
This is one reason long-term, independent backups are useful. Some CRM errors are discovered months after they occurred.
What is the difference between restorable and permanent deletion?
Restorable deletion
A restorable deletion moves the contact to the recycle bin. The contact can generally be recovered for up to 90 days.
Permanent deletion
A permanent deletion removes the contact without creating a recoverable recycle-bin copy. Permanently deleted contacts cannot be recovered through HubSpot’s recycle bin.
Permanent deletion should therefore be restricted to authorized users and used with care.
What happens to a contact’s associated data?
Restoring a contact does not necessarily guarantee that every connected piece of information returns exactly as it was.
- Companies
- Deals
- Tickets
- Notes
- Calls
- Meetings
- Tasks
- Emails
- Lists
- Workflows
- Marketing subscriptions
- Custom objects
After restoring contacts, review more than just the contact count.
What should you check after restoring contacts?
Contact properties
- Email address
- Contact owner
- Lifecycle stage
- Lead status
- Phone number
- Original source
- Custom operational properties
Company and deal associations
Confirm that the restored contact is still associated with the correct companies, deals, and tickets.
Timeline activities
Review notes, calls, meetings, tasks, and emails. HubSpot has a separate process for restoring deleted activities such as notes, calls, meetings, and tasks within the previous 90 days.
Lists and workflows
Check whether the restored contacts re-enter active lists or become eligible for workflows. Pause risky workflows before conducting a large recovery when appropriate.
Duplicate contacts
Search for duplicate email addresses or recently recreated contacts.
Can you restore deleted HubSpot activities?
HubSpot provides a separate restore tool for deleted activities.
- Open a CRM record.
- Click Actions.
- Select Restore activity.
- Choose the relevant date range.
- Select the activities.
- Click Restore.
What if the contacts were deleted more than 90 days ago?
- Recovering records from a previous HubSpot export.
- Importing records from another connected system.
- Recovering data from a data warehouse.
- Using historical files maintained by the sales or operations team.
- Restoring the contacts from an independent HubSpot backup.
A CSV export may help recreate the basic records, but rebuilding associations, history, activities, and exact previous property values can require substantial manual work.
How to prevent permanent contact loss
Restrict deletion permissions
Only users who genuinely need to delete CRM records should have permission to do so.
Export before large cleanups
Create a snapshot before performing deduplication, database cleanup, lifecycle restructuring, or migration work.
Maintain automated independent backups
Automated backups create recovery points without relying on an administrator to remember to run an export before every risky action.
Protect HubSpot contacts with Restor
Restor automatically maintains a history of your HubSpot CRM data so that recovery does not depend entirely on noticing a mistake within 90 days.
Restor pricing is based on your HubSpot record count instead of accumulated backup storage. Published plans include supported restore flows and state the backup-history period that applies.
Back up your HubSpot data before the recycle-bin clock starts ticking.