How to find and remove duplicate items

Finding and merging duplicate inventory items with ContentsPal AI

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ContentsPal’s Duplicate Finder helps you quickly identify, review, and clean up duplicate items in your job inventory. This ensures your inventory stays accurate, organized, and easy to manage. This guide walks you through reviewing duplicates, dismissing incorrect matches, and merging confirmed duplicates into a single, clean item. ⚙️

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open Your Job Inventory

1. Open your job and go to the **Inventory** tab. 2. Look for items displayed with a purple **Similar** badge (in the AI Insights column) — these indicate that the system has found possible duplicates. - (Tip: The job’s **Overview** tab also shows a **Review [N] Groups of Similar Items** shortcut that walks you through every group in turn.)

2. Filter to Only See Duplicate Items (Optional)

- Use the **Flags** filter and select **Has Similar Items**. - This helps you focus only on items that require review. (Tip: Use this when working through a long inventory.)

3. Review Detected Duplicates

1. Click the **Similar** badge on any item. 2. The **Similar items** window lists all the items the AI detected as similar, each with a match percentage. 3. Click any **photo** to view a zoomed-in version for closer inspection.

4. Dismiss Incorrect Duplicates

- If the system incorrectly marks items as duplicates — for example, two balloons that are clearly different — click **Not Duplicates (Dismiss)** to remove the alert. The group won’t be flagged again. - (Note: Dismissing helps improve clarity but does not delete any items.)

5. Merge Correct Duplicates

1. Open an item’s duplicate list (e.g., car tires or tool chests). 2. Review each entry to confirm duplicates are legitimate. 3. Select all items you want to merge (or click **Select all**). 4. Choose whether the merged item should use the largest quantity or the sum of all quantities. 5. Click **Merge [N] items** (or **Merge [N] & continue** to move on to the next group). 6. Wait for the merge to complete. - The system will combine photos and details from all duplicates into a single, clean item. The original items are archived. 🚀 - (Tip: You can also merge any items yourself — select them in the inventory list, open **Edit rows**, and choose **Merge Items**.)

6. View the New Deduplicated Item

- After merging, the new consolidated item appears in your inventory. - If you were using a filter, you may need to **remove the filter** to see the updated item. (Tip: Refreshing the page may also help.)

On the Mobile App

- When similar items are found among your recent captures, an **[N] to review** notice appears on the job screen and the camera. Tap it to open **AI Insights Review**, then tap **Review similar items** to select and merge the duplicates.

Best Practices

- Review duplicates regularly to keep the inventory clean and consistent. - Always zoom into images when items look similar — many duplicates are subtle. - Dismiss incorrect duplicates promptly to avoid confusion later. - When in doubt, merge conservatively to avoid combining non-matching items.

Troubleshooting

- I don’t see the merged item: Remove any active filters or refresh the inventory page. - The system shows too many false duplicates: Zoom into each image and dismiss incorrect ones to improve clarity. - Merge is taking longer than expected: Wait for the confirmation message — large items with many photos may take a few extra seconds.