Answers.Body: <p>Dedupe exceptions are those contacts that have been flagged as potential duplicates, but someone clicked the "Not a Duplicate" link next to them.  If you remove the exception, they can be considered duplicates again.</p>
  
  <p>CiviCRM has two kinds of dedupe rules - those that you build and some pre-built rules that give much better performance.  Many of the default supervised/unsupervised rules are pre-built rules.  The rules you're building are timing out.  To deal with this, try increasing the server's PHP timeout or reducing the complexity of your rules.  Also - dedupe has received a lot of love in recent months, so consider upgrading CiviCRM to the latest 4.7 for a performance boost.</p>
  
  <p>If you're handy with SQL and want to write a "pre-built" dedupe query, the hook is <code>hook_civicrm_dupeQuery</code>.  <a href="https://github.com/veda-consulting/uk.co.vedaconsulting.module.dedupe" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Veda's dedupe extension</a> is outdated and may not work on current versions of CiviCRM but has a large number of high-performance dedupe rules.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-05-03T00:58:40.113Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-05-03T00:58:40.113Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jon G - Megaphone Tech
Body: <p>I'm new to CiviCRM and I'm trying to help a non-profit clean up what looks to be a very large number of duplicate contact entries.  I have searched this site and a few other resources and I have a grasp on the process, as I understand it.  While I'm new to CiviCRM, I have worked with many other database and CRM solutions.  Here are the two questions I have:</p>
  
  <p>1) What are dedupe exceptions?  While most things related to CiviCRM and dupe are well documented, I've not located an explanation for this.  I assume it is some sort of white list of possible dupe contacts?  What happens when I remove the exception?  Do they become "eligible" for the dedupe rules engine?</p>
  
  <p>2)  None of the General rules that have been setup will work.  The Supervised/Unsupervised rules work just fine when I use them manually.  What I'm experiencing is basically a very long period where I'm waiting on the database followed by an unable to perform at this time message.  Any thoughts on using General Rules.  I have tried various approaches but basically trying to match on 3-4 fields.  I understand the weight/threshold approach but it doesn't seem to be linked to that as much as to General rules. None of the rules I have setup nor the ones that existed before me seem to work as General rules.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance and please take it easy on a noob.   :)</p>
  
  <p>Dave</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-05-03T01:00:05.433Z
Comments.Text: PS - Thank you for pointing out the shortcoming in the documentation!  The documentation is open-source just like the software - and this prompted me to make my first documentation contribution to cover dedupe exceptions: https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-user-guide/pull/173
Comments.UserDisplayName: Jon G - Megaphone Tech
Tags: <duplicate-contacts>
Title: Contact Dedupe Basics
ThreadText: # Contact Dedupe Basics
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-02)
  
  I'm new to CiviCRM and I'm trying to help a non-profit clean up what looks to be a very large number of duplicate contact entries. I have searched this site and a few other resources and I have a grasp on the process, as I understand it. While I'm new to CiviCRM, I have worked with many other database and CRM solutions. Here are the two questions I have:
  
  1) What are dedupe exceptions? While most things related to CiviCRM and dupe are well documented, I've not located an explanation for this. I assume it is some sort of white list of possible dupe contacts? What happens when I remove the exception? Do they become "eligible" for the dedupe rules engine?
  
  2) None of the General rules that have been setup will work. The Supervised/Unsupervised rules work just fine when I use them manually. What I'm experiencing is basically a very long period where I'm waiting on the database followed by an unable to perform at this time message. Any thoughts on using General Rules. I have tried various approaches but basically trying to match on 3-4 fields. I understand the weight/threshold approach but it doesn't seem to be linked to that as much as to General rules. None of the rules I have setup nor the ones that existed before me seem to work as General rules.
  
  Thanks in advance and please take it easy on a noob. :)
  
  username_0
  
  **Tags:** duplicate-contacts
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: PS - Thank you for pointing out the shortcoming in the documentation!  The documentation is open-source just like the software - and this prompted me to make my first documentation contribution to cover dedupe exceptions: https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-user-guide/pull/173  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-05-03. Score: 2
  
  Dedupe exceptions are those contacts that have been flagged as potential duplicates, but someone clicked the "Not a Duplicate" link next to them. If you remove the exception, they can be considered duplicates again.
  
  CiviCRM has two kinds of dedupe rules - those that you build and some pre-built rules that give much better performance. Many of the default supervised/unsupervised rules are pre-built rules. The rules you're building are timing out. To deal with this, try increasing the server's PHP timeout or reducing the complexity of your rules. Also - dedupe has received a lot of love in recent months, so consider upgrading CiviCRM to the latest 4.7 for a performance boost.
  
  If you're handy with SQL and want to write a "pre-built" dedupe query, the hook is `hook_civicrm_dupeQuery`. [Veda's dedupe extension](https://github.com/veda-consulting/uk.co.vedaconsulting.module.dedupe) is outdated and may not work on current versions of CiviCRM but has a large number of high-performance dedupe rules.
  
  
  ---
  
  