Answers.Body: <p>Once you set the default value, you have to somehow trigger an update for your contact records so the default value gets populated. One way to do this might be to export a minimum of contact fields and re-import them (careful with this technique, unless you do it properly you'll create a lot of duplicate contacts in your db!).</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-03-30T11:03:51.443Z
Answers.Text: Generally yes, but you may not need to.  Setting a default value (for some types of custom field) when the custom field is created causes contacts that already have values for other fields in the same custom group to be updated automatically.  In other words, existing records in the relevant civicrm_value_* table are updated with the default value for the new field.   This does not happen if the custom field is reconfigured to have a default value after its initial creation.  The behaviour depends on the type of field - so eg a yes/no behaves this way, but a select does not.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Aidan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-03-31T14:40:43.137Z
Answers.Text: This only works if a given contact already has some data in that custom set.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Coleman
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-03-30T01:50:57.593Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-03-30T01:50:57.593Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Coleman
Answers.Body: <p>You can set a default value in the custom field definition.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-03-29T09:19:15.673Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-03-29T09:19:15.673Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Aidan
Body: <p>I've just created a new field with a 'yes/no' answer.  Can I auto-fill all records with a specific answer?  </p>
  
Tags: <custom-fields>
Title: Autofilling a new custom field
ThreadText: # Autofilling a new custom field
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-03-29)
  
  I've just created a new field with a 'yes/no' answer. Can I auto-fill all records with a specific answer?
  
  **Tags:** custom-fields
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-03-30. Score: 1
  
  Once you set the default value, you have to somehow trigger an update for your contact records so the default value gets populated. One way to do this might be to export a minimum of contact fields and re-import them (careful with this technique, unless you do it properly you'll create a lot of duplicate contacts in your db!).
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: Generally yes, but you may not need to.  Setting a default value (for some types of custom field) when the custom field is created causes contacts that already have values for other fields in the same custom group to be updated automatically.  In other words, existing records in the relevant civicrm_value_* table are updated with the default value for the new field.   This does not happen if the custom field is reconfigured to have a default value after its initial creation.  The behaviour depends on the type of field - so eg a yes/no behaves this way, but a select does not.  
  > **username_1**: This only works if a given contact already has some data in that custom set.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2017-03-29. Score: 0
  
  You can set a default value in the custom field definition.
  
  
  ---
  
  