The Wall of HubSpot Operations: Why is "HubSpot Bulk Unassociation" So Difficult?

In HubSpot CRM, utilizing "associations" allows you to flexibly manage relationships between various objects and activities. For example, a major feature is the ability to grasp the full picture of customers and projects by associating records between different objects, such as Contacts and Companies, Companies and Deals, or even between Companies themselves.

HubSpot's association functionality goes beyond simply "linking." You can use Association Endpoints to create, retrieve, update, and delete associations between records and activities, or between records themselves. Furthermore, by using Association Schema Endpoints, you can view a list of supported association types, create your own custom association types, and assign labels to relationships between records.

For instance, information such as "Which company does this contact belong to?" or "Which deal is this company related to?" can be centrally managed using HubSpot associations. This allows various departments—such as Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support—to effectively utilize customer information.

By correctly understanding and utilizing HubSpot's association features, you can freely design relationships between object records and realize more advanced CRM operations.

The Basics of Associations

HubSpot associations utilize two types of labels: "Single Labels" and "Pair Labels." These labels are used to clearly express the relationship between records. For example, by assigning labels for each type of relationship, such as "Manager" or "Billing Contact," you can manage diverse associations even between the same objects.

Association types can be created from the HubSpot admin screen or the Association Schema API endpoints. You can create up to 10 association types for each object pair (e.g., Contact and Company, Company and Deal). A key feature is the ability to flexibly design relationships to match your actual business needs.

What Standard HubSpot Features Cannot Do

HubSpot's Workflow feature is very powerful and excels at updating properties, sending emails, or "creating new associations" for records that meet specific conditions.

However, the action to "automatically unassociate existing associations via workflow" is not natively supported (as of the time of writing).

This is a significant challenge. For example, suppose 1,000 contacts are associated with the wrong Deal records due to a mistake. If you try to fix this using only standard features, your options are limited:

1. Manually Unassociate:You must navigate to the details screen of each record, find the association card in the right sidebar, click the "X" button, and confirm the deletion. You would have to repeat this 1,000 times. This is not realistic. It takes an exorbitant amount of time and effort, and there is a risk of generating new human errors in the process.
2. Develop Using API:It is possible to delete associations using the HubSpot API. While you can automate unassociation using the API, this requires specialized programming knowledge, environment setup to call the API, and testing. It is not something a marketer or sales operations manager can simply execute on the spur of the moment.

In short, standard HubSpot lacks the function to "simply" and "massively" execute "unassociation only."

Why Would You Want to "Unassociate All Related Records"?

The main purpose of wanting to "unassociate all related records" is to automatically release or remove associations with other records—such as Deals, Companies, or Tickets—when specific trigger conditions are met, thereby maintaining data integrity and operational efficiency.

Specifically, in what scenes does the need to "unassociate all related records" arise? Beyond simple operational errors, this function is indispensable from the perspectives of data lifecycle management and system integration.

1. Fixing Accidents During Import or Bulk Updates

The most common case is when a large number of records are associated with "unintended objects" due to configuration errors during CSV imports or settings mistakes in external tool integrations.For example, if 10,000 contacts that should be linked to the "Company A" record are all linked to "Company B" due to a setting error. At this time, the Contact's main reference is determined by which Company record is set as the Primary Company. The Primary Company is treated as the main associated company in the contact record and plays a default reference role. If you want to sever only these "incorrect links," you cannot delete the records themselves (as you want to keep the contact information). You want to reset only the "relationship."

2. Data Refresh and Restructuring

There are cases where you want to organize past data structures due to changes in business models or the renovation of sales processes.For example, a case where you want to "unassociate 'Lost' Deals from more than 3 years ago from Contacts, so the Contact timeline focuses only on current negotiations." The records themselves remain as logs, but there is a need to remove them from associations (display) so they do not interfere with ongoing sales activities.

3. Re-syncing with External Systems (Sync Reset)

When integrating HubSpot with Salesforce, Jira, or other core systems, synchronization errors or data inconsistencies may occur.If you want to reset the integration once and re-sync with the correct mapping, the old associations remaining in HubSpot can get in the way. In situations where you want to clear (unassociate) all connections once and pour in the correct association information from the external system into a clean state, this "Bulk Unassociate" function becomes a lifesaver.

4. GDPR and Privacy Compliance

From the perspective of personal information protection, you may be forced to dissolve the link between specific activity histories or response histories (such as Tickets) and individuals. Before completely deleting the record itself, by first severing the link between the "Individual" and the "Event," you can increase data anonymity or control viewing permissions, meeting advanced governance requirements.

The Solution: Custom Workflow Using a 3rd Party App

Standard features require manual work, and API development has a high barrier to entry. The method to break through this impasse is to utilize a HubSpot 3rd Party App (Custom Workflow Action).

The solution we are introducing adds a custom action called "Unassociate all related records" to HubSpot workflows.

We also have a video guide using actual operation screens regarding how to use and set up this custom action. The video clearly explains how to add it to a workflow and the execution steps, so even first-time users can introduce it with confidence.

By using this action, the following becomes possible:

• Automation: Unassociation processing runs automatically for records that match the workflow trigger conditions.
• Bulk Processing: You can process thousands or tens of thousands of records at once based on lists or properties.
• Safety: The records themselves (the actual Contacts or Deals) are not deleted. Only the "link" is unassociated.

Usage is Surprisingly Simple

You do not need to write any code to use this feature. You simply add one step into the procedure of creating a normal HubSpot workflow.

The general flow is as follows:

1. Create a Workflow:Create a Contact-based or Deal-based workflow as usual.
2. Set the Trigger:Set conditions (Lists, Properties, etc.) to narrow down the "records you want to unassociate."
3. Add the Action:On the action addition screen, select the "Unassociate All" action provided by this 3rd Party app.
4. Select Unassociation Target:Specify "which object's association to remove" (e.g., Unassociate 'All Deals' linked to this Contact).
5. Switch On:Once you enable the workflow, the processing proceeds automatically in the background.

With just these steps, manual work that used to take dozens of hours is finished in an instant.

Actual Tool and Detailed Procedures

The specific introduction method and detailed specifications of this custom action are introduced in detail on the following page. When setting it up, you can specify an email address for notifications and reports, allowing you to receive a report via email after the process is complete.Note: typeId and ID are specified as numbers, so please check the numeric values when identifying custom label types or association types.

Please take a look to visualize the actual screen settings.

▼ Details & Installation Here How to Bulk Unassociate Related Records in HubSpot Workflows

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We'll Build What You "Wanted to Do" — The Potential of a Development Request

The "Contact Search Action" we introduced is a powerful tool for expanding HubSpot's potential. However, every company's business process is unique. This action alone might not satisfy 100% of your specific needs.

"I don't want to search Contacts; I need to search Custom Objects.""I need to search data from our external database, not just HubSpot.""I need to not only search, but also process and aggregate the results with a specific logic and write them to another object."

You may be feeling the "limits of a packaged solution."

The "If It Doesn't Exist, Build It" Mindset

If the bottleneck in your marketing or operations is a specific "missing feature" in HubSpot, you have the option to fill that gap with custom development. This is where HubSpot's extensibility and flexible API truly shine.

Your daily manual tasks, your exports and imports to spreadsheets, your visual data checks... all of that inefficient work might be completely automatable by developing just one "Custom Workflow Action" built specifically for your company.

Please Consult With Us

• "I want to build this workflow, but I can't with standard features."
• "If only I could get that piece of data into my workflow, I could automate this whole process."
• "I want to automate this manual task, but the functions I need are missing."

If you're hitting a wall with your HubSpot operations, it's too early to give up.At Tech-Father, we specialize in developing the exact custom workflow actions that solve these "pain points." From general-purpose actions like the "Contact Search Action" to fully custom logic optimized for your unique business processes, we can provide a wide range of solutions.

Why not start by telling us what you've "always wanted to do"?We can propose the optimal solution to solve your challenge, whether it's a workaround with standard functions, utilizing an existing add-on, or building a completely custom solution from scratch.

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The Power of Custom Development: Turning "Can't" into "Can" in HubSpot

The "Marketing Event Recommend Action" featured here is just one example of how HubSpot's capabilities can be extended.

The key takeaway is this: you don't have to give up just because a standard HubSpot feature is missing. The option to "achieve it with custom development" exists.

• "I want to create a bi-directional data sync between my internal system and HubSpot."
• "I need to run complex, proprietary calculations (like a custom lead score) inside a workflow."
• "I must integrate with our niche industry SaaS via API and write data back to contact properties."

HubSpot has an open API and is extremely flexible for customization. However, unlocking its full potential requires specialized development skills and a deep understanding of both the HubSpot platform and its API.

If you are using HubSpot and find yourself thinking, "If only I had this one feature, my operations would improve dramatically," or "If only I could connect this system, our data utilization would be next-level," you don't have to give up on "if only."

Why not discuss your development request with a specialist who can turn that "can't" into "can"?

The action introduced today was developed by Tech-Father Inc., a company specializing in exactly this kind of HubSpot customization.

They provide solutions that address those specific "pain points" in HubSpot, from custom workflow action development to external system API integrations.

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