Status Mismatch Action When Loading VICIdial Leads

Sometimes a phone number you are loading already exists in the system, but it does not count as a duplicate because its Status (lead status) is not one of the statuses you told the loader to dedupe against. Status Mismatch Action decides what happens to that near-duplicate. Instead of leaving the old copy stranded in some other list, it can pull that existing record into the list you are loading right now.

This is a powerful tool for keeping your freshest campaign organized, but it moves records around, so it deserves care.

The duplicate-but-not-duplicate case

Duplicate checking can match on phone number, or on title plus alt phone, depending on your form settings. A Lead "dupes out" when that match exists AND the existing record carries one of your selected statuses. The mismatch case is when the phone matches but the status does not. Normally that lead would just load as a fresh record, leaving an older copy elsewhere. Status Mismatch Action instead grabs the old copy and relocates it into your current list.

flowchart TD
  A[Incoming lead] --> B{Phone matches existing?}
  B -->|No| C[Load normally]
  B -->|Yes| D{Existing status in dedupe set?}
  D -->|Yes| E[Treated as duplicate]
  D -->|No| F[Status mismatch]
  F --> G[Move existing lead into current list]

How much to move, and how wide to look

Two controls shape the behavior. First, you choose whether to move only the most recent occurrence of a phone-matched lead or every occurrence found. Second, you set the scope: search using just your Lead Duplicate Check scope, or sweep the entire system. That means the mismatch action can look wider than your duplicate check does, which is handy but also why it can touch more records than you expect.

• Most recent only: tidy, low risk, moves a single record per match.
• All occurrences: consolidates every copy of a number into the new list at once.
• System-wide scope: looks beyond your duplicate-check window, so it can reach records in other Campaign lists.

Because this interacts so closely with how you organize lists and recycle records, it pays to understand the surrounding workflow. The lists and leads guide ties it together, and the what is a VICIdial list primer explains the containers these records move between.

When used carefully, this feature keeps your active campaign holding the live copy of every number instead of scattering near-duplicates across old lists. Test it with a small file first so you can see exactly how many records move before you run it on a big import.

VICIfast gives you a fully loaded fifth-generation lead loader on every plan, so options like this are ready the moment your dialer goes live. Compare plans on our pricing page and get organized from your very first load.