Issue

When searching for Segment profiles, you may observe profiles associated with incorrect email addresses or mismatched data, which disrupts downstream processes. These affected profiles fail to update or merge as expected.

Product

Twilio Segment

Environment

Segment Console

Cause

Segment profiles can become corrupted if they exceed the maximum allowed identifier limits. This can happen if a limit for an identifier was set lower and profiles remained that would violate the newly set limit. Once a profile exceeds these limits, it becomes corrupted and can no longer process profile updates or identity merges.

Resolution

To restore the profiles, you must either delete the corrupted profiles so fresh profiles can be recreated or remove the offending identifiers. You can delete profiles through the Segment UI or using the Segment Public API.

Option 1: Delete profiles via the Segment UI

1. Log in to your Segment workspace.
2. Navigate to Privacy > Deletion and Suppression.
3. Enter the user_id associated with the corrupted profile.
4. Select the regulation type.
5. Submit the deletion request.

Option 2: Delete profiles via the Segment Public API

1. Send a request to the Segment Public API deletion endpoint.
2. Provide the target userId in the API payload.

Option 3: Delete identifiers via the Delete Profile Identifier API

1. Use the Delete Profile Identifier API endpoint to remove any identifiers that are beyond the identity resolution limits.  

Note: Once deleted, Segment will remove the corrupted profile, allowing subsequent incoming tracking events to generate clean, properly mapped user profiles.