Messages Appearing in the Wrong Contact Thread or Conversation

Modified on Tue, 3 Mar at 5:06 PM

What you're seeing

A message sent to or received from a client appears in a different contact's conversation thread — or a client's replies are not appearing in their conversation at all, even though the message was delivered.

Why this happens

This is almost always caused by duplicate contact records. If the same client has two contact entries (one with their email, one with their phone number), TheraSaaS routes inbound messages to whichever contact record matches the incoming channel — splitting the conversation across two records.

How to fix it

1Search for duplicate contact records
Go to Contacts and search for the client's name. Then search their phone number and email address separately. If more than one contact record appears, you have duplicates.
⚠️
We generally do not recommend enabling Allow Duplicate Contacts for this reason — messages will be split across multiple conversations for a single client, making it difficult to track history. To turn this off, go to Settings → Business Profile → Allow Duplicate Contacts and disable it.
2Merge the duplicate contacts
Open one of the duplicate contact records. Look for the Merge option in the three-dot menu or Actions dropdown. Select the other duplicate as the record to merge with. Choose which record to keep as the primary — typically the one with more activity history.
3Check the conversation channel
Go to Conversations and look at how the message was sent or received. If it came in via SMS, it will be linked to the contact's phone number. If via email, it links to their email address. Mismatches happen when a client texts from a different number than what's saved on their contact record.
4Update the contact's primary contact info
Open the contact record and verify that both the phone number and email address are correctly entered. If a client texts from a number or emails from an address that's not on file, TheraSaaS may create a new unknown contact instead of matching to the existing one.
5Check your conversation filters
In Conversations, make sure you're not filtering by a specific channel, inbox, or assigned user that might be hiding messages. Set all filters to 'All' to see every thread, then search for the contact by name to confirm where their messages are landing.

How to prevent this

Keep Duplicate Contacts turned off in Business Profile settings. Always collect both phone number and email when onboarding a new client so TheraSaaS can match inbound messages to a single record regardless of channel.

When to contact support

If messages are routing to the wrong contact even after merging duplicates and verifying contact info, contact support with the affected contact names, the channel the messages came through, and screenshots of both conversation threads.