If you send a regular newsletter, you probably keep a master spreadsheet and re-upload it each time. Doing that in Groupmail reports a large number of failures — often almost the whole file — and that looks alarming. It usually isn't. Here's what's actually happening.
Why re-importing reports failures
Groups don't allow duplicate email addresses by default. When you re-upload a full list, every address already in the group is rejected with "Email address already exists in this group".
So a monthly re-upload of 1,000 contacts where only 20 are new will report roughly 980 failures and 20 successes. That's the system working correctly, not a broken import.
Your new contacts did import
This is the important part. Imports are processed row by row, not all-or-nothing. Each row succeeds or fails on its own, and the summary counts both.
A row failing as a duplicate does not stop the rest of the file. Your genuinely new contacts are added even when most rows are rejected.
If you re-uploaded and saw a 98% failure rate, the 2% that succeeded are your new people. Nothing was lost, and you don't need to re-run it.
What re-importing will not do
Importing does not update existing contacts. If someone's name, phone number or a custom field changed in your spreadsheet, re-uploading will not push that change through — the row is rejected as a duplicate before any update happens.
To change details on an existing contact, edit them directly in Contacts (the pencil icon on their row), or open them from the Inbox if you're replying to them.
Do I need a new group each month?
No, and it's worth avoiding. A new group per campaign splits your audience across groups, and each group carries its own handle, subscribe link and public archive.
It also doesn't solve anything. The usual reason people consider it — wanting to escape bounced addresses from last month — isn't necessary, because bounce suppression applies to your whole account, not one group. See Why Didn't a Contact Receive My Campaign?.
Keep one group per audience, and add to it over time.
A simple monthly routine
- Filter your spreadsheet to new contacts only before uploading. This is the single change that makes the numbers make sense — you'll see successes and few failures.
- Or just upload the whole file and read the failure count as "already on the list". Both work; the first is easier to interpret.
- Edit changed details by hand in Contacts, since import won't update them.
- Leave bounced addresses alone. They're suppressed automatically and don't need removing from your master list.
Quick answers
Why did my import report a 98% failure rate? Those rows were addresses already in the group. Groups reject duplicate emails, so a re-upload of a mostly-unchanged list reports most rows as failures.
Did my new contacts still get added? Yes. Imports run row by row, so failed duplicates don't block the new rows.
Can I use import to update existing contacts? No. Duplicate rows are rejected before any update happens. Edit existing contacts directly in Contacts.
Should I create a new group for each campaign? No. It fragments your audience, and bounce suppression already applies account-wide, so there's nothing to gain.
Should I allow duplicate emails to get updates in? No — that creates a second copy of the contact and they'll receive every campaign twice.
Do I need to remove bounced addresses from my spreadsheet? No. Hard bounces are suppressed automatically across your account and are skipped on every future send.