What happens to custom object data when on person deletion ?

[Moritz_Trollman]

Hi

wondering what happens to the custom objects related to a person, when the person is deleted. 

Is the custom object data removed along with the person deletion or will marketo retain orphan custom objects. 

What impacts might this have ?

BR,

Moritz

[Michael_Florin]

I'm pretty sure the CO record is maintained. You can't find it anymore through the UI, as no Smart List filter would return it, but you should be able to see it via API.

I would also assume that the relationship will be rebuilt once the person record that is linked to that CO record returns.

EDIT: The latter is probably not true. The CO record does not show up under the person that I deleted and then re-created. But as expected, the API still finds it.

[Darshil_Shah1]

I agree with Michael too. When you delete a person in Marketo Engage, the following happens to the custom object records associated with them:

• The custom object records are not deleted.
• The link between the custom object records and the person is broken.
• The custom object records will no longer be accessible when you filter from the smart list or search for records by the person.

This is because custom object records are not stored directly with people in Marketo. Instead, they are stored in a separate table and linked to people through a link field. When you delete a person, the link between the person and their custom object records is broken, but the custom object records themselves are not deleted.

[Moritz_Trollman]

Thanks for the replies. 

Is it recommended to clean those orphan objects from the database, or alternatively if we keep them as orphan objects what is the potential impact of that ?

[Darshil_Shah1 · Accepted solution]

In my opinion, if you have no use for the custom object data, it should be safe to delete it. Even if the person data is recreated, Marketo will not reassociate those custom object records with the respective person record. Additionally, AFAICT, Marketo imposes a limit of approximately 2 million records per custom object. Hence, regularly clearing out records associated with deleted profiles (while being sure you don't need that data) would be a recommended practice.