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We needed to mass (re)move people from a list without unsubscribing, deleting or suppressing the profiles. 

For a client of ours we recently ran into an issue where we needed to mass remove various contacts from a list and add them to separate sub/smaller lists.

Segmentation was not an option since we needed people to be subscribed to a list and not based on variables that could change. In this specific case it was a custom multilanguage shop with 1 Klaviyo account.


An easy way to remove subscribers from a Klaviyo list

Klaviyo does not provide an option to delete users from a list without manually removing them one by one. With thousands of people that needed to be removed this was not an option.


Solution
Using the information found in the klaviyo development documentation I've created this as a way to remove contacts from a list by using a CSV file with all email addresses in the header Email.

Use case:
While having to split up a main list in seperate sub-lists I encountered an issue that we could create a segment, export those and import them to a new list but we couldn't do the same for removing subscriber from a list.

The API does provide an option so we've created this workaround where you can delete users from a list. For this example I've used Postman

What is needed:

From Klaviyo

  1. Create a separate API key using the following link: https://www.klaviyo.com/account#api-keys-tab
  2. Get the list id by opening up the list you want to remove people from and go to the settings page. (Top left you'll find the list ID).
  3. Have a CSV of email addresses you'd like to remove from a list with the header having Email for the email field.
    Tip1: use a CSV file with 1 or 2 email addresses (i.e. your own) for a test first.
    Tip2: You can use segments to export the group you'd like to (re)move

In Postman
If created a public shared collection which you can import and use. Click here to access and import it (click on run in postman - top right corner)
(create a postman account - this allows you to run the commands to remove people from the list through the Klaviyo API)

  1. Click on Klaviyo Example API collection and click on variables and fill in your API_Key and ListID and hit save.
  2. Now Click on Run and on the left side select the action you'd like to perform (Add or Delete members)
  3. On the righthand side select the CSV file you want to use and hit the Run button.

If all goes well you should have removed or added members from/to a list.

 

A disclaimer: This information is provided as is. I hope that this helps the community and others to be able to mass remove users from a list if you run into a similar situation.
Of course the advice is to use at your own risk. I'm / we're not responsible if something goes wrong. Always make sure you have a backup (export CSV) just to be sure or test on a small list.


If you have questions feel free to let me know

 

Omar Lovert
Polaris Growth - Klaviyo Gold Partner
https://www.polarisgrowth.com

Hi Omar!

 

Thank you for your effort doing this. 

Tried it out and worked perfectly. 

 

Thank you

 

 

 


Hi @Omar - could you help out @rsimmons here? 


Thank you ​@Omar for sharing with community

 


Hi Omar!

 

I tried to do it again today but something is not working for me. 

It worked last time but the buttons are inactive now. What do I do wrong?

Thank you

 


@Lajos if you created a fork you should be able to use that one locally. I'm not a Postman expert but that should now be an issue. Can you check it once more?


This worked as described except after iteration 100 I got the “too many requests” error back from the Klaviyo API. So I guess I could do 100 at a time? Weird because the Klaviyo API docs say that 1000 is the limit https://developers.klaviyo.com/en/reference/delete_list_relationships


Hey ​@Omar ! I was so excited to find your solution posted here. Unfortunately it looks like the Postman fork you set up is no longer working due to Klaviyo’s API update in June 2024. Are you able to point me in the right direction for updating? Thanks so much!


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