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Can I delete the blank Contact record which was created when the environment was created

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Posted on by MJWhite

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The environment with the Contact table below was created (with Dataverse) on 27th March at 17.25 and it looks like a blank record was added to the Contact table as part of the provisioning process. I subsequently added two portal users on 13th April using Azure Active Directory B2C on 13th April and as expected these appear in the Contact table.

What purpose does the blank record serve and can it be deleted? Any thoughts?

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Fubar 8,487 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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You can delete it, or rename it to something like Portal User. You will probably find this 'blank' user has the Administrator Web Role assigned against it also, and possibly also is linked to an External Identity record. When you setup if you sign in straight away you will find that this Contact record is the one that you are linked to (but that person did not fill in the Profile details when they were pushed to Profile page - hence the blank name).

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MJWhite 338 on at

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Thanks Fubar
When I'm developing the site and choose Preview, I sometimes (but not always) see that I am signed on as myself, but I haven't signed onto the site as an authenticated user (see screenshot). So I can see the site but don't have the permissions assigned to authenticated users.
If I then sign onto the site (in this example named Harry Potter), I then have the permissions assigned to authenticated users.
Do you know what would happen if I deleted the 'blank' Contact record? Might it mean that I can't Preview the site as an administrator?

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Fubar 8,487 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Your "signed in as" is just your Active Directory user (not your portal user), and if your portal user is Harry P then removing the blank one should be fine.

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MJWhite 338 on at

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Thanks Fubar
Do you know what would happen if a different Active Directory user started using the environment, given that the blank Contact record is linked to me?
This has prompted me to think about a broader question, but I'll start a new topic for that.
Martin

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Fubar 8,487 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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@MJWhite wrote:

Do you know what would happen if a different Active Directory user started using the environment, given that the blank Contact record is linked to me?

Not sure what you are asking - The blank contact is really just a first user registration. Next user that registers will get another Contact created for them. (main reason values are blank is that the user didn't fill in the Profile form)

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MJWhite 338 on at

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Hi Fubar

The blank record is created when the environment is provisioned. I've just double checked by creating an environment:
and then creating a site.

Without doing any else, if I go to the Contacts table, the blank record is there:

Hence, I don't think it is blank because a user hasn't filled in the profile. It is blank because it is provisioned blank.

From your earlier reply, you indicated that my AD user account maybe linked to this account. If so, the 'linking' took place without me signing up on the portal using AD B2C, as I had done with the other users.

Hence, it prompted the question what would happen with other AD users? Would an additional contact record be created for other AD users, even if they don't sign up on the portal using AD B2C?

It also prompted a broader question which I raised in the Security section: How can I associate an Active Directory user with ... - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

Thanks

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Fubar 8,487 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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And as I said you can delete it.

You can see if an External Identity Provider is connected, as the Contact will have an associated External Identity record (that holds the identifier from the provider for that user).

You can also remove any Web Roles from it (you may find by default it has Administrators web role associated)

The association is only for the first user (and usually the person who set it up). Other users do not self associate with contacts, unless you have turned on the Contact Mapping with Email setting (which is not turned on by default) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-pages/security/authentication/openid-provider#additional-settings-in-power-pages

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MJWhite 338 on at

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Thanks @Fubar

I think I've got it now.

The 'Signed in as...' at the top of the screen determines whether I have visibility of the site:
If I log in as a different user which hasn't been given visibility of the site, I would see:

I use the 'Sign-in' link to log on as a portal user, which could be AD, AD B2C or some other authentication method:
If I log on as new user, whether AD, AD B2C or some other authentication method, a new Contact record is created. In the example below, the top two are AD B2C users and the bottom two are AD users.

Since I want my AD users to have the same, known configuration at the outset, I think the blank Contact record can be and should be deleted. I can't see what purpose it serves other than to confuse unnecessarily. If I delete the blank Contact record and then sign up as a new user on the portal, it will create a new Contact record and it will be consistent with any other Contact record for new users.

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