# Should we delete persons when all the contacts have been removed from them?

**URL:** <https://discourse.imfreedom.org/t/should-we-delete-persons-when-all-the-contacts-have-been-removed-from-them/343>\
**Category:** Libpurple\
**Tags:** brainstorm\
**Created:** [January 12, 2026, 3:58am UTC](https://discourse.imfreedom.org/t/should-we-delete-persons-when-all-the-contacts-have-been-removed-from-them/343 "2026-01-12T03:58:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![grim](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/discourse.imfreedom.org/grim/32/4_2.png) [@grim](https://discourse.imfreedom.org/u/grim)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 3:58am UTC](https://discourse.imfreedom.org/t/should-we-delete-persons-when-all-the-contacts-have-been-removed-from-them/343/1 "2026-01-12T03:58:10Z")

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A little back story here might be necessary so…

A `PurplePerson` is an object that groups multiple `PurpleContact` objects and is what is used to display contacts in the contact list. They are very similar to `PurpleContact` in Purple 2.

`PurplePerson` has some user settable properties like [alias](https://docs.imfreedom.org/purple3/property.Person.alias.html), [avatar](https://docs.imfreedom.org/purple3/property.Person.avatar.html), [color](https://docs.imfreedom.org/purple3/property.Person.color.html) and [tags](https://docs.imfreedom.org/purple3/property.Person.tags.html) which we persist with [PurpleContactManagerBacked](https://docs.imfreedom.org/purple3/class.ContactManagerBackend.html) or will be doing so shortly.

This has raised the question of whether or not we keep the `PurplePerson` instance around if all of the contacts it is grouping have been removed. Right now I am leaning towards keeping it around, but wanted to see if anyone has any reason why would should automatically remove them.

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**Author:** ![leogrun](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/discourse.imfreedom.org/leogrun/32/67_2.png) [@leogrun](https://discourse.imfreedom.org/u/leogrun)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 10:07am UTC](https://discourse.imfreedom.org/t/should-we-delete-persons-when-all-the-contacts-have-been-removed-from-them/343/2 "2026-01-12T10:07:45Z")

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I think you should keep it so that you have the option to add new contacts later, if that’s something you might want to do. People can always remove them manually if they want to do housekeeping.