---
title: "Contacts: add, edit, search, filter and delete"
description: "Add people by hand, find them with search and filters, change many at once, and delete them safely with the 30-day trash on the Contacts screen."
url: "https://hiveplugins.com/docs/hive-mail-contacts/"
updated: "2026-10-28"
category: Hive Mail
---

# Contacts: add, edit, search, filter and delete

**Audience > Contacts** lists everyone you can email. Looking needs the permission "See the audience"; changing anything needs "Manage the audience" (both are given to administrators). See [Settings: Roles & Permissions](/docs/hive-mail-settings-roles-and-permissions/).

The screen has **status tabs** (**All**, **Subscribed**, **Pending**, **Unsubscribed**, **Transactional**, **Bounced**, **Complained**, **Trash**, each with a count that leaves out the trash), a search box and the filters **Any list**, **Any tag** and **Any segment**, then the table (**Contact**, **Status**, **Lists and tags**, **Company**, **Source**, **Added**) and a pager. The list is always newest first. See [Contact statuses](/docs/hive-mail-contact-statuses/).

![The Contacts screen with status tabs, filters, the table and the pager](https://hiveplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hivemail-audience-contacts-list-01.webp)

## Add a contact

1. Click **Add contact**.
2. Type the **Email address**, the only required field. It is saved in lower case and must be unique across your whole audience, trash included.
3. Fill in what you know: **First name**, **Last name**, **Company**, **Phone** and **Country code** (two letters, such as US or GB).
4. Leave **Status** on **Pending** unless the person clearly agreed. To add them as subscribed, choose **Subscribed** and tick **This person has given permission to receive emails from me**.
5. Under **Lists and tags**, pick **Lists** with **Add to a list…** and **Tags** with **Add or create a tag…**. Fill in **Custom fields** if you have any. See [Custom fields](/docs/hive-mail-custom-fields/).
6. Click **Add contact**.

![The Add contact dialog with the Subscribed status and the permission box](https://hiveplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hivemail-audience-contacts-add-02.webp)

To edit, open the row's **⋯** menu and choose **Edit** (or click **Edit** on the profile), change the fields and click **Save changes**. To change the status use **Change status**.

## Find people

- **Search contacts…** needs at least 2 characters and looks in email, first name, last name, company and the full name. It does not search phone, country, source or custom fields.
- **Any list** shows only people subscribed to that list. List, tag, segment and status filters combine: a person must match all of them. **Clear filters** resets them.
- **Save as segment** (shown when a status, list or tag is chosen) opens a new segment with those rules filled in. The search text is not kept. See [Segments](/docs/hive-mail-segments/).

Filters and the page number are kept in the address, so you can bookmark a filtered view.

## Change many contacts at once

Tick rows, or the box in the table heading for the whole page (selection covers the current page only). A bar appears at the bottom:

| Button | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Status **Change** | Sets **Subscribed**, **Unsubscribed** or **Transactional** for all selected. For Subscribed, tick **These people have given permission to receive emails from me**. To move people who unsubscribed, also tick **Anyone here who unsubscribed has asked to join again** and fill in **How do you know?** (required). |
| Lists **Add** / **Remove** | Adds to or removes from the lists you choose. Nobody is emailed, and someone who left a list on their own is not put back. |
| Tags **Add** / **Remove** | Adds or removes tags; you can create tags when adding. |
| **Move to trash** | Moves them to the trash. |

![The bulk bar with three rows selected](https://hiveplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hivemail-audience-contacts-bulk-03.webp)

If some contacts cannot be changed, a warning gives the count and the first reason.

## Delete and restore

1. **Move to trash** (row menu, bulk bar or profile) and confirm. The person stops receiving email and disappears from lists, counts and segments.
2. **Restore** from the **Trash** tab brings the contact back exactly as it was.
3. **Delete permanently** in the **Trash** tab cannot be undone.

![The Trash tab with the Restore and Delete permanently buttons](https://hiveplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hivemail-audience-contacts-trash-04.webp)

Once a day Hive Mail permanently deletes up to 1,000 contacts that have been in the trash for more than 30 days. A permanent deletion removes the contact, its list and tag links, custom field values, timeline, automation runs, abandoned carts, shop customer row, attributed orders and visitor data. Emails already sent stay in the sending log as anonymous rows.

If the person was Unsubscribed, Bounced or Complained, Hive Mail keeps a one-way fingerprint of the address, not the address, so a later import or form cannot silently email them again. A contact in the trash cannot be edited, put on lists or imported over.

> **Warning:** **Delete permanently** removes a person and their activity for good.

Two housekeeping settings in **Settings > Compliance** (both move contacts to the trash): remove the contact when their WordPress user is deleted, and remove people who never confirmed. See [Settings: Compliance](/docs/hive-mail-settings-compliance/).

Next: [Contact statuses](/docs/hive-mail-contact-statuses/), [The contact profile](/docs/hive-mail-contact-profile/), [Import contacts from a CSV file](/docs/hive-mail-import-contacts-from-csv/).