Editing a saved report created a second copy
Opening a saved report, changing it and clicking Save does not update that report. It creates a second one with the same name, and the original stays exactly as it was. This article shows you how to tell the copies apart, which ones are safe to delete, and how to name reports so the behaviour stops costing you anything; to build a report in the first place, read Build a report from scratch.
Before you start
Do not delete anything yet. A dashboard tile points at one specific report, and deleting the one a tile uses breaks that tile on every dashboard it sits on. Work out which copy is in use first — the steps below do that.
Why it happens
There is one cause, and it is not a mistake you made.
You opened a saved report, changed it, clicked Save, and now there are two
Why: The Save button always creates a new saved report. The builder has no route that writes back over the report you opened, so the report you edited is left untouched and your edit is stored beside it under the same name. Nothing on screen warns you: the button turns green, reads Saved, and the library opens with both cards on it.
Fix: Nothing was lost — your edit is the newer of the two. Use the steps below to find out which copy anything else points at, then delete the ones nobody uses.
Two routes open the builder on a saved report, and both end at the same Save:
- Edit on a card in Saved reports.
- Open / Edit report in a dashboard tile’s three-dot menu.
A third route, a pre-assembled link that opens the builder with a configuration already in it, is not a saved report at all. Saving from there creates the first copy rather than a second, so it causes none of this.
The one change an existing report does accept
The star on a card is stored against the report you starred, not against a copy. Favouriting is the only edit anywhere in MarqIQ that writes back to a report that already exists. The bin acts on the report itself too, and it removes it; Clone and Edit both leave the original where it was.
Take care
A loaded report keeps its name even when you change its data source. Switch a report called “Pipeline by Source” from HubSpot to Salesforce, click Save, and you have two reports of that name reading two different systems. The name says the same on both, so read the source tag underneath it — that is what tells them apart.
Find the copies
Open Intelligence Studio in the sidebar, under Reports & Intelligence.
Click Saved reports.
Type the report’s name into Search reports….
The search matches the name only, so a copy somebody renamed will not come back with the others. Clear the box and scan the list if one is missing.
Read the line under each card: by <name> · <time>.
That is who created that copy and when it was last changed. Below any favourites, cards are listed most recently changed first, so your newest edit is at the top of the group.
Read the tags on each card.
A card carries two tags: the source it reads and its chart type. Two cards of one name reading two different sources are two different reports, not duplicates, and neither is safe to delete on the strength of the name.
The tags stop there. A card shows no rows, no columns, no measures and no filters, which is where two real duplicates differ. Two copies of one name covering 30 days and 1 year look identical here. A report saved before the universal builder can carry a third tag reading Last 30d; nothing saved by the current builder does, so on a duplicate you made today the period is never on the card.
Open each copy with Edit and compare what is on the shelves.
The date range, the rows, the columns, the measures and the filters are what actually differ. Read the period from the highlighted preset under Data Source — 30d, 90d, 6mo, 1yr or 3yr. Check the filters in particular — a copy with filters and a copy without produce very different numbers under one name.
Work out which copy is in use before you delete
A dashboard tile stores the identifier of one report, not its name. Renaming or deleting the wrong copy is what turns a tidy-up into a broken dashboard.
Open Saved reports and click Edit on the copy you intend to keep.
Copy the address from your browser’s address bar.
It ends in load= followed by that report’s identifier. That string is what a tile points at.
Open Dashboards and go through each dashboard that carries a tile of this name.
Open the tile’s three-dot menu and hover Open / Edit report to read its address.
Its load= value is the copy that tile draws. Where it does not match the one you are keeping, that tile is on a copy you were about to delete.
Remove the tile and add it again from the copy you are keeping.
Click Add Report on the dashboard toolbar and pick the report you kept. Do this before deleting anything.
Check anywhere you have sent a link.
A link to a report is a load= address like any other. A colleague holding one from last quarter is pointed at whichever copy existed then.
Take care
Deleting a report asks “Delete this report?” and cannot be undone. There is no history and no restore. A tile left pointing at a deleted report reads “This report was deleted.” on every dashboard that held it, and the only fix is to rebuild the report and add the tile again.
Delete the ones nobody uses
Confirm every dashboard tile now points at the copy you are keeping.
Star the copy you are keeping.
A starred report is listed above the rest under Favorites, which makes the next person’s choice obvious.
Click the bin icon on each copy you are removing.
Click OK on “Delete this report?”.
Reload Dashboards and check no tile reads “This report was deleted.”
A naming convention that survives the behaviour
You cannot stop a save making a copy, so name reports in a way that makes a copy obvious the moment it appears.
- Put the source in the name. “Pipeline by source — Salesforce” cannot quietly become a HubSpot report under the same words.
- Put the population in the name. “Won deals by source — HubSpot, last 90 days” tells a reader what it counts, which a tile header never will.
- Rename the copy before you save it, not after. Change the name in the builder’s title field first, then click Save, and the two cards are distinguishable from the moment they exist.
- Use Clone on a card when you want a variant. It creates “<name> (copy)” straight away, so the copy is labelled rather than silent.
- Avoid version numbers. “v2” and “v3” tell nobody which one the board saw, and there is no history to check against.
- Delete as you go. A library of twelve reports with distinct names is usable; forty cards with four names is not, and nobody tidies it later.
Tip
Agree one owner for the shared reports. Every saved report belongs to the workspace and anyone who can open the builder can edit or delete any of them, whatever their role, so the only thing keeping the library tidy is a person who has agreed to keep it tidy.
If it did not work
A copy you renamed does not come back in the search
Why: The search box matches the name and nothing else.
Fix: Clear the search box and read the full list. Cards are grouped favourites first, then most recently changed first.
Two cards of the same name show different sources
Why: A report keeps its name when its source is changed, so one of them was switched to another tool and saved.
Fix: Keep both and rename each one after its source. Deleting one of these loses a real report, not a duplicate.
A dashboard tile reads This report was deleted.
Why: The copy that tile pointed at is gone. The tile stores an identifier, not a name, so another copy of the same name does not stand in for it.
Fix: Click Remove widget on that tile, then click Add Report on the dashboard toolbar and pick the copy you kept.
The tile’s numbers do not match the report you kept
Why: A tile does not apply a report’s filters, so this can happen without any duplicate being involved.
Fix: Read Build a dashboard for your leadership team, which lists every setting a tile keeps and every one it drops.
An amber line says the report could not be saved
Why: The save request failed and nothing was stored. There is no second copy in this case — there is no copy at all.
Fix: Click Save again. Your layout is still on screen, and it is the only copy until the button reads Saved.
Somebody else deleted a report you were using
Why: Saved reports belong to the workspace. No role limits who can delete one.
Fix: Rebuild it, star it, and put its source and population in the name so the next person can see it is in use.
Next steps
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