---
title: How to roll back or undo changes
url: https://documentation.cluedin.net/master/golden-records/how-to-rollback-or-undo
content_type: how-to
section: Master > Golden records
---

# How to roll back or undo changes

> how-to: Steps to accomplish one task.

Mistakes happen — whether it’s applying a transformation you didn’t mean to, merging the wrong records, or running a cleaning project with unintended results. CluedIn provides several built-in features to **rollback or undo changes**, helping you recover quickly and maintain trust in your data.

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## Why Rollback Matters

- **Data Governance**: Ensure that incorrect changes don’t become permanent.  
- **User Confidence**: Experiment safely, knowing that changes can be reversed.  
- **Audit & Compliance**: Maintain a clear history of what was changed and when.  

---

## Features That Support Rollback

### 1. Undo Changes to Data
- **Where**: Entity Explorer or Data Stewardship workspace.  
- **What It Does**:  
  - If you merge records incorrectly, you can unmerge them.  
  - If you update or overwrite a field manually, you can revert to the previous value.  
  - If enrichment or transformation introduces bad data, you can undo the applied changes.  
- **How to Use**:  
  1. Open the affected record in **Entity Explorer**.  
  2. Navigate to the **History** tab.  
  3. Select the change you want to reverse.  
  4. Click **Undo** or **Restore Previous Value**.  
- **Notes**:  
  - Undo actions are logged in the audit trail.  
  - Some automated transformations may re-apply on the next pipeline run, so check active Rules.  

---

### 2. Undo a Cleaning Project
- **Where**: Cleaning Projects workspace.  
- **What It Does**:  
  - Reverts the results of a data cleaning project if the changes were incorrect or incomplete.  
  - Removes tags, corrections, or transformations applied during the project.  
- **How to Use**:  
  1. Go to **Data Quality > Cleaning Projects**.  
  2. Open the completed project.  
  3. Click **Rollback / Undo Project**.  
  4. Confirm the rollback action.  
- **Notes**:  
  - Undoing a project restores the dataset to its pre-cleaning state.  
  - You can always re-run the project later with updated rules or corrections.  

---

### 3. Undo Record Merges (Golden Record Rollback)
- **Where**: Data Stewardship workspace.  
- **What It Does**:  
  - Unmerges records that were incorrectly consolidated into a Golden Record.  
- **How to Use**:  
  1. Navigate to the merged entity in **Entity Explorer**.  
  2. Open the **History** tab.  
  3. Select the merge event.  
  4. Click **Unmerge**.  
- **Notes**:  
  - The original source records are preserved, so unmerging restores them.  
  - Any downstream systems synced with the Golden Record will be updated after rollback.  

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### 4. Audit Trail & Versioning
- **Where**: Entity Explorer → History.  
- **What It Does**:  
  - Lets you review all changes made to a record over time.  
  - Provides the option to revert specific attributes to previous values.  
- **Notes**:  
  - Every change is timestamped and attributed to the user or process that made it.  
  - This supports granular rollback (attribute-level undo) as well as record-level undo.  

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## Limitations of Rollback
- Not all actions are reversible (e.g., permanent deletion of data after retention policy expiry).  
- Automated pipelines may re-apply transformations after rollback unless the underlying Rule or cleaning logic is adjusted.  
- Large rollbacks (e.g., undoing a massive cleaning project) may take time and resources to complete.  

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## Best Practices for Safe Rollbacks
- **Preview Before Applying**: Use preview functionality in cleaning projects and rules to validate expected outcomes.  
- **Start Small**: Test rules and cleaning projects on subsets of data before applying at scale.  
- **Monitor Audit Logs**: Regularly review audit trails to catch unexpected changes early.  
- **Coordinate with Teams**: Inform downstream system owners if a rollback will affect synchronized data.  
- **Disable Problematic Rules**: If a rule caused incorrect changes, disable or adjust it before rolling back, to avoid reapplication.  

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## Summary

CluedIn offers multiple ways to **undo or rollback changes**, including undoing data changes, unmerging Golden Records, and reverting entire cleaning projects. Combined with detailed audit trails and version history, these features give you confidence to manage your data safely — knowing that mistakes can be corrected without permanent damage.

Up: [Golden records](https://documentation.cluedin.net/master/golden-records.md)