Merging NVivo Projects Creates Duplicates

 

Background

When merging NVivo projects, NVivo does a comparison of data (including the data in the source files).

 

Cause of Duplicates

If there is even a single space difference in one of the documents within the project files of the 2 coders, the document will be identified as unique and it will be added as a duplicate when merged.

Fixing Duplicates

1. If one of the projects being merged is from NVivo for Mac and the other is from NVivo for Windows, page breaks in the Windows files need to be removed before merging.  

2. NVivo Mac files do not contain page breaks and the files from the Mac will be duplicated as unique in NVivo for Windows.

3. If both files are from Mac or Windows, check the file sizes to make sure they match.

   1. If they don't match, you can download a third party file comparison tool like WinMerge (Windows) or Kaleidescope (Mac) to make sure they match 100%. This will allow you to fix any subtle differences between the files.

 

Related Article

Merge/Importing Items