Why do I receive an error message when trying to merge Contacts?

Sometimes when merging Contacts in Salesforce, you might find yourself receiving an error message similar to this:

Please choose an email template.
Merge failed. First exception on row 0 with id 003F000001TkEPjIAN; first error: FIELD_CUSTOM_VALIDATION_EXCEPTION, Please choose an email template.: [sbm__sbx_EmailTemplate__c]

This typically occurs when one of the Contact records being merged is related to a Soapbox Mailer Campaign record via a Campaign Member, where the Campaign no longer has a template related to it.

To find the Contact record causing the problem, and to solve the problem, do the following.

1) Go to the first Contact record you're looking to merge

2) Look at the Campaign History related list, and click on the first Soapbox Mailer Campaign's name

3) On the Campaign record, see if there is a value entered for the Email Template field

4) If there is no value for the Email Template field, you'll need to enter one.  If there is a value for the Email Template field, go back to the Contact record.

5) Repeat 2-4 until you've viewed all the Soapbox Mailer Campaign records related to this Contact

6) Move to the next Contact that you are looking to merge

7) Repeat 2-4 for this and each subsequent Contact you're merging

Alternatively, if you'd like, you could temporarily turn off the validation rule which requires each Soapbox Mailer Campaign to have an Email Template associated with it.  To turn off this validation rule, do the following.

1) Go to Setup > Customize > Campaigns > Validation Rules, and click on the Rule Name "sbx_EmailRequireTemplate"

2) On the Campaign Validation Rule page, click the Edit button

3) In the edit mode of the Campaign Validation Rule page, uncheck the "Active" checkbox

4) Click the Save button

5) Do the merging

6) Go back to the Campaign Validation Rule page for sbx_EmailRequireTemplate and re-check the "Active" checkbox.

Happy emailing!