> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.meld.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Duplicate Connections Duplicate connections occur when multiple Meld connections reference the same underlying service provider connection. This occurs when the **same customer connects to the same bank account(s) through the same service provider in separate connect sessions using the same login credentials**. In such cases, the majority of service providers recognize that the connection already exists and will return the same id for it. However, since Meld generates connection ids immediately upon creation (prior to the customer actually linking their accounts and prior to knowing whether it will be a duplicate) then this means there will now be multiple Meld connections linked to the same underlying service provider connection id. Therefore it only becomes necessary to maintain one of these Meld connections to avoid excessive refreshing and redundancy. In such cases, the most recently connected of these duplicate Meld connections is considered `ACTIVE` and routinely maintained, with the remainder moving to status `PARTIALLY_ACTIVE` and `statusReason` `INACTIVE_DUPLICATE`. These `INACTIVE_DUPLICATE` Meld connections still share the same underlying financial accounts, transactions, etc. as the primary duplicate — the difference is that this data is refreshed once per service provider update rather than for every duplicate. At any time you can promote a `PARTIALLY_ACTIVE` connection to `ACTIVE` by [manually refreshing it](/docs/bank-linking/manage-connection-status/refreshing-connections), which demotes the previously `ACTIVE` duplicate to `PARTIALLY_ACTIVE`. Whenever a connection moves to `PARTIALLY_ACTIVE`, you will receive a `BANK_LINKING_CONNECTION_STATUS_CHANGE` [webhook](/docs/bank-linking/webhook-events-bank-linking). If duplicate connections exist, the `duplicateConnectionIds` list returned by the connections endpoint contains the ids of all of them ordered from most recently aggregated to oldest. Otherwise this list is `null`. Refer to the [Bank Linking API reference](/api-reference/bank-linking) for the connections endpoint schema. When deleting connections, all of its duplicates must be deleted in order to sever the connection with the underlying service provider and stop it from being billed. **Meld does not ever automatically delete duplicates but encourages you to do so if you are not using them.** Note: Duplicate connections will all belong to the same service provider and have the same service provider connection id. **If the user connects via different providers, then the connections will NOT be considered duplicates.** For service providers (such as Plaid) that DO NOT identify duplicate connections (and thus always use a unique id for each new connection regardless of whether the customer has already connected the same financial accounts), then the associated Meld connections will not be considered duplicates either. This is because the service provider still treats them as separate connections and they are billed separately.