Based on actions taken by the contact, HubSpot automatically updates the Original and Latest source values. You can also edit these values manually. Once you know a contact’s Original or Latest source, you can use source and source drill-down properties to segment your contacts in HubSpot tools, such as lists and workflows.
If you’ve noticed a contact’s Original source value has changed and want to understand why, you can check the Original source history to see the source of the change.
When a visitor lands on your site, HubSpot tracks their activity and identifies them as a unique visitor by setting tracking cookies in their browser. These tracking cookies allow HubSpot to automatically update your contacts' source property values.
HubSpot can track a visitor's activity on your site even before they are added as a contact to the CRM. Once the visitor is added as a contact, HubSpot will try to associate the new contact record with any previously tracked activity. If HubSpot is able to match a new contact with previously anonymous visitor activity, the Original source property will update to reflect the source of the contact's earliest visit to your site.
The following scenario is an example of when a contact's Original source value would change:
Unlike Original source, a contact's Latest source may be updated many times as they continue to interact with your content. After the original Latest source value is set, the value will update automatically only if a new session has been created for the contact. This includes the following scenarios:
For example, if a contact visits your website from a link on your social media, their Latest source will be updated automatically to Organic social. If a user then imports a file which includes the same contact, the contact's Latest source will not update because an import doesn't create a new session.
You cannot edit the Original or Latest source property options, but you can manually change a contact's source value to any of the existing traffic sources. If you edit a contact’s Original or Latest source, the source drill-down properties will be cleared.
If you have Edit access for contacts, you can:
You can use Original and Latest source property values and the drill-down values to segment contacts in HubSpot tools such as saved views, lists, workflows, and custom reports.
When a contact’s Original or Latest source is Offline sources, the Source drill-down 2 property will display either the label or internal name of the value. An info information icon will appear to the left of the value if there is an internal name for the value, which you can view by hovering over the icon. When segmenting contacts by this value, you may need to use the internal name instead of the label when creating a saved view, list, workflow or custom report.
Please note: if there is no info information icon or if the value here matches what you see in the dashboard, there is no internal value. You can use the value as is for filters.
To find a contact's value for the source properties:
Credit to HubSpot Knowledge Base