Troubleshooting import issues

If you encounter any issues during the import process, the first thing we highly recommend is following our step-by-step guide on importing contacts if you haven't already. In that guide, you can find an example of a correctly populated file and a visual guide on importing the file to your list.

If your import still isn't completed properly, we've listed below how to troubleshoot some of the most common issues.

I can't upload my file

If you can't proceed with the import after choosing your file, the most common errors you may see are:

This error usually appears if your connection is too weak to upload the file at the moment. It may also happen due to browser errors or unexpected issues related to file formatting.

How to fix this?

• Try again later.
• Use a different network connection or browser.
• If using an Excel file (.XLSX), convert it to the CSV format in case there's an unexpected error caused by unsupported Excel formatting.

This message usually indicates formatting issues in your file, meaning we couldn't correctly detect email addresses. It may happen if you have additional content in the email address column, such as extra spaces, special characters or data added before or after the email addresses, or multiple email addresses in a single cell. It can also mean that the columns in your file are malformed, and multiple email addresses are squished into the same row despite appearing correctly in the spreadsheet program.

How to fix this?

• Review the column with email addresses and make sure only a single address is present in one cell, without any extra characters or other data.
• If using an Excel file (.XLSX), convert it to CSV format.
• Create a completely new column and paste email addresses there. Once done, remove the old column.
• Download our CSV file sample and paste your email addresses into the "Email address" column.

Email addresses are uploading, but no other data is added

If only your contacts' email addresses were imported to your list, the most likely reason is that you did not map the other columns of your file correctly.

How to fix this?

Always make sure to map the columns of your file to the corresponding fields during the import process using the drop-down menu. The email address column is the only one populated automatically; other columns are set to "ignore (do not import)" by default, and you'll need to match those columns into the corresponding field on your EmailOctopus list. This way, our system knows where to import your data:

Some email addresses or data weren't imported – understanding the "Issues" report.

After each import, we will generate a CSV report listing all data that couldn’t be imported, along with the reasons. You can find and download it by going to the “Imports” tab on the Contacts page:

You’ll see how many issues we detected in the file, and you can download the report by clicking on the icon here:

How to read the file?

When you open the report, the first three columns explain the type of error, the column the error is connected with, and also the reason the data in this column wasn't imported:

• Error code(s) - name of the specific error or errors that we detected while importing the file.
• Column(s) - column or columns where we detected the error.
• Reason - explanation of the error code.

After those three error-related columns added by us, we'll display all the columns from your file, showing both the imported and ignored columns (those you haven't mapped to fields on your list during the import).

In this example, we imported the Email Address, Birthday, Phone number and Favourite food columns. We skipped the First Name, so it's included at the very end of the table:

To know exactly which data wasn't imported, you need to check the "Column(s)" section and then find the column with that name in the report.

For example, if you see that the error is related to the "Birthday" column, you first need to find the column with that name, and then check the correct row:

Here, we can see that the error was related to the data added in the "Birthday" column: "23/02/1982" for the contact with the kate@domain.com email address. You should also see a row number in your spreadsheet program to help you navigate the file.

Common error reasons and how to fix them

This error happens if there's no data in the specific row of the column imported as email addresses. An email address is mandatory for the contact to be uploaded, so it can't be left blank.

To fix this, you need to add a valid email address in the specified row. You can also see this error if your file contains completely empty rows; it's fine to disregard the error in this case.

You'll see this error when we detect an invalid email address. An invalid email address may be an address added without the mandatory symbols like "@" or ".", multiple email addresses present in the same cell, or additional characters/before or after the email address.

To fix this, make sure all email addresses are in the correct format and that only a single email address is added to each cell.

This means that a particular email address is present in the file you wanted to import more than once. Duplicates can't exist in a single list, so if we detect those in your file, we will only import the first row with that email address, and all subsequent duplicates will be skipped.

You don't need to take any action here, as it's just our system making sure you don't upload the same contact twice. That said, if you have multiple entries for the same email address with different data that you want to import, you'll need to consolidate to make sure there's only one row for each email address.

You'll see this error if you choose to skip existing contacts during the import, and we detect that your file includes email addresses already present on your list, either as "subscribed", "unsubscribed", or "pending" contacts. If you can't find some email addresses on your list, make sure to check your unsubscribed and pending contacts as well. Duplicates aren't allowed on a single list, so if an email address is already on the list, we won't import it again.

No action is needed here, unless you want to update your existing subscribed contacts. In this case, make sure to select the "Update the contact" option on the initial import screen.

You'll see this error if you attempt to import an incorrectly formatted date into the Date type field on your list. Dates need to be added in a YYYY-MM-DD format to be uploaded.

To fix this, make sure dates are added in that format. If you don't need date-specific features (like birthday automations or segmentation based on dates), you can also import those into a Text type field instead.

This error will happen if you attempt to import invalid data into the Number type field. Number fields accept only integer numbers, and can't start with a zero. If we detect any data other than integer numbers (such as letters, special characters, etc.), it won't be imported into a number field. For this reason, we don't recommend using number fields to store data such as phone numbers or postal codes, as those may both start with a zero and include additional characters, like a "+" or "-" sign.

To fix this, ensure the data you want to import to the number field only includes integer numbers and doesn't start with a zero. If your data can't match this format, you should use a Text type field instead.

You'll see this error if you try importing more tags than we support. On our free Starter plan, you can create up to 10 tags; on our Pro plans, up to 50.

To fix this, reduce the number of tags in the file or remove tags you no longer need on your list.

This error is specific to choice fields and will happen if the data you want to upload doesn't match the choices created for the specific field on your list. To import data into choice fields, you need to make sure that all of the values exist as possible choices in the given field. For instance, if you have "Pizza", "Pasta", and "Pierogi" added as possible choices in the "Favourite food" choice field, you won't be able to import "Dogs", "Cats", and "Fish" values into that field - choices need to be identical to the ones created for that field.