When adding contacts to your account, file imports can take some time to process. Import speed is dependent on the size of the file, as well as the size of your existing audience, especially if you’re updating your contacts because data in the file has to be checked against those existing contact records.
It’s important to clearly label each column in your import file so that it selects the correct contact field type during the import process. For example, if you have a column named “Purchase date” on your import file, it’s best to choose the “Date picker” as the contact field type for it.
How to troubleshoot file import errors
The first step in troubleshooting is to see if any of your file imports have failed, and you can easily view the status by logging into your account. Go to the Audience tab, then click on Imports from the lefthand menu. Here, you will see a list of your imported files and if a file has failed to upload, you’ll see an “Error” status next to it, like this:
If any of your files show an error status, read on for ways to troubleshoot file import errors.
View the import summary
In some cases, viewing the import summary will provide an explanation for the error. To do this, simply click on the file name to view its summary.
Determine if there are formatting issues
File import errors are often caused by formatting issues in the spreadsheet, many of which are easy to fix. For various reasons, the file format type can cause an import to fail. If your spreadsheet is an .xls or .xlsx file type, try converting it to a .csv file and then see if it will import successfully.
Be sure your file does not contain an en dash (–) or em dash (—) in the filename. Hyphens (-) will work fine.
Remove multiple sheets in your file
Spreadsheets containing multiple sheets cannot be processed. Make sure the file you’re importing only has one sheet.
Omit multiple email addresses
Only one email address should be entered per cell and all email addresses in your file should be in the same column.
Additionally, if you accidentally import duplicate email addresses, they will be deduplicated during the import process. They will instead show up as “Duplicate rows” in your import summary, but this will not cause your import to fail.
Pay attention to special formatting and formulas
Spreadsheet formulas and other types of data formatting can conflict with the import process. If there are formulas or special formatting applied to data that you want to import, reformat those columns to plain text and try importing again.
If there is any data with special formatting that doesn’t need to be imported, it’s best to exclude those columns. Copy only the columns you need to a new spreadsheet and import that instead.
Double-check data formats for contact fields
When importing data to contact fields, be aware that some field types require that the data is formatted correctly for a successful import.