Troubleshooting import errors

Often when we import files we run into errors that the file is not being read correctly. Where to start looking for the cause of the issue and how to solve this?

Checkpoints

Follow these checkpoints to make sure that you have the basics right.

1. Up-to-date Available Fields
   The list of available fields should be up-to-date before importing starts. If the field list is not up-to-date the import may fail due to missing fields. To update the list of available fields go to Maintenance -> Select Update Available Fields -> Click continue
2. A clean CSV file
   A CSV file should not have any extra characters in any place. A good CSV file may look like this:
   "product_sku","product_name"
   
   A bad CSV file may look like this:
   "product_sku,product_name"  <-- The " at the beginning and end of the line are wrong
   or
   product_sku,product_name, <-- The trailing comma is wrong

3. Delimiters
   The template must use the same delimiters as your file has. The type of delimiters does not matter. To know what delimiters your file uses look at your file with Notepad for example.
   Some examples of delimiters are:

   Sample	Field delimiter	Text enclosure
   "product_sku","product_name"	,	"
   ~product_sku~^~product_name~	^	~
   product_sku|product_name	|

   
   Check that you have the delimiters filled in your template settings. CSVI needs this to know how to read the CSV file. Alternatively you can use the Automatic delimiter detection.

4. Encoding
   The file must always be encoded in UTF-8 format. No other encoding is supported. See this video on how to save your file as UTF-8 using Notepad2 or this tutorial using LibreOffice/OpenOffice. This is important because files imported not in UTF-8 encoding will not import correctly with special characters like ë.

5. Field names
   Use only fieldnames that are available for the type of import you are doing. To see which fieldnames are available go to CSVI ---> Available Fields and filter on the type of import you want to do. It is not possible to use any other name. This means that if your CSV file contains the names sku, price, name that these cannot be used, you have to translate them to CSVI fieldnames. Your column names will change like this:

   • sku --> product_sku
   • price --> product_price
   • name --> product_name
   This needs to be done for all the fields in your file.

6. Field data
   Make sure the data is properly formatted according to the specifications on the Available Fields list.

7. Line endings
   Your file must use Unix or Windows line endings. Machintosh line endings are not supported. As of version 3.7 you can choose to select the I'm Mac option, this will read Macintosh line endings.
   
   
8. Use the CSVI Analyzer to check your file for any issues.

9. Check the debug information
   The debug report shows every step CSVI takes when importing the file. See the How to collect debug information on how to get your debug report. Check the debug information for anything that might be going wrong or post it in the forum.

10. Magic Quotes MUST be turned OFF
    See the Magic Quotes documentation for details.

After having checked these checkpoints your import should be running smoothly. Check out also this presentation on how to prepare your CSV file.