This article explains how to troubleshoot errors when importing contact data into your Emma account.

When adding contacts to your Emma account, imports can take some time to process. Import speed depends 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.

	In This Article
	Importing Contacts Troubleshooting Import Errors Check the Import Summary Change the File Size or Type Check the File Name Remove Multiple Sheets From the File Remove Multiple Emails Remove Multiple Header Rows Remove Special Formatting and Formulas Check Data Formats If You Don’t Need It, Don’t Map It Additional Resources

Importing Contacts

Please see the articles linked below for step-by-step instructions and information about the import process.

• Imports: Adding Contacts From a File
• SMS: Fields, Signup Forms, and Imports

Troubleshooting Import Errors

The first step in troubleshooting is to see if any of your imports have failed. You can view the status of an import by following these steps:

1. Navigate to your Audience tab.
2. Click on the Imports section in the panel on the left.
3. Check the "Status" column for the import in question. If it says "Error", then the import failed.

Check 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. For files showing an Error status, you can download the import summary. Import summaries are only kept for 7 days, so you cannot download an import summary for imports performed more than 7 days ago.

Change the File Size or Type

File import errors are often caused by formatting issues in the spreadsheet or the file size being too large. Sometimes, just the file 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.

✎	Note
	All files must be under 1GB. When saving a CSV file, make sure that it is UTF-8 encoded.

Check the File Name

Be sure your file name does not contain an en dash (–) or em dash (—). Hyphens (-) will work fine, but when in doubt, underscores (_) are the safest option.

Remove Multiple Sheets From the File

Spreadsheets containing multiple sheets cannot be processed. Make sure that the file you're importing only has one sheet.

Remove Multiple Emails

Only one email address should be entered per cell and all email addresses in your file should be in the same column. They should not contain any special characters, such as < >, [ ], { }, ;, or :.

Additionally, if you accidentally import duplicate email addresses, they will be deduplicated during the import process. They will instead show up as "Duplicates" in your import summary, but this will not cause your import to fail.

Remove Multiple Header Rows

Emma can only process a single header row, so if your spreadsheet has more than one header row, you'll need to remove all but one.

Remove 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. Copy the columns you need, paste them in a new spreadsheet as values only, and import that instead.

☑	Tip
	This is often the quickest way to get an import to work. Copy only the information that you need off of your original sheet and paste it into a brand new spreadsheet. When pasting into the new sheet, choose Paste special from the "Edit" menu and select Values only. Then save your new sheet as a UTF-8 encoded CSV file.

Check Data Formats

When importing data to contact fields, be aware that some field types require that the data be in a certain format for a successful import.

This is especially important for numeric fields, date fields, select multiple / checkbox fields, and the SMS mobile field. Additionally, for the SMS mobile field, the phone number must be fully unique - if another contact in your account or on the spreadsheet already has a certain phone number, trying to use it for anyone else will cause errors.

If You Don’t Need It, Don’t Map It

Remove any columns on your spreadsheet that have information that you don’t need / don’t intend to import.

Additional Resources

• Imports: Adding Contacts From a File
• Imports: Formatting Contact Data
• SMS: Fields, Signup Forms, and Imports
• Trigger Events: Contact Import
• Trigger Events: Field Change