Resolve warning and error messages after importing contacts

Understand and resolve the different error or warning messages that can happen after importing a file of contacts

Checking your Activity Page after you import a spreadsheet of contacts lets you know if there are any errors that occurred during the upload. We can help you understand the different types of errors and warnings so you can fix them:

• Errors that allow import but prevent contacts from being added
• Warnings that allow import and don't prevent contacts from being added
• Errors that prevent import

Errors that allow import but prevent contacts from being added

Typos happen, and when they do, we don't prevent your whole file from being uploaded. The most common typos that cause unsupported formats include:

• An email address that's missing the @ symbol, like jsmithyahoo.com
• An email address with invalid or non-printable characters, like  jsmith□yahoo.com. 
• An email address with spaces, like j smith@yahoo.com or jsmith@ya hoo.com
• An email address that is missing the domain, like jsmith.com instead of jsmith@yahoo.com
• An email address with more than 3 characters after the last dot, like jsmth@yahoo.comm
• An email address with more than 80 characters.
• Mismatched North American state/province and country values, like Mass instead of MA, or FLA instead of FL.
• A birthday or anniversary date with an unsupported format.
• A missing SMS consent date or an SMS consent date with an unsupported format.
• A missing SMS number or an SMS number with an unsupported format.

Once these types of errors are resolved, the affected contacts are imported into your account and added to the list you chose when you started the import process. To resolve these types of errors:

1. From any tab on the contacts dashboard, click . . .  > View Import Errors in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
   
   
    
2. Fix the errors in red, using the formatting guide above the error to help you.
3. (Optional) Click "Remove Field" to remove the field from the contact record. If you remove an email address, it deletes the contact.
   
   
    

Clicking the Delete All Errors button at the top of the table deletes all the contacts with errors and prevents them from being uploaded.

Warnings that allow import and don't prevent contacts from being added

Character limits

Contact fields in Constant Contact have a character limit that dictates how much information can be stored there. When fields containing more than 50 characters are imported, those fields are automatically cut off, or truncated, and a warning is included on your Activity Page.  

• If a physical mailing address is more than 50 characters long, we recommend splitting it between "Address line 1" and "Address line 2". You can do this in your contact file, then re-upload it into your account. Any contact with a truncated address is updated to show the complete information. 
• If the first and last names are in one column of your spreadsheet, you can separate them into two columns before importing it.

Importing unsubscribed contacts

Our contact management system keeps track of unsubscribed contacts, even if you delete them from your account. If you upload a spreadsheet with contacts that have previously unsubscribed, they're still added to your list, but remain in the "unsubscribed" status and you're unable to email them.

• If your previously unsubscribed contacts have given you permission to email them again, you can manually invite them to resubscribe, or they can re-join your list through one of our sign-up tools to be automatically returned to "active" status.  

Missing SMS information

Before you can send SMS messages to a contact, they must have both a valid SMS number and SMS consent date on file. If you're missing the SMS number or SMS consent date for a contact when you import your list, or if you remove the field to resolve an error, your contact is added as email-only.

• If your contact subscribes for SMS through your sign-up form, they're automatically eligible for SMS.
• If you fix the errors in your spreadsheet and re-import it with a properly formatted SMS consent date and SMS number, your contact is also updated and eligible for SMS.

Errors that prevent import

There are times when your whole import file or a contact is prevented from being uploaded into your account:

• Importing an incompatible file. To prevent errors, check your file type and make sure it's a CSV, TXT, XLS, XLSX, or VCF file, and make sure the file is formatted correctly.
• A missing email address prevents a contact from being uploaded, but doesn't affect the rest of your import file if the email addresses are included. You can manually enter a contact with a missing email address later. If you have lots of missing email addresses, check to make sure the column of your spreadsheet has the correct header or add the missing email addresses, and then import your file again.
• Internal Server Error 500 message or Requested Operation Failed - If you see this message while importing, resave your file with a CSV extension and try uploading it again.

Questions?