Data import & export issues

CSV import problems

Import fails with "invalid format" error

Most common cause: Wrong column names

Required column: email

Optional columns: name, first_name, last_name, company, website, phone

Fix:

1. Open your CSV
2. First row must be headers
3. Rename columns to match exactly (case sensitive!)
4. Save
5. Try import again

Example good CSV:

email,name,company
john@example.com,John Smith,Acme Corp
sarah@test.com,Sarah Jones,Tech LLC

"duplicate emails found"

What this means:

• Some emails in your CSV are already in Clients.ai
• OR you have duplicates within the CSV itself

What to do:

• Choose "Skip duplicates" (safest)
• OR "Update existing" (overwrites old data)
• OR clean your CSV first in Excel (Remove Duplicates feature)

Only some rows imported

Check for:

• Invalid email addresses (missing @)
• Special characters in names
• Extra commas in data fields
• Blank rows

How to fix:

1. Export the failed rows (Clients.ai shows you which ones)
2. Fix the issues
3. Import just those rows again

Can't find the import button

Where it is:

• Go to Leads page
• Top right corner
• "Import Leads" button

Don't see it?

• You might be on Flow-specific leads view
• Go to main Leads page (/leads)
• Should appear there

CSV export problems

Export shows weird characters (ñ becomes ã±)

Encoding issue!

Fix in Excel:

1. Don't double-click the CSV
2. Open Excel first (blank workbook)
3. Data → From Text/CSV
4. Choose your file
5. File Origin: 65001 Unicode (UTF-8)
6. Load

Fix in Google Sheets:

1. File → Import
2. Upload your CSV
3. Import location: Replace current sheet
4. Separator type: Detect automatically
5. Convert text to numbers/dates: No (keep unchecked)

Export only shows 100 leads

This is the page limit:

• Clear any filters
• Click "Export All" (not just "Export Page")
• Should get all leads

If still limited:

• You might be on filtered view
• Click "Clear Filters"
• Try export again

Missing columns in export

By default, export includes:

• Email
• Name
• Date added
• Source Flow

To get custom fields:

• They should export automatically
• If missing, those fields might be empty for all leads
• Check a few leads manually to confirm data exists

Export button doesn't work

Try:

1. Different browser
2. Disable ad blocker
3. Check browser console (F12) for errors
4. Try exporting just 10 leads first (add filter)

Data not showing up

Imported leads aren't appearing

Check:

1. Did import actually succeed? (should see "X leads imported")
2. Check if you assigned them to a specific Flow
3. Go to that Flow's leads (not main Leads page)
4. Check date filters (might be filtering them out)

Exported CSV is empty

Possible reasons:

• No leads exist
• All leads are filtered out
• Export failed silently

To fix:

1. Go to Leads page
2. Clear ALL filters
3. See if any leads appear
4. If yes, export should work
5. If no, you genuinely have no leads

Formatting issues

Phone numbers losing leading zeros

Excel is "helping" you:

• 07700900000 becomes 7700900000
• This is Excel, not Clients.ai

Fix:

1. Before importing to Excel, open in Notepad
2. Or format phone column as Text before importing
3. Or use Google Sheets (doesn't do this)

Dates showing as numbers (45236 instead of 2023-11-14)

Excel date format issue:

1. Select date column
2. Format Cells → Date
3. Choose your preferred format
4. Apply

Names split weirdly (John Smith in two columns)

Your CSV has:

• first_name,last_name columns

What Clients.ai uses:

• name column (full name in one field)

To merge in Excel before import:

1. Add column called "name"
2. Formula: =A2&" "&B2
3. Drag down
4. Copy, Paste Special → Values
5. Delete old first_name and last_name columns

Large file problems

Import timing out on large CSV

If you have 10,000+ leads:

• Split into smaller files (2,000 each)
• Import one at a time
• Wait for each to complete before next

Progress bar stuck:

• Don't refresh!
• Large imports can take 5-10 minutes
• Go make coffee
• Come back

Export taking forever

For huge lead lists:

• Export happens in background
• You'll get download link when ready
• Check your email
• Might take up to 30 minutes for 50,000+ leads

Special cases

Importing from another CRM

If exporting from HubSpot, Salesforce, etc:

1. Export from that CRM
2. Open CSV
3. Rename columns to match Clients.ai format
4. Delete columns you don't need
5. Import

Email is the only required field

Migrating between Clients.ai accounts

Export from old account:

1. Leads → Export All

Import to new account:

1. Leads → Import
2. Choose the CSV
3. Done!

Note: Flow associations won't transfer - you'll need to assign to new Flows

Backup your data

Best practice:

• Export all leads monthly
• Save to Google Drive / Dropbox
• If anything goes wrong, you have a backup

How:

1. First day of each month
2. Leads → Export All
3. Save with date in filename (Leads_2024-11-01.csv)
4. Keep last 6 months of backups

Getting help

Contact support if:

• Import fails with no error message
• Export completely broken
• Data looks corrupted
• You need to merge accounts

Include in email:

• Screenshot of error
• Sample of your CSV (first 3 rows)
• How many total rows
• What you were trying to do

Email: hi@clients.ai