Data import & export issues

CSV import problems

Import fails or rows are rejected

What's required: every row needs a first name and an email address. Last name, phone, website, and company are recognized too, but optional.

You don't need your column headers to match exactly — after you upload the file, a mapping screen lets you tell Clients.ai which of your columns is the first name, which is the email, and so on.

Fix:

1. Make sure the first row of your CSV is headers
2. Upload it and use the mapping screen to match your columns to the right fields
3. Make sure every row has a value in the columns you mapped to first name and email

Example good CSV:

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

What happens with duplicate emails

If a row's email matches a lead you already have, Clients.ai won't create a second copy. Instead it fills in any details the existing lead was missing (like a phone number or company) from the new row. There's no separate "skip" vs "overwrite" choice to make — this happens automatically.

Only some rows imported

Check for:

• Missing first name or email in that row
• Invalid email addresses (missing @)
• Blank rows

Fix the offending rows and re-import just those.

Can't find the import button

Where it is:

• Go to the main Leads page (/leads)
• "Import Leads" button

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 seems to be missing leads

Export downloads whatever the page is currently showing — either your selected leads, or everything matching your current filters if nothing is selected. If leads seem to be missing:

• Clear any filters first
• Make sure you don't have only some leads checked
• Try export again

Export button doesn't work

Try:

1. Different browser
2. Disable ad blocker (exports download as a file, which some blockers interfere with)
3. Check browser console (F12) for errors

Data not showing up

Imported leads aren't appearing

Check:

1. Did the import confirm success?
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

To fix: clear all filters and see if any leads appear before exporting again.

Formatting issues

Phone numbers losing leading zeros

Excel is "helping" you:

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

Fix:

1. Format the phone column as Text before importing to Excel
2. 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

Large file problems

Large import feels slow

Imports process row by row in a single pass. For very large files, splitting into a few smaller CSVs of a couple thousand rows each and importing one at a time will feel more responsive than one giant file.

Large export

Export builds and downloads the file directly in your browser rather than emailing you a link — for very large lists this can take a little longer to generate, so give it a moment rather than clicking export repeatedly.

Special cases

Importing from another CRM

If exporting from HubSpot, Salesforce, etc:

1. Export from that CRM
2. Open the CSV and confirm it has a first name and email for each contact
3. Import into Clients.ai and map the columns on the import screen

First name and email are the only required fields

Migrating between Clients.ai accounts

Export from old account:

1. Leads → Export

Import to new account:

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

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

Backup your data

Best practice:

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

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