Import errors and how to fix them

The information stored in the columns and the column headings themselves make up the information being imported. If there is an important column heading missing or information that we don't understand, we are unable to process the file.

Custom column headings will be imported as Demographic Categories.

Unique column information will be imported as Demographic Options.

Errors

• Column value too long - we found a value that was too long to process. Check the Download Error Report for more information on where this lengthy value is within your file, and what the maximum length is for this column. Maximum character limit is 256 characters.

• Duplicate column name used - we found a duplicate column heading.  Check your import file to confirm and either rename or remove before importing your file again.

• Not enough headers - a column was found that contained demographic information for participants but appears to be missing a heading.  Please add a heading before continuing with your import.

• Reserved column name used - one of your columns is using an AskYourTeam reserved heading name.  To continue, please update to be unique or check out our Import file User Guide for more information on using this column.

• Mismatched header name used - one of your columns is named similar to another heading.  A suggestion will be provided on the column name we believe is correct.

Warnings

• Blank values - we found blank values within one or more of your columns. Blank values can be handled in a number of ways:

  • Continue with the import and allow participants to self-select their demographic option

  • Continue with the import and use the Participant Library to update this information

  • If you weren't expecting any blank values in this column, we recommend you check your file before importing

• A heading but no values? - one of your column headings has no information populated for any of your participants.

  • If you were wanting to create a new Demographic category for participants to self-report, this can be added through the Demographic Library

  • If you were expecting information under this heading, please check your import file before trying again

We have a recommended format for dates of dd/mm/yyyy (24/03/2019).

Errors

• Birthdate occurs in the future - Should the import contain a birthdate in the future, you will receive this message. We think time travel would be great, but it's not something our system allows (maybe in the future). To continue with your import, check and update these dates so they are all in the past before trying your import again.

• Invalid Date Format - Check the dates closely follow the recommended format dd/mm/yyyy (24/03/2019).  Check the Download Error Report for more information on where this invalid date format is within your file.

As part of the import process, demographic categories and options, will created automatically based on the column headings and information imported. As part of this creation process, we will also check that the demographic options being added meet the minimum reporting threshold.

Custom column headings will be imported as Demographic Categories.

Unique column information will be imported as Demographic Options.

Errors

• Reserved demographic option used - check that there are no demographic options in your file called (Blanks) or [Blanks]

Warnings

• Below reporting threshold - a demographic option was found that may not meet the reporting threshold.  The default reporting threshold is 5. Check the Download Error Report for more information on which demographic option is below the reporting threshold.  If this is expected for this demographic option, please feel free to ignore this warning.

• Mixed case option found - a demographic option was found multiple times with different character case (one may be uppercase, and another lowercase). If you continue, we will select one of these options. To change the case, update this in the Demographic Library.

• Demographic options are all distinct - we found a column that has a unique value for each participant.  This can happen when a column heading is named something we don't recognise (e.g. employee ID instead of ID), and the system then tries to import this as a new demographic category, effectively creating a unique option for every participant. The Download Error Report file will let you know what column this is. Check out the User Guide on the Import File for more information about the naming conventions for the headings.

• Invalid multi-select demographics - participants had invalid multi-select demographic options generated by incorrectly placed semi-colons. These have been removed. Check the participants listed in the Error Report against your import file to ensure their demographic information is correct. Ensure semi-colons are only used to separate options. Do not place semi-colons at the start, or with no value between them.

Emails have become part of our everyday lives and these come with a recommended format of yourname@example.com. It is uncommon to come across an issue with an email address, but if you have encountered an email-based import error, here is what they mean:

Errors

• Unrecognised email - check that the email address(es) follows the standard email format. Check the email addresses contain text before and after the "@" symbol.

• You have a super long email - email addresses can only be 255 characters in length, but we have detected an email that is longer than this.  Check the email is correct. If so, as we are unable to support this length, please consider using another address, a mobile number, or a passcode for this participant to take surveys.

• Duplicate email address - email addresses must be unique. We are unable to process the import if there are records with duplicate email addresses. This could also identify duplicate records in your file, so we recommend checking the duplicate instances and updating or removing the duplicate records.

If you have more than one person sharing an email address, an option is put both their names in the First Name and Last Name column i.e. 'Jane and Fred' then 'Blogs' in the last name if they are married. NOTE: only one survey invitation will be sent to this email address.

Alternatively, set one person to receive their survey by mobile number or as a passcode participant.

Warnings

• No email or mobile found - we have not found an email or mobile number for a participant, these people will be assigned a passcode. A 12-digit token will be generated when a survey is created allowing these participants to take the survey. Check out our Passcode Participants user guide for more information.

During the import process, we check the file structure to ensure we are able to read the information contained.  As part of this, it checks how many rows, sheets, etc are included.

Errors

• Too many rows - Our import process will only support 100,000 rows. Confirm you do require this many rows to be imported.  If you do, please separate the import file into two or more files of 100,000. Import each file one at a time and choose to keep existing participants for each additional file import.

• Empty file - We weren't able to find any information in your file. For more information on the import file structure, check out our User Guide on the Import File.

Warnings

• Too many worksheets - Importing a file with multiple sheets will return a warning message.  Should you continue, we will import the first sheet only. If there is further information on other sheets that you need to import, please transfer these into one worksheet.

Gender is one of the four AskYourTeam recommended demographics.  The gender options currently supported are Female, Male, Another gender and Prefer not to say.

Why only 4 options?

AskYourTeam reports require a demographic option (or group of options) to meet a minimum threshold before displaying results.  Should we list all gender identities (Facebook has over 70), this would likely result in no reports being generated for minority gender identities.

If you do not wish to use the AskYourTeam recommended gender options, please remove our column header. Create a custom demographic category (NOTE you cannot use 'Gender' as a Demographic Category name. An alternative would be "Gender Identity") and use your own demographic options.

You can also create a new demographic category in your Library and ask survey participants to self-select this.

The header information is used to understand where the information should be placed in the Participant and Demographic libraries.  Demographic category headings are used to populate the demographic information, so accurate header information is central to this process.

If there are headings that you do not wish to use, please feel free to remove these.  The only two mandatory headings are 'First Name' and 'Last Name'.

Custom column headings will be imported as Demographic Categories.

Unique column information will be imported as Demographic Options.

Errors

• Missing Mandatory Headers - the mandatory headers are: first name, last name. We found that your file was missing one or more of our mandatory headers. Add the missing column(s) to your import file with participant information before trying your import again.

Confirm that your column headings align with our recommended file structure. For more information on the import file, click here.

Warnings

• Recommended headings not used - there is one or more optional headings that you might find useful for your demographic information.  Check the Download Error Report for more information on which headings weren't found in your file. Optional headings we recommend are:

  • ID

  • Level

  • Gender

  • Start Date

  • Date of Birth

  • Language

For more information on why we recommend these headings, check out our User Guide on the Import File.

Although an ID is a unique identifier, this is not used to identify individual people, but allow the system to support people that may have changed their name, email address or mobile number from the previous record (e.g. marriage) or when there are multiple people with the same name in your organisation (e.g. Joe Blogs).

Errors

• Duplicate ID - IDs must be unique for each participant.  A unique ID allows the system to identify unique participants, this is especially helpful if you have two Joe Blogs in your organisation. The Download Error Report for more information will show where the duplicates are within your file. 

• ID is too long - There is an ID that is too long for the system to process.  Check that this ID is expected in your file.  The maximum length supported is 256 alphanumeric characters.

Warnings

• Blank ID - There are blanks within the ID column.  These are used to uniquely identify participants to ensure any changes are associated with the correct participant. To utilise this column, all participants should have a correlating ID. If you do not want to use the ID column, we recommend that you remove the column header.

We support a number of languages to make it easier for participants to take their survey and understand the questions. To set the language for individual participants, enter the locale for the language you would like to set.  E.g. for English you would enter "en". Please speak with your Customer Success Specialist on what languages are available for your surveys.

Errors

• Unrecognised language - a language has been included that is either in an incorrect format, or not supported. To set the language, this needs to be entered as the locale for the language you want to set.  For more information on the support languages, check out our Importing Participants guide

Warnings

• Language not set - participants that do not have a language set will, by default, receive their surveys in English.  If this is expected, please ignore this warning.

Level is used to help identify between executives and the wider organisation.  This is used primarily for the Blind Spots report which compares one level against the rest of the organisation e.g. Staff & Executive team.

Errors

• Unrecognised Level - we found a level that we didn't recognise. Enter 'Executive' to nominate the Executive team, and leave the rest blank to have these set as 'Non-Executive'.

Warnings

• Only a single level found - we found during the import process that there was only one distinct level. The Blind Spots report requires at least two levels to be present.

• Missing level value - we found a row that does not have a level value, we recommend if using level information, to check that this is provided for those participants that are Executives. If a participant is missing a level, they will be considered a 'Non-Executive'.

We support two mobile number formats when importing participants, these are +64211234567 and 64211234567. 

Tip: In Excel, set the cell format to 'Text' for the Mobile column before entering/changing a mobile number. Or use the CONCATENATE formula to add +64 to the beginning of all mobile numbers in the format of 0211234567 or 211234567.

Errors

• Invalid mobile number format - confirm that the mobile is in the recommended format of +6421123456 (as above)

'First name' and 'Last name' are mandatory fields. We have a recommended format for names of characters A-Z, a-z, selected macrons and special characters ,.'-

Errors

• Name too long - names are required to be no longer than 100 characters. The character limit is per column e.g. a participant's first name cannot be longer than 100 characters.

• Missing name - a first and last name is required for each participant. If there is a name missing from an import, this will produce a critical error and this is required to be fixed before continuing with the import.

  • Tip: Use Excel and the filter option to check for blank values within the first or last name columns

• Invalid name format - we support the above characters, special characters and selected macrons. If a name falls outside of this format, check the Download Error Report to find which record(s) is unable to be processed. To continue with the import, this record will need to be updated or removed as the system is not able to continue.

Warnings

• A name is not unique - there are two or more participants with the same name. If this is expected, please ignore this warning.

Our import process checks the file before importing to confirm that we can read and understand the file.  If we are unable to recognise your file, you will receive an error and won't be able to continue with the import.

There are a number of reasons we are unable to recognise your file, which include:

• File is not a supported file type - supported file types are .csv or .xlsx

• File is blank - open the file to confirm that this contains the participant information you are wanting to import.

• File is corrupt - check that you can open this file in Excel successfully

The import flow will take you through the following steps:

Import file -> Import Validations -> Import Errors -> Import Confirmation -> Participant Library