Import Troubleshooting

File Will Not Upload

  • File too large - Max 50MB. Split into files under 10,000 records.
  • Wrong format - Accepted: .csv, .json, .jsonl, .ndjson, .xlsx
  • Empty file - Must have at least one data record, not just headers.
  • Encoding - Save CSVs as UTF-8.

Too Many Records

The importer handles up to 10,000 records per file. For larger datasets:

  1. Split your export into chunks of 10,000 or fewer
  2. Import the first chunk through the full wizard
  3. Save the configuration
  4. Load the saved config for each remaining chunk

With saved configs, each subsequent import takes a couple of minutes. You only do field mapping once.

Splitting a CSV: Open in a spreadsheet, copy the header row, then split data rows into groups of 10,000. Save each group as a separate CSV with the header row included.

Splitting JSON: If your export is an array of objects, use a text editor or script to split the array into chunks. Each chunk needs to be valid JSON.

Platform Not Detected

  • Upload raw export file, not a modified version
  • JSON exports are easier to detect than CSVs
  • Manually select platform in detection step to pre-fill mappings
  • Generic imports work fine with manual field mapping

Fields Not Mapping Correctly

  • Custom fields show platform-specific names (cf_product_type for Freshdesk). Map manually.
  • Nested fields flattened with dot notation (requester.email)
  • Empty columns still appear. Skip them.

Duplicate Records

  • Select the right match key (email for customers, short_id for tickets)
  • Email matching is case-insensitive, custom fields are exact match
  • When importing in batches, always use a match key to prevent duplicates across files
  • Use bulk delete to clean up if duplicates were created

Timestamps Look Wrong

  • Use ISO 8601 format (2024-01-15T10:30:00Z) for best results
  • US dates (01/15/2024) and European dates (15/01/2024) both supported
  • Unix timestamps convert automatically

Import Partially Failed

  • Summary shows which records failed and why
  • Common: missing required fields, invalid data types, sanitization failures
  • Fix source data and re-import failed records with Update if Empty strategy

HTML Content Stripped

cStar sanitizes imported HTML for security. Script tags, iframes, embedded objects removed. Standard formatting preserved.

Still Stuck?

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