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If you receive an error when importing contacts, your CSV file may not be formatted correctly. This article explains the most common formatting issue and how to fix it in Excel or Numbers.

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Understand the error

Kajabi’s contact importer requires CSV files to use UTF-8 encoding to import correctly. The most common reason for this error is if a non-UTF-8 character such as “Å” is present in the .csv file. To successfully upload your .csv file, you will need to open your .csv file and change the file type. The steps differ depending on whether you are using Excel on Windows or Numbers on macOS.

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Format in Windows

  1. Open your .csv in Excel.
Note: If you use a different spreadsheet program, check their support documentation for instructions on how to download as a CSV UTF-8.
  1. Select File and click Save As.
  2. From the file type dropdown, select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv).
  3. Click Save.

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Format in macOS

  1. Open your .csv in Numbers.
  2. Select File.
  3. Select Export To, then select .csv.
  4. In the export options, select Advanced Options, and specify Unicode (UTF-8). If there is another .csv export option shown, click into the dropdown and choose Unicode (UTF-8).
  5. Confirm by selecting Export on the following screen.

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Troubleshoot data appearing in one column

If all your contact data appears in a single column after opening your CSV file, the file may be using a semicolon or tab as a delimiter instead of a comma. Kajabi’s import tool requires comma-separated values. To fix this in Excel on Windows:
  1. Open a blank Excel workbook.
  2. Click the Data tab.
  3. Click From Text/CSV.
  4. Select your CSV file and click Import.
  5. In the preview window, set the Delimiter dropdown to Comma.
  6. Click Load to import the data into separate columns.
  7. Save the file as CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) using File > Save As.
To fix this in Numbers on macOS:
  1. Open the CSV file in a plain text editor such as TextEdit.
  2. Check whether values are separated by semicolons, tabs, or another character instead of commas.
  3. Use Edit > Find > Find and Replace to replace all semicolons or tabs with commas.
  4. Save the file and re-open it in Numbers to confirm the columns are correct.
  5. Export as CSV UTF-8 following the steps in the Format in macOS section above.

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FAQs

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What columns does Kajabi require for a contact import?

The only required column for a contact import is Email. All other columns such as First Name, Last Name, and Tags are optional. Make sure the column headers in your CSV match Kajabi’s accepted field names exactly. Learn more about importing contacts.

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Can I import a CSV file with extra columns?

Yes. Kajabi will only import the columns it recognizes. Any extra or unrecognized columns will be ignored during the import process.

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What happens to contacts that already exist in my account?

If a contact with the same email address already exists in your account, Kajabi will update their information with the data in your CSV rather than creating a duplicate contact.