What are some common reasons a record might fail to import?

When you are troubleshooting data imports, make small files with one or two records. It is much easier to locate the source of the problem when you are importing a small batch. To ensure a successful import, be sure to follow the steps in Prepare a file for import. More information: Work with Imports

• Common error messages and suggested resolutions:

  A SQL Server error occurred. For more information, contact your system administrator.

  This message indicates that a value in the source file exceeds the maximum number of characters that can be entered for the field. For example, a value for the Street field in a lead import exceeds the 200-character limit.

  To fix this error, reduce the number of characters in the field, and then run the data import again.

  The attachment file was not found.

  The attachment specified in the file containing the attachment information is not found in the Attachments subfolder of the .zip file.

  The lookup reference could not be resolved.

  Review your source data to make sure the record the row is referring to is either in your source data or is in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The lookup is not case sensitive.

  Also verify that there is not a cyclic relationship between two records, such as account A pointing to account B as the parent account, and account B pointing to account A as the parent account.
  More information: How Relationship (Lookup) Fields Are Imported.

  The start or end date is not valid.

  If you are importing contracts, you must have valid start and end dates.

  An incomplete record was created in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online that is missing data in a reference field.

  If you receive many of these errors, delete the import, update your source data to include valid reference information, and then import the data again. If you receive just a few errors, you can open the record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and add the reference information.

  A duplicate reference was found.

  You cannot import data with many-to-many relationship using the Import Data Wizard. The data in a reference attribute must reference a unique record.
  More information: How Relationship (Lookup) Fields Are Imported

  The number of fields is different than the number of column headings.

  This error occurs when the number of columns that are present in the data row differ from the number of columns present in the column headings Text used in the first row of a spreadsheet or file that labels the data in each column. (or header row) of the source file. For example, if you have two column headings in a contacts file, but try to import three columns of data, the third column does not have a column heading.

  To fix this error, open the source file in Microsoft Office Excel and add missing column headings or data. Save the file as a comma-separated value (CSV) file A data file with a .csv file extension. Typically a CSV file consists of fields and records, stored as text, in which the fields are separated from one other by commas..

  The list value is not mapped.

  You can get this error when the picklist value specified in the source file does not exists in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Although, Import Data Wizard creates new picklist values for unmapped picklist vaules, the Import user should have customizations privileges to create new picklist values. If the import user does not the required privileges, the picklist values will not be created and this error will be shown.

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online does not support adding new values for fields of State/Status type. For such fields, if there is an unmapped value of State/Status in the source data, you will get this error. For more information, see How Status and Status Reason Data Is Imported.

  A record was not created or updated because a duplicate of the current record already exists.

  This error occurs when you are trying to import a record that has a potential duplicate in the system. Potential duplicates are determined based on current, published duplicate detection rules for the record type that you are importing.

  If the record you are trying to import is not a duplicate, determine the criteria used for identifying duplicates for that type of record, and modify the record so that it doesn't match the duplicate criteria. If you want to import duplicate records, you can set Allow Duplicates to Yes while importing records.

  An error has occurred. For more information, contact your system administrator.

  This error can occur if the format of data in one field in the row does not match what is expected in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. For example, you will receive this error if you have a text string instead of a date or a misformatted date in the Birthday field in a contact record.

  To fix this error, correct the format of any non-string fields in the row.

  Non-printable characters found.

  For example, if the source data had paragraphs in the Description field, the Description field may have embedded carriage return/line feed (CR/LF) characters.

  To fix this error, save the file with Unicode or UTF-8 encoding. You can do this by using the following steps:

  1. Start Notepad.
  2. Open your comma-separated value (CSV) file A data file with a .csv file extension. Typically a CSV file consists of fields and records, stored as text, in which the fields are separated from one other by commas..
  3. On the File menu, click Save As.
  4. In the Encoding list, click Unicode or UTF-8.

  The source data is not in the required format.

  There are two reasons this error might occur:

  • When the data type of the source is different from the data type of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online field to which you are importing data.
  • If the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online picklist field is non customizable and source file contains values which is not existing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online picklist field.