Contacts not imported correctly

This article covers situations where an import completed without an error message, but the results are not what you expected: contacts are missing, fields are empty, or interests were not assigned. For imports that failed with a specific error message, see "Import errors".

Contacts are missing after the import

Deduplication

Flexmail uses the email address as the unique identifier for each contact. If your import file contains addresses that already exist in your account, Flexmail updates the existing contact record instead of creating a duplicate. These contacts are not "missing", but the number of newly added contacts will be lower than the number of rows in your file.

Contacts may be on the blacklist

Blacklisted contacts cannot be imported again into your active contact database. If your file contained addresses that were previously blacklisted (through unsubscribes, bounces, or spam complaints), those rows are silently skipped during the import.

Go to Contacts > All contacts and check the Blacklisted tab to see if the missing addresses are there.

Check all three tabs

Contacts created through an import are always added as confirmed contacts. However, it is worth checking the Confirmed, Unconfirmed, and Blacklisted tabs in your contact overview to cover all possible statuses.

Custom fields are empty after import

If contacts were imported successfully but their custom field values are empty, the most common cause is one of the following:

The field did not exist at the time of the import

Custom fields must exist in your account before you import. If you import a file with a column for a field that does not exist yet, that column is skipped and the data is lost. First create your custom fields, then import the file again.

The column was not linked during the import

During the import process, you link each column in your file to a field in Flexmail. If a column was not linked or was linked to the wrong field, the data will not appear on the contact record. Check the field linking step during your next import to ensure each column is matched correctly.

Interests were not assigned

Interests can be assigned during the import through a specific column in your CSV or by assigning a shared interest to the entire import batch. If the interest assignment did not work as expected:

• Interest names are case-sensitive. "Newsletter" and "newsletter" are treated as different values. Check that the names in your file match the interest names in your account exactly.
• The interest must exist in your account before the import. Flexmail does not create new interests during an import.
• If you assigned an interest to the entire batch but some contacts did not receive it, check whether those contacts previously unsubscribed from that interest. Contacts who explicitly unsubscribed from a specific interest cannot have it reassigned through an import.

Contacts are confirmed but not receiving campaigns

If contacts are displayed as confirmed but are not included in your campaign sends, check the following:

• Segment conditions: verify that the contacts actually match the segment you are sending to. Open the segment and check how many contacts it currently contains.
• Language: if you are sending to a language-specific segment, contacts whose language field does not match are excluded.
• Blacklist: a confirmed status does not prevent blacklisting. Run a search to confirm that the contact is not on the blacklist.

Your CSV file contains invalid characters

If your import fails or produces unreadable text, the CSV file may contain characters that Flexmail cannot process. This typically occurs with special characters like accents, curly quotes, or characters from non-Latin scripts, when the file was not saved with the correct encoding.

Open your CSV file in a basic text editor before importing and check for unexpected characters. The most common cause is saving the file from Excel with incorrect encoding. When exporting from Excel, choose CSV UTF-8 (with BOM) instead of standard CSV.

Finding invalid characters with Notepad++

If you cannot identify the problem visually, Notepad++ (a free Windows text editor) can help you find invalid characters through a search with regular expressions:

• Open your CSV file in Notepad++.
• Go to Search > Find (Ctrl+F) and select the Regular expression search mode.
• Search for the pattern [^\x09\x0A\x0D\x20-\x7E]  to highlight characters outside the standard printable ASCII range.
• Review each match. Replace invalid characters manually or delete the affected rows.
• Save the file with UTF-8 encoding before importing.

If you see rows with corrupted text after the import, export your source file again with UTF-8 encoding and repeat the import. Flexmail updates the existing contact records without creating duplicates.

Common mistakes

Creating custom fields after the import

This is the most common import issue. Always create all custom fields before you import contacts. Data from columns without a matching field is permanently lost and cannot be recovered from the import.

Using a different separator than expected

Flexmail expects a CSV file with a comma or semicolon as the column separator. If your file uses a different separator (such as a tab), columns might not be recognised correctly. Check your export settings before generating the import file.

Not checking the import summary

Flexmail displays a summary at the end of every import showing the number of added, updated, skipped, and blacklisted contacts. Reviewing this summary immediately after the import is the fastest way to spot issues before you send campaigns.

Saving the CSV file with incorrect encoding

If contacts import successfully but names or field values contain unreadable text, such as accents replaced by question marks or random symbols, the CSV file was saved with the wrong character encoding. Always export your contact file as UTF-8. In Excel, use "Save as" and choose "CSV UTF-8 (with BOM)" from the file format dropdown list.

Next steps

• See "Import errors" for help with imports that fail with a specific error message.
• See "Link database fields" for a full explanation of the field linking step.
• See "Contact fields" to create and configure custom fields before your next import.
• See "Add contacts" for a complete walkthrough of the import process.