Title: Import doesn&#039;t work
Last modified: August 31, 2016

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# Import doesn't work

 *  Resolved [jakeic](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakeic/)
 * (@jakeic)
 * [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/)
 * Hi,
    I love this plug-in but I do have an issue with the import. I created a 
   csv that looks like this to test:
 *     ```
       firstname,lastname,email,phone,department
       test123,test,test@test.tst,111,test
       ```
   
 * It then says “Your uploaded CSV contains ( 1 ) records and the following columns:
   
   Standard Columns: firstnamelastnameemailphonedepartment”
 * After doing this it doesn’t import the record anywhere. Do you have any idea 
   what is wrong? I tried it on both Chrome and Firefox. I am running WordPress 
   using Xampp.
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/stafflist/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/stafflist/)

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Plugin Author [ERA404](https://wordpress.org/support/users/era404/)
 * (@era404)
 * [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/#post-7455566)
 * Hello jakeic,
 * We will do our best to reproduce the issue you are experiencing, which sounds
   similar to another post: [https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problem-adding-columns-to-staflist?replies=8](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problem-adding-columns-to-staflist?replies=8)
 * In order to assist, would you please indicate:
    a) which OS you’re using with
   Chrome and Firefox b) which app you used to create the CSV c) the doc encoding
   of the CSV (e.g.: UTF-8?) d) which version of WordPress core?
 * If you were using a previous version of StaffList, you may need to remove the
   plugin and install fresh, instead of a simple plugin update. Newer versions of
   the plugin use a different schema to accommodate custom fields than the beta 
   release did.
 * You may also contact us via our support section which may be more convenient 
   for troubleshooting. ( [http://era404.com/contact](http://era404.com/contact))
   Any further information discovered as a result we will post back to this forum,
   for your convenience, and for the benefit of other plugin users.
 *  Thread Starter [jakeic](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakeic/)
 * (@jakeic)
 * [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/#post-7455650)
 * It was set to ANSI encoding but I changed it to UTF-8 and I get the same message.
   I tried changing to UTF-8-BOM and then it says firstname is a non-standard column.
 * Here is where it gets interesting.. I set it back to standard UTF-8 but added
   an extra column at the end called fax. When I upload that file is gives me the
   option to do the import and replace everything since I added the new row. That
   worked like it should. I can then add another person and it will give me the 
   option to append or replace. I did replace and it duplicated everything and added
   the one new row.
 * If I go back to the standard 5 columns I get the same message as before. It doesn’t
   even give me and option to replace everything. Is there something wrong with 
   it importing just the default 5 columns?
 * a) Windows 10
    b) Excel 2010 and then Notepad++ to change encoding c) UTF-8 d)
   4.5.2
 *  Plugin Author [ERA404](https://wordpress.org/support/users/era404/)
 * (@era404)
 * [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/#post-7455716)
 * [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2110958/20160609143300-stafflist.zip](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2110958/20160609143300-stafflist.zip)
 * Above is a link to the plugin with a few changes made to how the CSV files are
   interpreted. I have a suspicion the problems you’re experiencing are possibly
   related to a byte-order mark that’s added by some applications that are used 
   to create CSVs. It’s not visible (generally), but if it attaches to the first
   column name, it will make that column appear ‘nonstandard’ by the plugin.
 * If share your results if you find a free moment to test the above linked plugin
   zip.
 * More reading: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark)
 *  Thread Starter [jakeic](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakeic/)
 * (@jakeic)
 * [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/#post-7455733)
 * That seems to have fixed it! I was getting issues saying I had to replace every
   time and couldn’t append. I ended up just deleting the whole database and re-
   installing again and then it would let me append like it should. Thanks!
 *  Plugin Author [ERA404](https://wordpress.org/support/users/era404/)
 * (@era404)
 * [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/#post-7455749)
 * Sounds good, we’ll roll this into the next update.
    Thanks for the assistance
   reproducing the issue.
 *  Thread Starter [jakeic](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakeic/)
 * (@jakeic)
 * [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/#post-7455783)
 * Thanks for the help!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Import doesn't work’ is closed to new replies.

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 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [jakeic](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakeic/)
 * Last activity: [10 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/import-doesnt-work-4/#post-7455783)
 * Status: resolved