Adding Contacts: Troubleshooting

If you receive an error while importing contacts, you should try importing them again. But first, you will want to check the following:

• Phone Column - Are all phone numbers in one column? The system will only register or read one column of phone numbers. A secondary phone number column will be unread. This also means that all contacts must be uploaded on one excel sheet at a time.
• Scrubbing - Are there invalid numbers or duplicates in your list? If so, the system will scrub these out automatically if you notice some did not upload.
• "Contact already exists" - Has the contact(s) you are trying to add already opted out? If so, the system will not add opted out contacts and saves them in the opt out group on the Contacts page. To see if a contact is on the Opted Out list, go to the Contacts page and use the Filters option. Click here to learn more about Filters.
• File Too Large - The system can upload up to 50k contacts or less on one sheet. If your list exceeds this amount, please split the list into two sheets and most importantly make sure these contacts have given you prior written consent to be texted.

Tip: You can check the result of your contact upload report under the notification bell in the upper right and click "See Upload Summary".

If you are still are still unable to add contacts after checking the list above, let's dive into the other options that may resolve the issue:

Mapping

In the second step of uploading contacts, it is important to make sure that the columns of your file are read correctly by the system. If you have custom fields to add, they should be added on the second step of the upload process as well.

For example, the system may mistakenly read the phone number column as something other than "Phone Number". 

In the event of this happening, you can toggle the column header to reflect the appropriate name title.

If you notice that a column header isn't available, you can click the "adding new contact fields" button or select "Add Contact Field" in the header drop down menu. 

File Format - Save As CSV

Saving your sheet as a CSV file may be a simple solution. You will want to make sure that your list is a CSV or Excel file.

Please note that only one sheet can be uploaded as opposed to an entire excel workbook. So you will want to make sure you are saving one sheet of contacts separately or copy and paste the value of the contact information to its own new sheet.

Make sure to save the file as something that will be easy to find for when you go to upload your list again. After you have saved the file as a CSV, try uploading the list again.

Google Sheets

If you are using Google Sheets, you can still download the sheet as a CSV file. To do so, go to File > Download > Comma-separated values, (.csv, current sheet)

Copy/Paste Method

You will want to make sure that there is a comma in between each column field like the example below:

5555555555, John, Doe, johndoe@jd.com, blue

Or, if you are pasting numbers only, you will want to make sure each number is in it's own row like this example:

5557348878
5555555555
5556789100

Important Tip: Your account will time out after twenty minutes of inactivity. If you are manually typing numbers, we suggest saving your list using an outside source (such as Word) before clicking Add Phone Numbers.

If you are looking for more advance tips regarding your contact uploads, check out Custom Contact Fields and Personalization.