Export, then Import == Junked

[Denyerec]

Latest version of SugarCRM 4.5.0 f

If I export my contact list, I get a CSV.

If I then try and IMPORT this CSV, it's total junk, all my fields are offset, or I'm getting the surname of one person importing as the first name of another... In other words, it's impossible to use.

What is the purpose, therefore, of the CSV export?

This is only an issue to me as, unable to resolve the "Try to view contact and only get a blank page" error and cannot, so I was planning to export everything to CSV's, re-install a clean copy, then import everything again.

Tedious, yes, and made worse by the fact that I seem unable to import Sugar's own export data!!

Anyone got any suggestions on how I should go about removing and then re-instating my data into a clean install ? Obviously I don't want to do a straight SQL copy, lest it carry across whatever is causing the problem with my current installation.

Kind regards,
Denyer

[roblaus]

I suppose you are using "forbidden" delimiters (field or text) in your data. Change the field separator in Sugar Admin from "," to something that you definitely do not have in your data. "|" is always a good choice.
Make sure that do not use text delimiters that you also use as part of your text. If you use "'" try to use " and vice versa.
Last option: Export your CSV, load it into a spreadsheet and check whether the data is already f... up there. Then analyze, correct and re-import...
For a re-import leave out the Sugar ids...

[Denyerec]

Thankyou so much for your response, I think the delimiter-in-field-data was the culprit.

Inteteresting that Sugar's export doesn't offer the option of quoting fields to avoid such a mishap.

[krafft]

Hi there,

where do I change the "field separator in Sugar Admin"? (see screenshot: Export section contains "disable/enable" only")
Thanks for your help,
Krafft

[goodwasabi]

Hi,

I have a similar CVS export problem. When I export fields that contain line breaks (carriage returns) and the try to open the CVS file in excel the general structure of the tables is all messed up.

Excel is not able to automatically correct this.

Please also refer to this post (same problem):

http://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/showt...ed=1#post76156

Thankyou

Marco