How to import from CSV on iOS
Select the delimiters that you use in a CSV file and then press the button to select your CSV file.
If you don't know which delimiters are used in your file, you can back to this screen and change delimiters again. Or check the instruction on how to understand which delimiters using in your CSV file. If you use headings in a CSV file, click the checkbox to exclude those headers. Columns in a CSV file can be in any order.
You can download a file that will be used as an example in this tutorial. All data in this file is completely random and does not refer to anyone.
Choose a data type for each column from the CSV file. It's not necessary to map all columns. If some row in a column will have invalid data, it will be highlighted. You can edit rows with invalid data by tapping on them.
Important! Phone number, Email address, Telegram username, or Threema ID - one of these columns is required for each imported contact. If a row does not contain one of these required fields or fields does not pass validation, then this row from a CSV file will be ignored. Other columns are optional.
If a field in a column has more length than is allowed, all extra characters will be truncated.
When you finish the mapping column you will see results. Press the "Save" button to finish the import.
Also, before saving, you can select which group you want to add these imported contacts.
After successfully saving, you will see a message with a result.
Users who have not activated full access to the app may have certain restrictions on the count of imported contacts.
After selecting a file, all data is displayed only in one column. Or there is a very long loading of the selected file.
This issue occurs due to incorrectly selected delimiters. In the column you can see that semicolon ";" is used as a separator, but in the parsing settings you selected "Coma (,)". Change the Field delimiter to the correct one and then columns will display the correctly.
To better understand what delimiter is used in a CSV file, you can open it in any text editor and check its contents. Need to use only a text editor, for example: Pages, Word, TextEdit, Sublime Text, etc. Spreadsheet editors such as Numbers or Excel will not work for this.
In the screenshot below, you can see that the values are separated by semicolons - this is the field separator used in the CSV file. Also, if there are no additional characters at the end of the row, then the "Carriage & Line feed" is used as the row delimiter (this is the most common type of row delimiter). This screenshot was made from the Pages app (by Apple) for iOS/iPadOS, and you can check the content of your CSV files also via this native app.
Some rows in this column contain data with the wrong format.
This issue occurs when any of the rows in the column contains data that does not match the selected data type. Wrong rows will be highlighted in a different color. To scroll the list to the nearest wrong row, press the button with an exclamation point.
You can edit rows by just taping on them.
Unable to identify data in some rows from CSV file.
This issue occurs when you finish the mapping process (on the last column). That means some data from the rows is impossible to convert to the contact, or in the wrong format. For example:
- you have not chosen at least one of the required data types for import
- the row contains a phone number, but it is in an incorrect format or the country code is missing
- contains invalid characters for specified data type
- field is empty
You can press the "Check unparsed data" button and in the presented screen check which rows from the CSV file could not be parsed.
Phone number
Plus prefix '+' - optional. Spaces, dashes '-', brackets '(123)' - also optional.
Highly recommend use country code in phone numbers, if not, a country code will be inserted based on locale and the region of your device. Max length: 20 characters.
Phone number format examples: 13231234567 or +13231111111 or (323) 1111111, +1 323 123 4567, 1 (323)-123-4567.
If the string does not pass validation as a phone number, then this value will be ignored.
Email address
Max length: 100 characters.
If the string does not pass validation as an email, then this value will be ignored.
Telegram username
Max length: 31 characters including @ prefix.
If the string does not pass validation as a Telegram Username, then this value will be ignored.
Threema ID
Required fixed length: 8 characters.
If the string does not pass validation as a Threema ID, then this value will be ignored.
First name, Last name, Middle name, Nickname, Company, Relationship, Custom 1 - 5
Max length: 100 characters
Title
Supported values: doctor, miss, ms, mrs, mr, madam, lady, prof, sir, junior, reverend, righthonorable, senior, saint, master, lord, principal. All other values will be ignored.
Note
Max length: 1000 characters
Birthday D/M/Y or Birthday Y/M/D
Birthday D/M/Y - birthday format DAY/MONTH/YEAR, example: 01/01/1999;
Birthday Y/M/D - birthday format YEAR/MONTH/DAY, example: 1999/01/01;
Slash '/' separator - required.
Your trimming mode mustn't intersect with the row delimiters. For example, you cannot use the row separator 'Line Feed' and the trimming 'Whitespace and Newlines', because your row separator will be removed or overridden. In this case, you need to use a different row separator or change trimming mode.
Text will be trimmed only at the start and end of each field. Spaces in the middle will be saved. For example: ' Jerome Jr. ' will be trimmed to 'Jerome Jr.';
If you don't know which delimiters are used in your file, you can back to this screen and change delimiters again. Or check the instruction on how to understand which delimiters using in your CSV file. If you use headings in a CSV file, click the checkbox to exclude those headers. Columns in a CSV file can be in any order.
You can download a file that will be used as an example in this tutorial. All data in this file is completely random and does not refer to anyone.
Choose a data type for each column from the CSV file. It's not necessary to map all columns. If some row in a column will have invalid data, it will be highlighted. You can edit rows with invalid data by tapping on them.
Important! Phone number, Email address, Telegram username, or Threema ID - one of these columns is required for each imported contact. If a row does not contain one of these required fields or fields does not pass validation, then this row from a CSV file will be ignored. Other columns are optional.
If a field in a column has more length than is allowed, all extra characters will be truncated.
When you finish the mapping column you will see results. Press the "Save" button to finish the import.
Also, before saving, you can select which group you want to add these imported contacts.
After successfully saving, you will see a message with a result.
Users who have not activated full access to the app may have certain restrictions on the count of imported contacts.
Common issues
After selecting a file, all data is displayed only in one column. Or there is a very long loading of the selected file.
This issue occurs due to incorrectly selected delimiters. In the column you can see that semicolon ";" is used as a separator, but in the parsing settings you selected "Coma (,)". Change the Field delimiter to the correct one and then columns will display the correctly.
To better understand what delimiter is used in a CSV file, you can open it in any text editor and check its contents. Need to use only a text editor, for example: Pages, Word, TextEdit, Sublime Text, etc. Spreadsheet editors such as Numbers or Excel will not work for this.
In the screenshot below, you can see that the values are separated by semicolons - this is the field separator used in the CSV file. Also, if there are no additional characters at the end of the row, then the "Carriage & Line feed" is used as the row delimiter (this is the most common type of row delimiter). This screenshot was made from the Pages app (by Apple) for iOS/iPadOS, and you can check the content of your CSV files also via this native app.
Some rows in this column contain data with the wrong format.
This issue occurs when any of the rows in the column contains data that does not match the selected data type. Wrong rows will be highlighted in a different color. To scroll the list to the nearest wrong row, press the button with an exclamation point.
You can edit rows by just taping on them.
Unable to identify data in some rows from CSV file.
This issue occurs when you finish the mapping process (on the last column). That means some data from the rows is impossible to convert to the contact, or in the wrong format. For example:
- you have not chosen at least one of the required data types for import
- the row contains a phone number, but it is in an incorrect format or the country code is missing
- contains invalid characters for specified data type
- field is empty
You can press the "Check unparsed data" button and in the presented screen check which rows from the CSV file could not be parsed.
Validation conditions for mapped columns:
Phone number
Plus prefix '+' - optional. Spaces, dashes '-', brackets '(123)' - also optional.
Highly recommend use country code in phone numbers, if not, a country code will be inserted based on locale and the region of your device. Max length: 20 characters.
Phone number format examples: 13231234567 or +13231111111 or (323) 1111111, +1 323 123 4567, 1 (323)-123-4567.
If the string does not pass validation as a phone number, then this value will be ignored.
Email address
Max length: 100 characters.
If the string does not pass validation as an email, then this value will be ignored.
Telegram username
Max length: 31 characters including @ prefix.
If the string does not pass validation as a Telegram Username, then this value will be ignored.
Threema ID
Required fixed length: 8 characters.
If the string does not pass validation as a Threema ID, then this value will be ignored.
First name, Last name, Middle name, Nickname, Company, Relationship, Custom 1 - 5
Max length: 100 characters
Title
Supported values: doctor, miss, ms, mrs, mr, madam, lady, prof, sir, junior, reverend, righthonorable, senior, saint, master, lord, principal. All other values will be ignored.
Note
Max length: 1000 characters
Birthday D/M/Y or Birthday Y/M/D
Birthday D/M/Y - birthday format DAY/MONTH/YEAR, example: 01/01/1999;
Birthday Y/M/D - birthday format YEAR/MONTH/DAY, example: 1999/01/01;
Slash '/' separator - required.
Fields trimming:
Your trimming mode mustn't intersect with the row delimiters. For example, you cannot use the row separator 'Line Feed' and the trimming 'Whitespace and Newlines', because your row separator will be removed or overridden. In this case, you need to use a different row separator or change trimming mode.
Text will be trimmed only at the start and end of each field. Spaces in the middle will be saved. For example: ' Jerome Jr. ' will be trimmed to 'Jerome Jr.';
Updated on: 24/03/2022
Thank you!