Google Import Task Failure

[Bob Kramer]

Today I attemted to import a batch of tasks to an existing tasklist. I have been doing this monthly for several years without difficulty.

My batch had a Header row followed by 107 rows with a task in each row.  When the import completed it said it had processed only nine records.  I have no idea what it loaded or to what tasklist it loaded them.  I inspected my tasklist but none of my 107 tasks were loaded.

I repeated this process three times with the same results.

Bob Kramer

[Google Tasks Backup Moderator]

Hello Bob,

I'm sorry about the delay in responding. I had a few days off.

You mentioned that you have been importing monthly for several years. May I ask what the source of the CSV file is?

Is it possible that something has changed in the way that the CSV file is created? 

One possible cause of fewer tasks being imported than expected from a CSV file is missing, un-escaped or mismatched double-quotes.

For example;

• Any column containing anything other than a single word should be double-quoted
• This especially applies to any column that may contain commas, such as text or numbers 
• If a column starts with a double-quote, it must end with a double quote.
• Every double-quote character in text must be replaced with 2 double-quote characters [1]

Is it possible that a tasklist name, task title or task note contains un-escaped double-quotes? 

The most common reason for a CSV file not being correctly imported is that the CSV file is not correctly formatted for use by GTI, or has been corrupted. 

Has the CSV file been edited by a spreadsheet program such as Excel? As noted at https://import-tasks.appspot.com/static/info.html#import_export_csv;

It is not recommended to edit the CSV file with a spreadsheet program, as programs such as Excel and OpenOffice Calc tend to corrupt the data.

My batch had a Header row followed by 107 rows with a task in each row.  

What program are you using to determine that the tasklist has 107 rows?

Note that if you are viewing the CSV file as text, the number of rows doesn't necessarily equal the number of tasks, as newlines in the task notes may cause the task to be displayed across multiple lines. 

 

When the import completed it said it had processed only nine records.  I have no idea what it loaded or to what tasklist it loaded them.  I inspected my tasklist but none of my 107 tasks were loaded.

When GTI processes a CSV file, the tasklist that the task is added to is determined by the "tasklist_name" column in the CSV. 

Does every row of your CSV file have a valid value for the  "tasklist_name" column, surrounded by double-quotes?

[1] As mentioned on the help page;

Double-quotes within text must be escaped (i.e., replace the single " with "")

"My Tasklist","Second task","This is another ""root"" task","completed",,"UTC 2012-04-22 02:42:36",,,0 

Note the double-quotes around the quoted word "root" in the example on the help page.

Kind regards,

Julie Smith

GTB/GTI Developer

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Tasks Import" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to import-tasks+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to import...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/import-tasks.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/import-tasks/CAHTLJjpO-9HSqEgmr4WFa9qLOAcXqAWmMqiGLk3-zN9UnAML1Q%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Julie Smith]

Hi Bob,

Could you please try importing the attached test file, and let me know the results

It should import a total of 104 tasks, in 2 new tasklists;

"Test 80 sub-tasks"

"Test 24 sub-tasks"

Once the import test is complete, you can delete the 2 test tasklists.

Kind regards,

Julie Smith

GTI/GTB Developer

[Google Tasks Backup Moderator]

Hello Bob,

Have you had a chance yet to try importing the test file? What were the results?

Kind regards,

Julie Smith

GTI/GTB Developer

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Tasks Import" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to import-tasks+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to import...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/import-tasks.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/import-tasks/ee2344e9-9b66-48f0-8de9-a460f38b821d%40googlegroups.com.