Unable to Import Contacts - Error in CSV Translator

[Carolyn Belknap]

Trying to import a CSV file into Contacts. I am running
Outlook 2002 (Service Pack 2) on Windows XP. Using the
Import/Export Wizard, I get the following error and can't
get past this. Has anyone else run into this?

"Translation Error. A file error has occurred in the
Comma Separated Values (Windows) translator while
initializing a translator to build a field map.

The file ".yahoo_ab.csv" was not recognized. The
Separated Values (Windows) translator was unable to
recognize this file. It could be the wrong file, a
version of the file type which is not supported by this
translator, or the file might be corrupt."

[Carolyn Belknap]

Since sending the last note, I did de-install and re-
install office. Problem did not go away. I note Outlook
still shows version is SP2, so the patch must not have
been de-installed. Not sure how to go about deinstalling
the patches to test to see if this is the problem.
>-----Original Message-----
>Yes, Karl, the file looks fine in excel. I downloaded
it
>in windows csv form from Yahoo and saved as a csv file.
>I've downloaded it multiple times just in case.
Attached
>is a screen print of the error message so you can see
the
>quotation marks. I checked my installation of Outlook
>and made sure the converters are installed. I have done
>import/export in the past w/o problems. I recently
>applied service packs 1 and 2 to my Office XP software
>and suspect this might be the source of the problem, so
I
>may de-install office, install it again and see what
>happens.
>>-----Original Message-----
>>Can you open the file in Excel? Does it look right? Out
>of
>>curiousity - why would your file name be preceded by
>a "."
>>(period) unless it's a malformed name or a type when you
>>copied the message?
>>
>>Karl
>>
>>--
>>________________________________________________
>>Karl Timmermans
>>The Claxton Group
>>"ContactGenie Importer"
>>"the automated contact import robot for MS Outlook"
>>http://www.contactgenie.com
>>
>>
>>"Carolyn Belknap" <belk...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>news:dec801c28116$c5c04150$39ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA08...

>>.
>>

[Karl Timmermans]

Can you open the file in Excel? Does it look right? Out of
curiousity - why would your file name be preceded by a "."
(period) unless it's a malformed name or a type when you
copied the message?

Karl

--
________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans
The Claxton Group
"ContactGenie Importer"
"the automated contact import robot for MS Outlook"
http://www.contactgenie.com

"Carolyn Belknap" <belk...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dec801c28116$c5c04150$39ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA08...

[Carolyn Belknap]

OK - found a workaround. I saved the .csv file as an
Excel workbook, then tried to import from Excel and it
worked. Go figure....

>.
>

[Karl Timmermans]

Given the things we've seen - not much surprises me. Would
love to take a look at the file that didn't work to
determine what caused it to trip up if you're interested.

Karl
--
________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans
The Claxton Group
"ContactGenie Importer"
"the automated contact import robot for MS Outlook"
http://www.contactgenie.com

"Carolyn Belknap" <belk...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:00d701c2812b$f80be0a0$39ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA08...

[Karl Timmermans]

For those who may run into the same thing. Cause of the
problem with the specific file in question was due to the
fact that the CSV file was not created uniformly (i.e. not
all records had the same number of fields). When Outlook
imports the text files, it scans the first "n" of records (I
think it's 25) to ascertain field type. In this case,
starting with row 16 or so - there were substantially less
fields in the row - hence the problem. Opening it in Excel
and then importing it that way works since it obviously
doesn't do the same checking when reading the file
initially.

Karl

--
________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans
The Claxton Group
"ContactGenie Importer"
"the automated contact import robot for MS Outlook"
http://www.contactgenie.com

"Carolyn Belknap" <belk...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dec801c28116$c5c04150$39ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA08...

> Trying to import a CSV file into Contacts. I am running

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Thanks, Karl
Just curious. On my system, CSV files are associated with Excel by default.
Would that correct the problem?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Karl Timmermans" <ka...@theclaxtongroup.com> wrote in message
news:eXsXsJJhCHA.1516@tkmsftngp09...

[Karl Timmermans]

The association isn't really the problem - just trying to
directly import the file into Outlook (and let me stress -
it's only an issue if the first "n" (25 or so or whatever is
set in the registry) number of records are not equally
constructed with the same # of delimiters). If my suspicions
are right, the way outlook works (actually the base Text
driver it uses) is that it looks for the specific # of
fields found in the first row. Since one or more of the
records it scans doesn't have enough fields - it encounters
a NULL value - and hence advises that the file is not in the
proper format.

For the technical crowd, my guess is that Outlook uses the
MSDASQL Text driver. The Jet OLEDB text driver doesn't trip
up on this however both seem to have the data typing issue I
mentioned in one of the other messages here.

Am not sure what happens if the first "n" records it scans
are all correct and then the issue is encountered later on.
(I do know our product handles it in both cases tho :-)
since we don't use either of the above drivers anymore for
processing any text based files.

Karl

PS - If anyone from MS (or anyone else for that matter)
happens to read this and has another explanation - I'd love
to find out and stand corrected.

--
________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans
The Claxton Group
"ContactGenie Importer"
"the automated contact import robot for MS Outlook"
http://www.contactgenie.com

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" <rus...@mvps.org> wrote in
message news:eiWV1rKhCHA.1544@tkmsftngp09...

[njde...@gmail.com]

It work for me when I just cleaned up the fields in excel csv that aren't used or only one contact used them...once I cleaned it up, i was able to change the file name and re-save it. If it doesn't let you, try renaming the file so you don't get the error at the top "possible data loss" Once you have a clean .csv file, you should be able to import...and this is for the most recent version of MS Outlook 365 as of 3/17/2019

[abir...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, March 17, 2019 at 9:48:13 PM UTC+6, njde...@gmail.com wrote:

> It work for me when I just cleaned up the fields in excel csv that aren't used or only one contact used them...once I cleaned it up, i was able to change the file name and re-save it. If it doesn't let you, try renaming the file so you don't get the error at the top "possible data loss" Once you have a clean .csv file, you should be able to import...and this is for the most recent version of MS Outlook 365 as of 3/17/2019

Thanks. It worked for me. I am using MS Outlook 2010.

[stacym...@gmail.com]

What I did was, I opened the csv file in Excel and eliminated the enumerated spaces by filling them with information that wasn't there previously. Basically added to the place where there was no name in the numbered slot in excel. It worked after the fields were in order

[xer...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, October 31, 2002 at 2:50:32 PM UTC-5, Carolyn Belknap wrote:

saving the original csv file then open in Excel and then save as a workbook csv file, then import into outlook worked for me..

[jak...@gmail.com]

I had the same problem, my problem was that the first contact on my list started with a non-standard character (a quotation mark). I deleted that line and then it imported fine.

[roy...@gmail.com]

Thank you Karl you are a life saver!
Darcy Roy