Symptom

You have …

• …created a Data Collection (Data Source Type),
• …converted it into a List (Data Variable Type),
• …and used the Export List Items to CSV file action to download it onto your computer.

However, when you open it in Excel, add more rows, and try to upload it again using the "Import List Items from CSV file" action, you encountered an error message saying "Could not import list - Invalid data format.

Explanation

<aside> <img src="/icons/light-bulb_gray.svg" alt="/icons/light-bulb_gray.svg" width="40px" /> In Case You Didn't Know: It’s Unicode All the Way Down HELIO uses Unicode to display a wide range of characters, making it possible to work with languages that use non-Latin scripts.

</aside>

To display special characters in HELIO, all files need to be encoded using UTF-8. HELIO requires files to be encoded in UTF-8 and also creates them in this format.

However, when editing these files using tools like Microsoft Excel, it might change the default encoding of the files created by HELIO. This is especially true if you have customers who entered data in languages that contain special characters.

Resolution

When Using Microsoft Excel (Windows)

1. Open your CSV file with Microsoft Excel.
2. Click on File.
3. Select Save As from the dropdown menu.
4. Click on the dropdown menu next to File Format.
5. Choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (.csv) from the dropdown menu.