Imported contacts

Comments

31 comments

  • Official comment
    Act! Team

    Hi Peter,

    You're most welcome and thanks for working with us to find the solution and also thank you also for your kind words.

    We're here if you need us

    Cam & Dan
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter,

    Can you confirm if the contacts on your original CSV file contained any duplicates? Act! Essentials will not add duplicated contacts.


    Thank you,
    Act! Essentials team

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  • Peter McKay

    I have jest checked - no duplicates. A question - how does AE decide that a record is a "duplicate" is there a key field? Cheers

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  • Peter McKay

    Another question - can I import an ACT database in the ACT database format?

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  • Act! Team

    Hello Peter,

    Duplicates are based off of 2 or more contacts containing the same:

    First Name, Last Name with same email address .

    If the Act! database is in a CSV or VCF file format yes you can import contacts to your Act! Essentials account.

     

    Kind Regards,
    Act! Essentials Team

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  • Peter McKay

    Definitely no duplicate email addresses on the file, Act databases are .adf - so I guess the answer is no. I exported the file from ACT as a CSV file an checked for integrity in Excel.

    So I am back to where I started with 334 (9%) of contacts "lost". Does not look like ACT Essentials is going to work for me. Any further thoughts?

    Cheers

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter, 

    continuing from my colleague's post. You cannot import an Act! database file (.adf) file directly into Act! Essentials. Essentials only supports import files of .CSV or .VCF file formats. You can and have by the sounds of it. Exported to CSV and then imported into Essentials which would be correct.

    Importing contacts would be duplicate checked on multiple fields, e.g. phone and email and contact name. Hitting on criteria should not produce a duplicate as you may have more than one 'John Smith' in the database.

    Regards,
    Act! Essentials Team

     

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  • Peter McKay

    Many thanks - so I have gone through the right process yet somehow lost 9% of the contacts.  Sigh

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Again Peter, 

    To confirm, you were adding the contacts into a blank database or were you adding them to an existing database?

    Is it possible the contacts you were importing would match records that exist in your database already?

     

    Regards,
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Peter McKay

    It was an empty  / new database that I imported the contacts into. Cheer

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  • Act! Team

    Peter,

    The CSV file you are importing. If you could open it in excel and then search the document for any instances of a comma being found.

    e.g. in an address field 'Unit, 1' 

    There being a rogue comma appearing in the importing fields in the CSV file could cause the issues you are describing.

    Thanks,
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Peter McKay

    Thanks for the tip. I will give it ago.

    Cheers

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  • Peter McKay

    I found 261 commas and removed them. I also found a blank entry. so I re-imported 3,657 contacts "successfully", However when I exported all contacts the file only had 3,324 contacts, still a 9% loss. And now I am at a loss.

    Do you happen to know if the ACT Premium Cloud can directly import an ACT .adf file?

    Cheers

    Peter 

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Again Peter,


    Sorry for the delay in coming back to you. 

    I understand you checked the import doc for erroneous data and then attempted to import again and had a similar result. Would you be able to provide us with a copy of the data for testing? If this would be acceptable. I will send you an email address to attach it to for further testing.

    In answer to your second question. If you have an Act! database in ADF format, when you upload to Act! Premium Cloud. This is restored 'As Is' for you. meaning:
    All of your templates, layouts, reports, contacts and users are uploaded to your Act! Premium Cloud site.

    When you receive the email that your database is ready, you will find a second database appearing next to the blank database we provide to you in the 'Log on to' option. Your existing usernames and passwords are then used to access this database.

     

    I hope this answers your question
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Peter McKay

    More than happy to send oyu the data - usual data privacy proviso's apply. I hope you can embarrass me by finding what I have done wrong.

    Cheers

    Also thank you for the info about Premium Cloud.

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  • Act! Team

    Peter,

     

    If you could send it to mycloud@act.com and I'll test it for you. However for all support, we should still use zendesk to converse.

     

    Cam
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter, 

     

    Good news, I can't give you an exact cause of the issue. I remade a new CSV file individually copying the columns from one CSV into the new one.
    Tested the import and it was successful.

    Check your emails good Sir.

     

    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Peter McKay

    I really appreciate your help but did you then export the file - as I just did and the export only has 3324 contacts. Even though the import of 3657 was reported as successful?

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter,

    I would imagine that this is happening because either some of the contacts in the spreadsheet are classed as duplicates or the imported contacts match some of the existing ones in your database.

    The contacts would only be considered duplicates if the following info is the same: First name + Last name + email address. If you are importing contacts that have the same first name and last name but no email they will still be considered a duplicate.

    Dan

    Act! Essentials Team

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  • Peter McKay

    Ah Dan

    Already been down that path. One of your colleagues (Cam) checked the file. To reiterate the import is reported as "successful" but when the list is exported - as I need to do to send to a mail house, 300+ contacts get lost. 

    Cam thought it was solved but when I repeated the process with the cleaned up file, exactly the same thing happened. ??????

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter,

    Cam and I went through the import of your spreadsheet together the other day and it all imported fine on his machine. You've mentioned that all of the contacts have imported successfully on your machine but can you clarify it is the export that you're now having issues with?

    In the meantime, is there a specific reason why the CSV file needs to be exported from Act since you already have the original copy with all of your contacts in it?

    Dan
    Act! Essentials Team

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  • Peter McKay

    I have a copy of ACTv17 on a single computer. I want to move to a "cloud" product so I can work on it wherever I am.

    I import the CSV file - into an empty database.

    ACT Essentials report "successful import of 3,657 records

    Then I export the file - in the way I would need to do to send the list to a mail house, using the addresses for a physical mailout. The file that is exported has 334 fewer record than were reported as imported.

    Peter

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter,

    Have you confirmed that there are definitely 3,658 contacts in your Act! Essentials database before the export?

    Alternatively, have you considered Act! Premium Cloud? You can sign up for a free trial here: https://buy.act.com/en-GB/trial/product/ActPremium/plan/Month?utm_source=website&utm_medium=pricing

    With Cloud, you are able to provide a full copy of your v17 database in the form of a backup. We will then restore the backup so you are able to access it on your website.

    Dan
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Peter McKay

    I reaaly appreciate your continuing help. Other than the message about succesful import, how do I confirm that all 3,657 have been imported?

    Cheer

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter,

     

    Sorry for the delay, there isn't a total contacts number that exists in Act! Essentials. If there is, I cannot find one. However I did find a 'Work Around'

    In the Essentials database. In the list view, if you click on the square icon with a tick in it. Then select all contacts with the very top tick icon. Then add to a Group. (Create a new Group and call it 'Total Contacts' then you will have a counter telling you how many people exist within the Act! Essentials database.

    I am feeding back internally to say as a feature request. A total number of contacts would be a great idea

     

    Cam
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Peter McKay

    Ingeneous and gues what - 3,323 contacts are in the new group. So despite the system saying 3,657 were succesfully imported only 3,323 actually made it. I have double checked (as I think you did) the csv file has 3,657 contacts.

    I wonder what is happening to the 334 that go missing?

    Cheers

    Peter

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  • Act! Team

    Peter,

     

    I have just replicated your problem in my own Act! Essentials test database. I imported the contacts:-

    http://imgur.com/n3bPLyO

    I created a new group and called it Peter's Contacts and I can only see 3,324 contacts.

    http://imgur.com/DfYp5tJ

    When I tested this previously I swear these were not the same results. I am now going to be contacting my developers for further advice.

    I'll come back to you when I have further information.

    Regards,

    Cam
    Act! Essentials Team.

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  • Peter McKay

    That would be very handy. With  just seven days of the free trial left, it would be good to have a solution / explanation before then

    Cheers

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  • Act! Team

    Hi Peter,

     

    The developer team have come back to me today and informed me it is duplication checking that is causing the issue, it matches:-

    First Name
    Last Name
    Email Address.

    A lot of the importing data didn't have an email address and therefore the duplicate checking can only match on First name and Last name.

    In Act! and Act! Premium Cloud you have the ability to match duplicates with more fields. Something that may be included in the future with Act! Essentials.

     

    Thanks,
    Act! Essentials Team

     

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  • Peter McKay

    I really appreciate the help you have been giving me and now I can clearly identify the contacts that did not come across. Excellent

    Thanks you

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