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Troubleshooting: importing subscribers (post-import)
Troubleshooting: importing subscribers (post-import)

Explanations and resolutions for issues that occur after your Subscriber import is complete, such as reporting discrepancies or delays.

Updated over a week ago

So, you've imported your subscribers... but something doesn't look right.

In this article, we'll go over the most commonly reported post-import issues, along with explanations to help you determine whether you may be experiencing a delay or an intended behavior:

NOTE: In this guide, we'll cover post-import issues only, which occur after your subscriber import is complete. If you're having trouble importing your subscribers in the first place, please refer to these steps instead!

The subscribers aren't showing up in your account right away

It can take a few minutes for your subscribers to show up in your account after you import them, especially if your CSV contained a large number of subscribers.

But we won't leave you guessing; you'll receive an email once your import is complete!

Your import is complete, and some existing subscriber data is missing/has been overwritten

When we import your data to Kit, we will replace any existing data we have on your subscribers with the data you provide in your import file. This includes replacing existing subscriber data we find with blank values if your import file contains blank fields.

For example, let's say you have stored the following information on a subscriber in Kit:

Name of field

Data

First Name

Jarhead

Last Name

(blank)

Email Address

Birthdate

2001-10-02

Tags

(none)

You then import a file containing this data on the same subscriber:

The subscriber's data in Kit will become:

Name of field

Data

Comments

First Name

Jughead

We've overwritten the existing "Jarhead" first name data with the new "Jughead" data

Last Name

Jones

We've added the new data on the subscriber's last name

Email Address

Birthdate

(blank)

We've removed the data on the subscriber's birthdate

Tags

[Student] Riverdale High, [Reporter] The Blue & Gold

We've tagged the subscriber with the two specified tags

If you mistakenly overwrote existing subscriber data, you can undo the changes by importing the original version of your subscriber data (if you still have a copy of it).

Splitting your subscriber import work into multiple imports can help you avoid overwriting existing subscriber data when importing new subscriber data into Kit. Learn more about the process of splitting imports here.

Your import is complete, but your subscriber graph numbers are off

Our reports operate on a cache and refresh cycle. Even if your import is complete, it can still take a few minutes longer for the reporting to catch up.

That said, if a significant amount of time has passed (more than an hour), please proceed to the next sections.

Your newly imported subscribers aren't showing up at the top of your list on the Subscribers page

If any of the subscribers you imported were already in your account, re-importing them will not move them to the top of your overall subscriber list.

This is because that list is sorted by original subscription date, and the date they originally subscribed to your list remains unchanged even if you import them again at a later date.

If you suspect an imported subscriber is missing, you can more accurately verify whether this is the case by searching for their email address from the sidebar.

The subscriber increase reported in Kit doesn't match how many subscribers were included in your CSV

There are three likely explanations for this, and all are actually positive effects of Kit being a subscriber-centric platform.

In all of the following scenarios, the bottom line is this: Kit will never add a subscriber to your list more than once!

GIF of a real cat next to a stuffed cat that looks the same as it

Duplicates are okay sometimes... just not on your email list! 🙅 You can learn more about our subscriber-centric approach (and why it's a good thing!) here.

1. Your import included some email addresses that were already on your list.

If your import includes subscribers that were already on your list prior to the import, your subscriber count may not increase by as much as you were expecting—but this is intentional.

If there's a subscriber contained in your import file that's already on your list, we won't add them to your list again. Instead, we'll just add whatever it is that you're importing them into (such as a tag) to their existing profile.

Here's an example: Let's say you have 100 subscribers on your list, and you're importing a CSV with 100 additional subscribers. However, 25 of the email addresses contained in your CSV file are already on your list.

In this case, once the import is complete, your subscriber count will only increase to 175—not the 200 you may have been initially expecting. This is because we automatically de-duplicate those 25 subscribers for you.

Each subscriber is counted and imported only once.

2. Your CSV file contains duplicate email addresses within it.

Even if you're 100% sure that your CSV contains subscribers that are not already on your list, if there are still some are duplicates within the CSV, those duplicates will also be counted and imported only once.

Here's an example: say you have 100 subscribers on your list, and you're importing a CSV with 100 additional subscribers. However, 10 of the email addresses in your CSV are repeated twice. As a result, there are actually only 90 unique email addresses contained in your CSV.

In this case, once the import is complete, your subscriber count will increase to only 190—not the 200 you may have been initially expecting.

3. Your CSV file contains subscribers who previously unsubscribed from your list.

If someone previously unsubscribed from your list and then are subsequently included in an import, we will not re-activate them on your list.

We'll remember that they previously unsubscribed, and their status on your list will remain as 'Cancelled' (and as a result, they won't be included in your confirmed subscriber total).

Here's an example: say you have 100 subscribers on your list, and you're importing a CSV with 100 additional subscribers. However, 5 of the email addresses in your CSV belong to people who have unsubscribed from your emails in the past.

In this case, once the import is complete, your subscriber count will increase to only 195—not the 200 you may have been initially expecting. This is because we will not re-activate those 5 subscribers who previously unsubscribed from your emails.

☝️ NOTE: If someone unsubscribed from your list by accident and/or you have their permission to reactivate them, please reach out to us and we can take care of that for you.

Still having post-import trouble?

If none of these explain your issue, please reach out to us with a description of the issue you're experiencing, and attach the CSV file you imported. One of our Product Specialists will help troubleshoot further!

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