File Won't Upload

  • File too large -- Max 50MB. Split into files under 10,000 records.
  • Wrong format -- Accepted formats: .csv, .json, .jsonl, .ndjson, .xlsx, .xml, .zip
  • Empty file -- Must have at least one data record, not just headers.
  • Encoding -- Save CSVs as UTF-8.

Too Many Records

The importer handles up to 10,000 records per file. For larger datasets:

  1. Split your export into chunks of 10,000 or fewer
  2. Import the first chunk through the full wizard
  3. Save the configuration
  4. Load the saved config for each remaining chunk

With saved configs, each subsequent import takes a couple of minutes. You only do field mapping once.

Splitting a CSV: Open in a spreadsheet, copy the header row, then split data rows into groups of 10,000. Save each group as a separate CSV with the header row included.

Splitting JSON: If your export is an array of objects, split the array into chunks. Each chunk needs to be valid JSON.

Platform Not Detected

  • Upload the raw export file, not a modified version
  • JSON exports are easier to detect than CSVs
  • You can manually select the platform in the detection step to get pre-filled mappings
  • Generic imports work fine with manual field mapping

Fields Not Mapping Correctly

  • Custom fields show platform-specific names (e.g. cf_product_type for Freshdesk). Map them manually.
  • Nested fields are flattened with dot notation (requester.email)
  • Empty columns still appear in the mapper. Skip them.

Duplicate Records

  • Select the right match key (email for customers, short_id for tickets)
  • Email matching is case-insensitive; custom fields are exact match
  • When importing in batches, always use a match key to prevent duplicates across files
  • If duplicates were created, use bulk delete to clean up

Timestamps Look Wrong

  • ISO 8601 format (2024-01-15T10:30:00Z) works best
  • US dates (01/15/2024) and European dates (15/01/2024) are both supported
  • Unix timestamps convert automatically

Import Partially Failed

  • The summary shows which records failed and why
  • Common causes: missing required fields, invalid data types, sanitization failures
  • Fix the source data and re-import the failed records using the Update if Empty strategy

HTML Content Stripped

cStar sanitizes imported HTML for security. Script tags, iframes, and embedded objects are removed. Standard formatting (bold, italic, links, lists) is preserved.

Still Stuck?

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