The importer shows a file format warning

If the bulk import tool is showing a warning about an incorrectly formatted file, it's because the file you're attempting to import is not formatted as UTF-8.

If your file contains any accented letters (á, ä, ç, è, etc.) or other non-English characters, we strongly recommend you re-save your file in "UTF-8" format to ensure that these characters display properly on your store locator.

How do I fix it?

You can follow our  instructions for converting a spreadsheet to CSV to create a file that's in the right format.

Please be sure to follow the directions exactly to ensure your file is in the correct format.

My store details are all in English

If your store details are in English, the problem is usually caused by an occasional accent (café, phở, résumé, etc).

If you think that the accents are rare and don't consider them to be important, you can ignore the warning and continue to import your file as-is. However, please note that the accented characters may display incorrectly on your store locator.

Why does this happen?

For historical reasons, computers used to save files in language-specific formats. So a file created on a Spanish-language computer wouldn't be readable by a Russian-language computer. This saved disk space, but was a headache when sharing files because your computer couldn't understand a file without knowing what language it was created in.

With the advent of the internet, the newer UTF-8 format was created which can handle any language. Even though UTF-8 has existed for decades, certain programs (notably Microsoft Excel before the 2016 edition) still used the old language-specific formats when saving a CSV file and didn't support UTF-8.

Need help?

If you run into any problems or have any questions, please contact us and we're happy to assist.