How do I restore my file after an encoding error?

You can watch our video to help you to fix your encoding issue, or follow the article below. 👇

💡 Sometimes, opening a .csv file in a software (a particular version of Excel for example) changes its encoding, which prevents proper readability by another software. 

Here are the most frequent cases of modification of the encoding when opening a file: 

• The data is in the same cell
• Column headings are offset from the column contents
• Accented characters are modified by a sequence of characters. 

To restore your file and allow our algorithms to enrich your file : 

If the source of your data is your software (Excel or other):

Your software version may not be able to export your data in the correct CSV format. The easiest way to do this is to export in XLS format, which has fewer encoding problems. 

Last check: to make sure the file is encoded correctly, you can import it into Google Sheets (File > Import): 

You will immediately see if the data is readable 🙂 

If everything is good, the file is ready for enrichment (File > Export) 🔥 

If the source of your data is an external tool through which you obtained the data : 

👉 Download the CSV file again from this tool, then drop it on Dropcontact without opening it in your software. For the record, it is when you open the file that the encoding is changed.  

Last check: to make sure the file is encoded correctly, you can import it into Google Sheets (File > Import), and export it again (File > Export).  

If you are unable to restore the file, you can send it to our support@dropcontact.io. We'll see what's blocking it 😉