Recruit - Troubleshooting bulk candidate imports

If you've done a bulk candidate import and not all the candidates in your CSV file successfully imported, check the Data import/export activities page in the Backoffice (Settings > Data import/export activities) to review the reasons why.

If the import shows that it was successful, but you can't see the candidates against your vacancy, you may have forgotten to check the box to "Submit imported candidates". This will mean that the candidates have been imported as Unsubmitted candidates (Candidates > Unsubmitted). Where this is the case, you have the following options:

1. Delete the imported candidates and re-import the same candidates again, this time ensuring you check the box to submit them. The Delete candidate function is usually available to Super Users only and may be available as a single or a bulk candidate action; or both. i.e. Right click on a candidate and click the "Delete candidate" option or select one or more candidates and choose the "Delete candidate(s)" option from the Bulk action menu at the bottom. 
2. Submit the applications - Either complete and submit the application form on each candidate's behalf (right click on a candidate, go to "View candidate file" and use the "Mimic candidate" option); or email the candidate and request that they complete and submit their application (they will need to request a new password if they had not previously registered themselves).

If the import failed or included any failures, check the following:

The CSV format must not be the Excel UTF-8 format - use the standard Excel CSV format when saving in Excel. UTF-8 format from other applications, such as Open Office Calc is fine.

All registration-related field columns must be present or configured with defaults in the import file, although the Title and Mobile number fields are not required to actually include any data.

The registration-related fields are as follows:

• Email address (usually Person.Email - column required and data mandatory)
• First name (usually Person.Firstname - column required and data mandatory)
• Surname (usually Person.Surname - column required and data mandatory)
• Title (usually Person.Title - column required, but data not mandatory)
• Registered date (usually Person.RegisteredDate - column required and data mandatory if displayed)
• Internal person (usually Person.InternalPerson - column required and data mandatory if displayed)

N.B. The last two columns mentioned above are usually not displayed in the import/export format and are configured with defaults as follows:

• Registered date - defaults to the date/time of the import
• Internal person - defaults to "False" (i.e. External person)

If either of the above two columns are visible, then they must not be deleted and must be populated with a full date/time stamp for the Registered date and with either "True" or "False" for the Internal person field ("True" indicates an internal person, "False" indicates an external person).

If any columns other than the above-mentioned registration-related fields are empty, they may be deleted completely, including the column heading to improve the speed of the import.

Other possible reasons why a candidate may not import:

1. Duplicates
   If a candidate already exists in the vacancy you are trying to import to, either as a submitted or an unsubmitted candidate, the candidate will be considered as a duplicate and will not be imported.
   
   Check the candidate's email address in your CSV file and then search for that email on the Person list page to confirm this. Click the Person audit trail icon to view submitted and/or unsubmitted applications and confirm they already exist in your vacancy.
   
   One common scenario here is that users sometimes forget to select the option to submit candidates when importing. This will import the candidates as unsubmitted candidates, after which they may be contacted and asked to check and submit their own applications.
   
   If you don't want to contact the candidates (or mimic them and submit on their behalf), you may use the Delete candidate option in the Bulk action menu on the Unsubmitted candidates page to delete the candidate(s) and then re-import them, making sure you check the option to submit them the second time.
   
   
2. Failures
   Candidates who end up in the failures list can't be imported for some reason. This is most likely either due to some invalid data in the CSV file, or due to the CSV file format not matching the format required for import.
   
   Make sure the file you are importing matches the format required. Click the Download CSV Template button on the Import candidates to this vacancy page (Vacancies page > Icon in Functions column) for the required CSV import format.
   
   If the import format is correct, it's likely that there is some invalid data somewhere in the import file - usually this will be one or more characters in a text field somewhere. Most commonly, invalid characters may be found in text fields with lots of text in, so check these first. These characters are usually obvious in Excel as well as they won't look like letters, numbers or commonly used symbols. Check also for the \ character, and replace with the / character if found.