Importing contacts

Prepare your file

• Header row: put the column names in the first row.
• Name or email: the file needs at least one of them. Separate first and last name columns are joined into one name.
• Separator: comma, semicolon or tab. Deskwoot detects which one your file uses, so a CSV from Excel in German or French works too.
• Encoding: UTF-8 is best. A file Excel saved in Windows encoding is read correctly as well, umlauts and accents included.
• Size: up to 50 MB per file. The column analysis reads files up to 10 MB.

Import step by step

1. Go to Settings > Import & Migration and pick CSV.
2. Upload your file under Upload your file.
3. Click Analyze & detect columns. Deskwoot suggests whether the file holds contacts or conversations and a field for every column.
4. Check Import as (Contacts or Conversations) and, for each column, Maps to: a field such as Name, Email, Phone, Company, Location, Description or Identifier, Custom Attribute, or Skip.
5. Click Start Import.

While the file is processed, the import page shows how many rows are done. A long import also shows its speed and about how much time is left after a few minutes. At the end you see how many records were imported and how many failed. Import History keeps these numbers for every import.

How rows are handled

• Existing contacts are found by email. Their empty fields are not overwritten: only the cells that have a value update the contact.
• Rows without an email always create a new contact, even if a contact with the same phone number exists.
• Empty rows are skipped.
• Custom attributes are saved under the column name as their key. Name the column like the key of an attribute you created, for example subscription_plan.

Good to know

• One import runs per workspace at a time. If another import (from a CSV or another help desk) is running, wait until it has finished, or stop it with Cancel import on the import page, which also deletes what it imported so far.
• Unlike the imports from other help desks, a CSV import cannot continue after a server restart, because the uploaded file is not kept. It then shows Interrupted by a server restart. Start the import again. in Import History.
• Conversations from a CSV stay quiet until the customer writes again or someone on your team replies: no farewell message, no satisfaction survey, no SLA clock and no automatic resolve. Unlike conversations imported from another help desk, they count toward your plan's monthly conversation limit. Fynn, the AI bot, never answers in them.
• Try a small file with about 10 rows first to check your mapping.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum my file needs?

A column mapped to Name (or first and last name) or to Email. Completely empty rows are skipped.

Does importing overwrite existing data?

Only with values. A contact found by email gets the values your file has for it; empty cells leave the existing data as it is.

Can I import the same file twice?

Contacts with an email are updated, not duplicated. Contacts without an email and conversations are created again, so for those, delete the first import in Import History before you upload the file again.

The import was interrupted. What do I do?

Delete the interrupted import in Import History (the trash icon), which removes the contacts and conversations it created, then upload the file again.

Can I import conversations?

Simple ones, yes. Pick Conversations under Import as: each row becomes one conversation with its first message (contact email and name, subject, message, status, priority, date). For a full history, use the importers for Freshdesk, Zendesk, Intercom, Crisp or Chatwoot, which read everything through the API.

Can I tag imported contacts?

The import has no tags field, and a tag column is saved as a custom attribute. To group imported contacts, select them in Contacts and click Add to Segment.

How do I undo an import?

In Import History, click the trash icon next to the import. That removes the contacts and conversations it created. A conversation someone wrote in since then stays with those new messages, and a contact who still has a conversation stays too. Updates to contacts that already existed are not undone. While another import runs, an import cannot be deleted.