Error: Column Names Have Duplicates

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This error can be caused by multiple different issues.

Columns Have Duplicate Names

First, double-check that your column names do not have duplicates. This is the most common issue but not the only issue. See below for more.

Columns Are Missing Names In The First Row

Check that all columns have headers. This error gets thrown when there are empty cells in Row 1 of the CSV.

Blank Spaces In Cells

This error can be triggered by seemingly empty cells. You should check however that there are not in-fact blank spaces (space bar spaces) in empty cells. Specifically in columns or rows past your data. This is often the most difficult to track down using Excel, but can be easily seen by opening the CSV in a plain-text editor like notepad++

CSV Is Not Comma Separated (Tab, Semi-colon)

This error is triggered when files are not actually comma separated. Fixing this can be tricky and depends on the version of Windows or Mac you are running and the Region in the world you are running it in. First, to identify that this is the issue, please open the CSV in a plain-text editor like notepad++. Then check to see if the first row (values like sku, type, name etc...) are separated with commas, semi-colons, spaces or some other 'delimiter'.

It should look like this:

sku,_type,name,description,short_description,price

And NOT look like this:

sku;_type;name;description;short_description;price

Nor should it look like this:

sku	_type	name	description	short_description	price

If your file looks like one of the two incorrect formats above (or some other variation other than the first) here are some links that can help you fix this issue.

• https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba
• http://www.officetooltips.com/office/tips/change_the_semicolon_to_a_comma_or_vice_versa.html
• https://akbaraji.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/the-comma-and-semicolon-issue-in-excel-due-to-regional-settings-when-open-csv-file/

CSV Is Not UTF-8 Encoded

This error is the default message for improper encoding. Ensure that the file is UTF-8 encoded. In Excel, when saving the file (save as), in the Save window where you can name the file, click "Tools", then select Web options. In the "Encoding" tab you will be able to specify the file encoding type.

CSV Created In Excel On Windows But Edited In Mac/Linux

The problem could be that the CSV was modified on Mac or Linux. Sometimes Mac/Linux CSV editors (numbers/open office etc...) will put line break formatting at the end of lines (or something like this). Opening and saving the file in Microsoft Excel will typically fix the problem.

Quote: "I was receiving this error when editing and saving using LibreOffice on my Mac. Problem was solved by editing the file using Google Drive instead, then the error went away."

CSV Is Simply Not Formatted Correctly

This is the hardest to diagnose/fix because this error is thrown simply if your CSV file is not correctly formatted. Our best advice is to start back in Excel with File>New. Start by manually typing the minimum number of column headers needed to perform the task you are trying to accomplish

• Importing Products
• Updating Products via CSV file

Next, test the import with 1 row of data only. If you can get 1 row to import successfully, then you can start trying with more & more rows until the import has been completed successfully.