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Contact and Lead Imports

If you have permission to import data, you can import up to 50,000 contacts and leads at a time by using a CSV file and a simplified import flow. If you have access to the Data Import Wizard, or are part of an Einstein Activity Capture configuration that allows contact syncing, you can select the method you want to use at the time of import.

Required Editions

Available in: Lightning Experience
Available in: Professional, Enterprise, and Performance editions

The Basic Data Import is for importing new contacts or leads only. Ask your Salesforce admin to turn on the Basic Data Import in Salesforce, which is available in Enterprise and Performance editions. Then, if you have the View Setup and Configuration permission plus permission to import contacts or leads, you can select how to import new contacts or leads based on your system configuration.

Important
Important When completing the import, the Import from File option supports UTF-8 character encoding only. If you require a different character encoding format, select Import, Update, or Export to complete your import by using the Data Import Wizard, which allows you to select a character code standard.

The CSV file import uses the same data matching and import rules as the Data Import Wizard and offers these key features.

  • Easy to follow, guided experience.
  • A sample CSV file to ensure your data is in the right format.
  • Automated matching to data already in your system to identify duplicate records.
  • Easy to select options to map fields in your file to fields in Salesforce.
  • Previews of mapped fields.

After you import your data, you receive an email summary with the results of the import. If the import failed due to multiple errors, an error details file is attached. If the import failed only because of duplicate records, no error details are attached.

Salesforce recommends that you test a small file first to make sure that you’ve prepared your source data correctly. Any duplicate leads are identified by matches in Name only.

The Basic Data Import can import leads with custom lookup fields related to custom objects, as long as there's more than one. If there's only one custom lookup field related to a custom object, use the Data Import Wizard or Data Loader. Also use the Data Import Wizard or Data Loader for these situations.

  • You have a large or complex import job.
  • You're importing data for objects other than leads or contacts.
  • You're importing updates to existing contacts and leads.
  • You have a Salesforce edition that doesn't support Basic Data Import.

See Also