Skip to main content
Skip table of contents

FAQ and Troubleshooting

Frequently Asked Questions

QuestionAnswer
Who do I contact if I need help, run into a bug, or have feedback to share on the Data Import tool?Contact the PowerSchool Support team by submitting a support ticket through the PowerSchool Community.
What file types does the Data Import tool support?.txt and .csv
Do my column headers need to be in a specific order?No, your column headers can be in any order. The key factor is ensuring the header names match between your file and the import job configured inside of the Data Import tool.
Does the Data Import tool support Quote Wrapping?Yes, it does, with the exception of the header row. 
How does the Data Import tool handle deactivation?

There is an optional column available inside of the User, Location, Supervisor, and Location import files named "Deactivated" that, when included, will allow you to choose exactly what rows should be flagged for deactivation. Values for the Deactivated column are:

T or True = Deactivated
Y or Yes = Deactivated
1 = Deactivated
Any other value = Active
If not supplied, the default value is Active.

What products does the Data Import tool support?Unified Talent Employee Records, Perform, and Applicant Tracking as well as Professional Learning and Perform Enterprise.
What is the difference between Manual Run and File Validation?File Validation reviews the individual import file looking for errors but will not actually import the data into your respective products, while Manual Run processes the data found in the files and uploads the data to your respective products.
How can I set up my import job to only import into a specific product and not all of my products?You can do this by enabling the Product Security optional columns inside of the Staff import file.
What is Mass Deactivate?

Mass Deactivate is an optional setting that can be enabled on a per-import basis. When this setting is enabled, we treat the file uploaded as the ultimate source of truth of what data should be active in your Employee Records and Perform products. This means we will mass deactivate any User/JobType/Supervisor/Location that is not found inside the file that was uploaded. If for example, you upload a file that has 100 users in it, but your Employee Records has 125 users, we will bulk deactivate the 25 users that are found in Records but not found inside of your file. Please note this process is what we call a soft delete which means any user deactivated can be restored and is not lost forever.

  • Only available to Employee Records and Perform products
  • No safety net/threshold system. Please ensure your file has the most updated information. This feature is targeted for Q4 2022
  • No detailed logs as to how many users were deactivated with the import. This feature is targeted for Q4 2022


What happens if my school re-uses email addresses or usernames?We do not recommend re-using email addresses or usernames as it is one of our unique identifiers that when running an import that can result in you accidentally re-activating an old employee and overwriting their data with a new user's info. However, if your school plans on re-using email addresses we recommend you add an additional process to your HR team's offboarding process when a user leaves/is terminated. When a person leaves the district, simply change their username or email address to, say, their employee ID + their username. If the same person returns and uses the same employee ID again, the username & email address would get updated back to its original value via an import file since we have a matching employee ID that hasn't been changed.

Troubleshooting Tips

IssueTip
I ran an import via SFTP but did not receive an email notification and do not see the import in the reporting area.

This means the Data Import tool either was not able to connect to the SFTP server where the file was located or was unable to locate the file on the SFTP server. Verify the following:

  • Filename matches between the SFTP server and the import set up in the Data Import tool.
  • The file is located on the SFTP server.
  • The source directory is correct for each import.
  • The remote server is pointing at the correct SFTP server if you are using your own SFTP server.
I ran a manual import but did not receive an email notification and do not see the import in the reporting area.This means the file name that was being imported did not match the configured settings for the import job in the Data Import tool. Verify that the file name matches and try to manually run the import again.
What do these error messages mean?
  • "An error happened while initializing the import manager: A required column was expected but not found: [location, first name, work email, personal email, employee id, username, last name]"
    This error indicates that the Import tool was looking for the columns listed in the error but the import file itself did not contain all of those column headers. To resolve this error, ensure your file has the matching header values that were indicated when you set up the import.
  • "An error happened while initializing the import manager: The importer was expecting 10 columns, Row 1 had 11. Fatal Error, processing will be halted. Please review the file and correct the columns."
    This error indicates that one row in your file had an additional column that did not belong to a header. To resolve this error, review the row indicated in the error that has an extra column.
  • "ERROR: UserManager: Batch 1 of job 229 failed to transmit to Motu. Error: Unauthorized"
    This error indicates the import failed to send to the import processing tool. We recommend running the import again while our development team looks into preventing this error from happening.
  • "The provided email is blank for PersonalEmail, unable to continue processing lineNumber 1."
    This error indicates that for row number 1 a required value was missing for the PersonalEmail column. Many of the columns require a value to be entered or the row will be skipped, and an error will be generated.

  • "Command failed on all retries" This should be ignored as it has no bearing on the processing of imports. This relates to an upcoming feature enhancement wherein we plan to bring detailed logs to the application. 

What do these validation messages mean in a Detailed Log File?

  • “User with Email 'jdoe@xxxxxx.org' should have value in Products or UTProductUsers field”
    This error is specific to Sync User Import Type. It is received from Applicant Tracking System when either Product column is not added in the Import configuration or if no value is provided against it for that particular user row. To resolve this error, add the Product column to your file if you want the imports to go to Applicant Tracking System, otherwise, this error can be ignored.

  • “Work Email 'jdoe@xxxxxx.org' is already assigned to an existing user“
    This error indicates that the particular work email is already associated with another user in the system and therefore cannot be associated with the user that has been imported.

  • “Personal Email 'jdoe@xxxxxx.org' is already assigned to an existing user“
    This error indicates that the particular personal email is already associated with another user in the system and therefore cannot be associated with the user that has been imported.

  • “User with SupervisorEmployeeID ‘2345’ does not exist in the system”
    This error indicates that the provided employee ID of the supervisor is invalid.

What do these validation warnings mean in a Detailed Log File?

  • “Invalid Phone format for the user Email ‘jdoe@xxxxxx.org’“
    This error indicates that phone number provided for the particular user is not in the expected format: 999-999-9999 or 9999999999.

  • “Invalid Gender for the user Email ‘jhalpert@xxxxxx.edu'“
    This error indicates that the gender provided for the particular user is not of the expected format: ‘M’, ‘F’, ‘Male’, or 'Female’.

Product Security Option in TalentED Staff Import

Inside of the TalentED Users import job, there is an optional Product Security setting that can be enabled to let you not only control what products you want your staff to be imported into, but also allow you to define what security level you would like the user to be set as. If you do not enable this setting, your users by default will be sent to Records and Perform, but will not be sent to ApplicantTracking. New users created by the import will have their security group set to Staff. Existing users will not have their security group altered.

When you select the setting, four optional columns become available to add:

  1. Products
  2. Records
  3. Perform
  4. Applicant Tracking

Products

When the Products column is included in your import file, you have the ability to decide what products the user should be sent to but you will not be able to set their security group. New users by default will be set as Staff.

  • The Products column should not be enabled alongside the other three optional columns.
  • You can either set a default value in the Data Import tool for what products you would like users to be sent to or include the individual product names inside of your import file for each row value. 
  • If you set a default value in the UI, the import tool will send the user to the product(s) listed in the Products column if the value provided in the file is null or empty. If they contain a value in the import file, the Products column value will be ignored. Acceptable values that must be comma-delimited: Employee Records, Perform, Applicant Tracking.

Employee Records, Perform, Applicant Tracking

The other three columns represent the individual products (Employee Records, Perform, and Applicant Tracking) and allow you to set the security group that the user should belong to for each product.

  • If the column is enabled but no value for the user is supplied and no default value is set inside of the Data Import tool, the user will not be sent to the select product
  • If the column header is enabled and a default value is set inside of the Data Import tool, the value for a user can be null (blank) in the import file and the user’s security group will be set to the default value. Note that this can result in a user having their security group demoted.
  • Acceptable values:
    • Records: HR Staff, Staff, System Admin
    • Perform: HR Staff, Staff, System Administrator
    • Applicant Tracking: Administrative Assistant, Building Administrator Readonly, Building Administrator w/ Hire, Hiring Manager, HR Support Staff, IT Staff, Recruiter, Restricted Interviewer, System Administrator, Application Reviewer, People Admin Support

Consider the following when deciding which columns to use: 

  • If you do not want to manage security groups via import and are fine with users only being imported into Records and Perform, do not enable any of the optional product named columns. If no optional product columns are enabled then by default users will be sent to Records and Perform and new users will have their security group set to Staff. Existing users will not have their security group altered.
  • If you do not want to manage security groups via imports but want control over which product the user is sent to, we recommend using the Products column.
  • If you want to manage security groups via import but are concerned about demoting or changing someone's security group that should not be changed, we recommend setting up two separate staff imports inside of the Data Import tool.:
    • The first import should have three individual product columns enabled that you would use for importing brand new users and allow you to set their security level via import. We recommend this import file only include your new users so that the file will be easier to manage since the security group value is likely not something that is exported from your data source.
    • The second import would only have the Products column enabled and ideally the file would only contain data on your existing users whose security group you do not want to be changed but want to control what products the users are sent to. This would ensure users are being sent to the correct products and that their existing security group does not change.


JavaScript errors detected

Please note, these errors can depend on your browser setup.

If this problem persists, please contact our support.

Contact Support Close