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Troubleshoot imports and audiences

Resolve common problems with imports, missing subscribers, and unexpected segment results.

Symptom​

One or more of the following after importing a list or building a segment:

  • The import finishes but the subscriber count is lower than the number of rows in your file.
  • Subscribers you expected are missing from a Folder, list, or segment.
  • A segment returns far more, far fewer, or different subscribers than you expected.
  • Rows are rejected or the import reports errors for specific records.

Likely causes​

Ranked from most to least common:

  1. Duplicate or already-existing subscribers — matching email addresses are merged into a single subscriber rather than added again, lowering the net count.
  2. Suppressed or unsubscribed addresses — subscribers on the account-wide suppression list are skipped or held back and won't receive a Broadcast.
  3. Column mapping mistakes — a source column mapped to the wrong field (or left unmapped), so values land in the wrong place or are dropped.
  4. Formatting and encoding issues — extra spaces, invalid email formats, missing required fields, or a non-UTF-8 file causing rejected rows or garbled characters.
  5. Segment logic — AND vs OR conditions, case or whitespace differences, or empty fields excluding subscribers you expected to match.

Fixes​

  1. Re-check the count math. Compare imported vs. updated vs. skipped in the import summary. Duplicates that update existing subscribers are expected — a lower net add is usually normal.
  2. Verify column mapping. Re-run against a small sample file and confirm each column maps to the intended field, especially the email/identifier field. (confirm the exact steps in your account)
  3. Clean the source file. Ensure one header row, valid email addresses, required fields populated, and UTF-8 encoding. Remove stray spaces and empty rows.
  4. Check suppression. If specific people are missing, confirm they aren't unsubscribed or suppressed. See Manage the suppression list.
  5. Test the segment. Simplify to one condition at a time to find which rule excludes subscribers; watch for AND/OR logic and blank-field matches.

Still stuck?​

Keep the original file, the import summary (or any error report), and the affected segment's conditions, then contact your account administrator or support so they can reproduce the result.

Canonical terms: Author, Edition, Folder (Project Folder), Broadcast. See the Glossary.