Your file includes semicolons instead of commas: fix your CSV
Mailchimp shows “Your file includes semicolons instead of commas” when a CSV separates its fields with semicolons. Save the file again with commas.
What Mailchimp found wrong
Your file includes semicolons instead of commas
Mailchimp’s importer expects a comma between one field and the next. A spreadsheet set to a European region saves a CSV with semicolons there instead, so Mailchimp cannot tell where the email address ends and the first name begins: the three fields stay glued together in one column and none of them reaches its audience field.
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Do it in DocTransform
By hand: 5 stepsDocTransform: 1 sentence
- 1. Upload audience_export.csv into DocTransform.
- 2. Type and press Send. Check the step it adds; Undo takes it back.
Split the one column at each semicolon into Email Address, First Name and Last Name
Or by hand
DocTransform reads the semicolons as separators, so most files open with Email Address, First Name and Last Name already in their own columns. Apply the step above only if yours still sits in one.
- 3. Download the cleaned file as CSV with Download: it is written with commas, ready for Mailchimp’s importer.
Save this step once, then rerun it on your next Mailchimp export with one click.
Do it by hand in a text editor
- Open audience_export.csv in a plain text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit, not in Excel.
- Choose Find and Replace, type ; in the find box and , in the replace box, then click Replace All.
- Look for a value that already holds a comma, such as an address line, and wrap it in double quotes so it stays in one field.
- Choose File → Save As and save the file as .csv with UTF-8 encoding.
- Import the file into Mailchimp again and match each column to its audience field.
Questions
- Why does my file have semicolons in the first place?
- Some European spreadsheet programs write a semicolon between fields when they save a CSV, as Mailchimp’s help page notes. The file looks normal in the spreadsheet, so the problem only shows up at the import.
- Does DocTransform change the values in my file?
- No — only the separator changes. Every value stays as it was, and the cleaned file is written with commas.
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