# import contacts

**URL:** <https://community.hubspot.com/t/import-contacts/130537>\
**Category:** HubSpot Academy Support\
**Tags:** email-marketing\
**Created:** [April 24, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/import-contacts/130537 "2025-04-24T22:28:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tarpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Tarpon](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Tarpon)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/import-contacts/130537/1 "2025-04-24T22:28:26Z")

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Trying to impoert 100 contacts, getting error of blank header. The only blank headers are blank excel columns. Tried CSV but file has too many columns. I must be missing something here.

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**Author:** ![Jigar\_Thakker](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/jigar_thakker/32/63606_2.png) [@Jigar\_Thakker](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Jigar_Thakker)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/import-contacts/130537/2 "2025-04-25T15:06:20Z")

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Hi @Tarpon ,

When importing contacts, HubSpot needs each column to have a header. Here’s the step by step process to ensure the import is done right

Step 1: Open file in Excel or Google Sheets and remove any blank columns from the sheet and make sure the every column has an header

Step 2: Make sure its saved as a CSV file and use this right file to import the contacts.

Link to the import file guide for your reference: [Import records for multiple objects](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/import-and-export/import-objects)

If this helps, feel free to mark it as the solution

✔

and give it an upvote

👍

!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tarpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Tarpon](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Tarpon)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/import-contacts/130537/3 "2025-04-28T22:35:53Z")

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there are thousands of blank columns becasue they are unused, I also stated the CSV has too many columns. All used columnshave headers

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**Author:** ![h-recker](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/h-recker/32/24717_2.png) [@h-recker](https://community.hubspot.com/u/h-recker)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/import-contacts/130537/4 "2025-04-29T15:56:07Z")

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It sounds like the extra blank columns in your file are causing the import to fail—HubSpot (and a lot of CRMs) get picky about that. Sometimes it could even been some formatting or cells that look like they don’t have anything in them, but there could be white text, formatting, etc.  
The easiest way to always ensure this won’t happen it to completely delete any empty columns before exporting your file.

If you’re dealing with big or messy files often, Coefficient’s 2-way sync between HubSpot and Sheets/Excel can help - [it’s here on the marketplace](https://ecosystem.hubspot.com/marketplace/apps/coefficient). You can push clean, structured contact data directly from your spreadsheet, map fields easily, and avoid import headaches like this altogether. Makes the process smoother in some cases.