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  • Formatting data failed: The CSV file couldn't be read due to an encoding issue "utf-8" codec can't decode byte 0xa6

Hi Community,

 

I am trying to extract the data from excels that attached by emails to a new row of google sheet. I uploaded the excel to google drive, and then converted it to CSV format. However, for some reason I am not able to read the CSV, it returned “The CSV file couldn't be read, usually due to an encoding issue. Error message: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xa6 in position 10: invalid start byte". I tried other encoding method, but none of them worked.

 

I wonder how should I solve this problem? Or is there alternative ways (or easier ways) to do so?

 

Thank you

 

 

Follow up with the screenshot

Hi @Adnan Sharif,

Welcome to the Community! 🎉

Before we dig deeper into this, could you please send a screenshot of the “Action” section of the Formatter step? Please ensure that you show all of the fields in the screenshot.

8f73e111176e239a2a68871082afdd9f.png
(view larger)

I'll be keeping an eye out for your response!

Hi，

 

Thank you so much for your response!

The following is the screenshot of the action tab. The “transform” is just simply import CSV file.

 

Hi @Adnan Sharif, thanks for sharing that helpful screenshot here! 🙂

It looks as though you’ve correctly selected a file in that Formatter action. If you expand the error message what does it say? Does it say “invalid start byte” by any chance?
27a47dd9fc19d9215db683204a42cd6e.png

If so, can you confirm whether the file that’s been selected from step 4 is definitely a CSV file? Usually we see that sort of error when the selected file isn’t a CSV file.

Looking forward to hearing from you on this!

Dear Sam,

 

Thank you for your response!

 

You are right that it said “invalid start byte” when I expand the error. I am not 100% sure that it is definitely a CSV file, but I followed other posts in the community to convert excel to CSV file in google drive, so I assume it is because others worked. I also attached a screenshot of step 4 action below, please correct me if I get wrong.

Thank you!

Happy to help @Adnan Sharif! 🙂

Hmm, I wonder if something is happening to the encoding of that file when it’s being replaced. In that Formatter action try selecting the CSV version of the file in the same way you did in the Replace File action. For example:

7f4676759ae16d7c5153b332087d4a75.png

Can you give that a try and let me know if that works as hoped?

It worked! thank you!

That’s amazing @Adnan Sharif! A huge thanks to SamB for pointing you in the right direction!

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Community. We’re always happy to help! 🤗

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