Today, we are going to talk about how to import data that contains Unicode Characters (ex: Chinese characters '你好吗', or arabic characters 'اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ‎' and etc. ) into Salesforce using Data Loader.

So why would I create this post for something that is so intuitive and straightforward, you might ask? Well, I don't think so. I am sure there are some admins who are facing the same issue as I am and I think this post would be a great help. Without further ado, let's get into it!

NOTE: this post might be more relevant to Windows user.

Say, you are asked to upload new accounts and you are given an excel file that contains Chinese characters like this:

data-loader-excel-file

You open up Data Loader and want to insert new accounts and you realize that this file is not shown in the file explorer.

data-loader-upload-files-1

data-loader-upload-files-2

You realize that it's not in .csv format, that's why. So, you save the file in .csv format.

data-loader-csv-file

Now, you are able to choose the .csv file, map the field and upload it into Salesforce. But now, your account names are screwed. What is happening?

data-loader-account-in-salesforce

You go back and check the .csv that you saved earlier and found out that the data doesn't seem right. Where are my account names???

data-loader-csv-file-screwed

Don't worry! Let me show you the trick how to solve this issue!

  1. First, we save the original Excel file as Unicode Text file.

data-loader-unicode-file

  1. Use Notepad to open the Unicode Text file.

data-loader-notepad

  1. Save as type "All Files", Encoding as "UTF-8", and append .csv to the end of the file name, then click Save to save the file.

data-loader-utf8-file

  1. Choose the new .csv file and upload in Data Loader. Ta-da! Now you are able to see the correct account names in Salesforce!

data-loader-account-in-salesforce-after-fixed

Well, that's all about it! Thanks for reading!

Post was published on , last updated on .

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