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Importing CSV to Process Diagram is completely broken

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 16, 2025
17 replies
482 views

I’ve been wrestling with this issue for several hours and am convinced that the problem is with Lucid itself.

I’m trying to build a process diagram from a CSV file (which is the only option for building such diagrams from an internal file). I have been following the instructions and requirements to the letter, even importing Lucid’s own provided sample file, and the results aren’t even close to what the docs say they should be. For instance:

Despite giving all elements the same Page ID (except for the Page element itself), the import creates the elements across several newly-created pages, so they’re not even in the same place.
The process doesn’t put elements into their designated containers.
The process doesn’t create the specified links between elements.

This tool is broken, broken, broken.

Best answer by Ambar D

Hi @icharles, since this appears to be an account-specific issue, I am directing this to our support team to get you taken care of through a private ticket. The team works through tickets in the order they are received, and you can expect a quick response to your email associated with your Lucid account. Please refer to that email for further correspondence.

Show previous replies

Leianne C

Lucid support team

Hi @deepak_rathor, thank you for sharing that information! Looking at your example dataset, it does seem like it might not be formatted correctly for our import tool. I’ve attached some example screenshots from the sample dataset. As you can see, the required columns are different. The following columns are required when formatting the CSV file. For more details, please see the Required columns section of our Help Center article.

Id
Name
Shape Library
Page ID
Contained By
Text Area 1

If the issue persists, please let me know and we would be happy to take a closer look!

B

BCulley

I’m having the same issue attempting to import a process via CSV.

I am using the downloadable sample CSV from Lucid, but even amending the text in a single cell from the sample CSV on MS Excel and then trying to import causes the shapes to fail.

Leianne C

Lucid support team

Hi @BCulley, thank you for continuing this thread and sorry to hear you’re experiencing trouble with creating a process diagram from CSV. Would you mind confirming which text you edited in the example CSV? For example, did you change the text in the ‘Text Area’ or did you change the ‘Name’ or other sections? This will help me better understand the issue you’re experiencing.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions!

B

BCulley

Hi,

Sure - I was having issues with importing an edited version of the sample template, so I redownloaded to test, edited a single cell in the text area (J3) and tried re-importing, which then completely broke the diagram. I’ve completely given up on this tool since.

Thanks

Leianne C

Lucid support team

Hi @BCulley, thank you for clarifying! I tried testing this exact step on my end (editing cell J3 / Text Area 1 in the sample CSV template and re-importing), but the diagram imported cleanly for me. Could you share a bit more detail on what happens when it breaks? Specifically:

What does the diagram look like after import? (e.g., are shapes missing, connections disconnected, text unpopulated, or does it fail/hang during upload?)
How was the file saved?
Text formatting: Did the edit in cell J3 include any special characters, line breaks/newlines, or quotation marks?

If you're comfortable sharing a snippet or screenshot of what rendered, that would also help us take a closer look at the issue.

No worries if you've moved on from creating a process diagram from CSV, but if you'd like to give it another shot, I'd be more than happy to help you get this sorted!

B

BCulley

Hi,

I’ve just tried the exact same thing again with the same results.

Download the example CSV - edit J3 to “Pharmacy” no special characters or formatting. Saved the file - uploaded to Lucid, here’s the results:

Leianne C

Lucid support team

Hi @BCulley, thank you for sharing that information. After some testing, it looks like the import issue is happening because the file is being edited in Microsoft Excel.

When Excel opens a CSV file, it automatically converts container coordinates (like 2:1 or 2:2) into time formats (like 02:01). When saved, these changed values break the connections Lucidchart relies on to build your process flow.

Because Excel forces this time format automatically, the easiest fix is to open and save the CSV using Google Sheets or Mac Pages instead—they preserve text formatting so it imports into Lucidchart seamlessly.

Please let me know if you experience any issues with this or if you have any questions!

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