Excel CSV import returns an SYLK file format error

I ran into this problem when creating a CSV file with the requirement that columns 1-2 of the first record – representing the first cell of the spreadsheet must contain uppercase “ID”.

I kept getting “Unable to load SYLK file…” Ichanged that to “Id” – but that was not acceptable to the program into which this file was input.

For the moment I have got around it by setting up the field as “ ID “ and seeing whther the next program is rigidly expecting :ID” in cols 1-2, or is it a “free-format field which allows for “ID” as floating characters.

One can only hope and pray!!!

The way to fix this for a programmer is to put the apostrophe character (’) as the first character of the CSV file. Then when Excel opens it, it won’t say, “Error: its a SYLK file gone bad”.

Put an apostrophe at the beginning of the first field and this irritating error goes away

Thanks ! it helped..

Looking at the MS knowledge base this should be fixed in the most recent versions of excel

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323626

Hi Khandu

You can’t save a multi-sheet excel file as a CSV because csv’s don’t support multiple pages. Simply save each worksheet as a desperate CSV and name them in a sensible way for the other person to import e.g. mydata_sheet1.csv, mydata_sheet2.csv and so on

Good luck!

Alun

Thanks!! Still useful!

This didn’t help me for my requirements…

What did help was this:
—Save file as a .csv and close it.
—Right click on the .csv file and Open with>Notepad
—Go to File>Save As
—Under Ecoding: select UTF-8
—Click Save

Helped again, thanks

Thanks!

Still a big help. Keep this alive (Incase you were thinking that no one is using this anymore)

And there was me thinking it was my programming skills that sucked. Microsoft, as usual. Pfft. Suckers.

On a serious note, thanks for the tip. I dread to think how many circles I would have went round if I didn’t discover it.

Thank you – this helped me out as well!

Thank God for Google that found this.. I was pulling my hair out on this!

You saved my day. Lot of thanks. I have a csv file that has a column with header=“ID”. It was giving me SYLK error. But once I changed it to “Id”, it worked like magic.

Glad to still be of help

I’m just thinking…thank GOD for the Internet!

GOD , Would have never figured out this.. wasted one whole day.

Thanks for saving me hours of investigating.

Let’s us know how that works out! Thanks!

Wow. I never would have guessed that was the issue. I changed the first cell from “ID” to “dbID” and now the error is gone. lol

Thanks!

This is awesome help!

Thank you!

wow Thanks! still not fixed I see. and still helping…………

Thank you so much. Found this and fixed the error.

Aargh! Thanks a lot – just wish I had seen your post a couple of hours earlier 😉

D’oh!; thanks for the post. Very helpful

Omg — Thank You so much

Thanks man!

Thanks a lot!

Thanks a bunch!

This still occurs in Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 (version 14.0.7173.5000), although Microsoft doesn’t admit it on their KB support page.

Thanks – your post came up in a google and most helpful. I am in the process of moving to Softmaker Office 2016 having previously used MS Office 2003. When moving back and forth I hit this problem and assumed incorrectly it was Softmaker trouble. Yes my database has ID for the first field (column) and hits this problem.

Running Excel 2016 in the year 2017 and this is still a problem that you helped me solve! Thank you!

1st hit on google search, still an issue after all this time?

Thank you for sharing this. I was so confused by the error and would have spend countless hours on the same issue!

Thanks this helped me too, March 31st, 2017

Thanks … would never have figured that out!!!

Still helping, thanks a million!

Aug 29, 2017 and still helping!

Thank you so much for sharing this info.Very useful.

We have discovered if CSV is changed to UTF-8, the SYLK problem disapears (without change ID to Id)

Thank you for the information.
For everyone who needs a workaround:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29012344/opening-csv-file

AMAZING! Saved me 8 hours of hair pulling. Damn excel!! THANKS!!!

stiiiiilll helping

Ha Ha!! Still helping. I would never have worked that out!

Still helping!
Cheers!

Trust me still helping

omg, thanks!

STILL HELPING! THANKS ALL

WHY IS THIS STILL AN ISSUE AFTER 4 YEARS?!

STILL HELPING after SIX years!!!!!! Thank you 🙂

Still Helping! Thanks!

Still Helping! Thanks!

Still helping! 🙂 Thank you.

Haha this is amazing. Thank you for this.

Still Helping! Thank you.

Thanks a lot

Thanks a bunch! That prevented me from suicide 🙂

Come on MS! This is a tiny task to fix – do it now!
Far too much monkey see, monkey do. Too clever by half! Are you aware that many people import csv files where the first cell contains ID? And they want them to be csv, nothing else.

26 Feb 2018 – same issue, sti9ll inresolved. Original poster’s work much appreciated

Thank you

This is pathetic. Thanks to OP. Pulling my hair out trying to analyze data for my master’s thesis. I don’t have words for how angry I am at Microsoft right now.

Still helping.

This is still helping! April 2018!

Still Helping April 18

Thank you!!!! U da man!

I found another option.no need to change the column heading order title. Just open a new excel and than open the file which you would like to open (SYLK format file), it will open this time.
Hope this works for you guys as well.

Thank you!

18th April 2018…
Still helping!!!
Thanks a ton, Alun!!
Just a feedback that I am not able to open MS link given though.

Thanks! Another person saved hours of trouble by this.

day 2,304 and still helping!

I literally love you

Still Helping! Thank you

Still Helping!!, May 2018

Lifesaver

Thanks a ton. Saved lot of time.

Thank you.
God saved the world.
You saved my day.

Perfect!! HUGE HELP – thanks!

Thumbs up!

I’m glad your post came up first in the SERP’s. You saved me from pulling my own hair. 🙂

Thanks you for the info!
Still helping haha
Much spam, such helpful

Thank You. It is help us 😉 fckng excel 😉

thanks

Highlight of my weekend. Many thanks.

You save my day, Thanks you !!

Thank you sir. You are a GOD!

OMG… Thanks so much!

September 2018 …. still helping

I edited the csv in Notepad and changed the header row to have double quotes around all the headings, and it fixed the issue for my file. The quotes are not displayed when loaded in Excel and no warnings. Winning!
i.e.
“ID”,”Name”,”Email”

Well, it is 11.14.2018 and I just encountered the same issue! Oy vey!

thanks!

Thank you for everyone who honed into the issue being first cell cannot have text starting with “ID”. cheers folks.

Still helping! March 19, 2019

This saved me. Fortunately, in my case, the use of “ID” as the first two characters in the CSV file was not a rigid requirement; I was able to change it a bit to get around the problem. But I’d have never known what the problem was without this post.

Unbelievably helpful. All I had to so was place a Response.Write(“‘”); at the beginning of the file. Thanks so much!

STILL HELPING “2019”+

This is freaking insane! WTF is wrong with M$? This problem is so 1980’s. Thanks so much for the solution!

Thanks a lot man ,it really worked.

Very nice site,keep on posting.

It really worked for me,keep up the good work.

Nov 19 and I’ve solved my issue in minutes rather than hours. Also the .csv file can be viewed fine in Notepad++ without altering the data. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks so much for sharing this. I have had issues with a csv file that syncs employee details not working correctly. The help desk could not help me – your article solved the issue within two minutes. Still helping eight years after your original post!

January 29, 2020 –

Thanks so much for the info/solution. Was going around in circles here, trying to figure out where the error was!

Merci!

WOW. Still helping 2020

Thank you! Still helping 🙂

Wow…. truly wonderful post and will be useful to IT folks until Microsoft fixes (probably never)
March 23 2020

works for me!
Thanks a lot. It saves me at least 4 hours.