Export records to a file

A list shows 80 records at a time. Ticking the header checkbox selects that page and the bar reads 80 selected, with a Select all N button beside it whose tooltip says exactly what it does — Select all records matching the search. Click it and the bar changes to All N selected. That difference is the single most common reason an export comes out short.

The ✕ at the end of the bar, Unselect All, clears the selection. Beside Export, the same Actions menu holds Duplicate, Archive, Unarchive and Delete — read the menu before you click, because they sit together.

Export All: the one-click route

With nothing selected, the ⚙ menu offers Export All instead. It skips the dialog entirely and downloads an .xlsx of everything the current search matches, using the columns the list is showing. It needs the same permission, it works from a kanban board as well as a list, and it is the right answer when the list already shows the columns you want. When you need different columns, or CSV, use the dialog.

The window opens pre-filled with the columns your list was showing, which is usually most of the way there.

Tick I want to update data (import-compatible export) and two things change: the field list narrows to what can be written back, and each record's External ID travels in the file. That ID is what turns the second import into an update of the same records instead of a second copy of all of them.

The working pattern is: export with the box ticked, edit only the cells you mean to change, leave the External ID column untouched, and import the same file back.

For a file you produce every month, build the field list once and save it as a template. Open the Template: drop-down, choose New template, type a name in the Save as: box and click the save icon beside it. Next time, choose the template and the whole list comes back in order. Templates are per model, so a template built on quotations does not clutter the contacts export.

There is no Export in the Actions menu. You do not have the export permission. It is a privilege an administrator grants; on this system administrators have it and most users do not. Ask rather than hunt for a setting.

The file has fewer rows than the screen showed. You exported the page, not the search. Look at the selection bar: 80 selected is one page; All N selected is everything the filter matched. The Select all button between them is the step people skip.

“There are too many rows … to export as Excel 2007-2013 (.xlsx) format. Consider splitting the export.” The spreadsheet format itself stops at 1,048,576 rows. Filter the list into batches, or export as CSV, which has no row ceiling.

A column you need is not in the tree. It belongs to a linked record. Find the field that points at that record and open its > chevron — the customer's payment terms are under the customer, the product's category is under the product. If it is still missing, the import-compatible box is ticked and hiding it; clear the box for a read-only export.

The exported file will not import back. It was exported without I want to update data, so it carries computed columns that cannot be written and no External ID. Export it again with the box ticked.

Arabic text opens as gibberish in a spreadsheet. That is the spreadsheet guessing the encoding of a CSV file, not a bad export. Open the XLSX instead, or import the CSV declaring UTF-8.

The export never finishes on a very large list. Filter into smaller batches — by month, by team, by warehouse. There is no progress bar to wait on.