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Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

Posted on by 215

Good afternoon guys.

I'm facing a rather interesting problem when trying to import data by using an excel template.

I have a Product Entity which has a lookup field to Account, and i keep getting the following error:

A duplicate lookup reference was found.


 Now i already did my research and triple checked if i have a duplicate of the Accounts im trying to connect my Products, and there is only one record of each, i even tried Advanced Find and a Search CRM data approach to see if i might get any results and i keep getting only one record of each.

The interesting thing here is that i deleted the accounts in question and tried to import my products again using the same name of the accounts in the lookup column to see if i will get another error saying the records don't exist, but alas i got the same duplicate lookup reference was found error.

So this means that even though i deleted the account records that i was getting the error for they still seem to be somewhere in my system.

Any suggestions and ideas on how to check if i have duplicates is welcomed.

Cheers Filip.

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  • Filip Vanchevski Profile Picture
    Filip Vanchevski 215 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    In my case, the excel file was simply poorly created by the client, it had many duplicates, and i had to manually fix the duplicates

  • Suggested answer
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    Hello Filip,

    I encountered the same issue, with Accounts which have a Primary Contact.

    After some time of researching, I noticed that the my chosen language of the import file was in a different language than the one used in the crm.

    After changing of my system language to the one of my excel, sheet it worked.

    Hope this helps.

  • Filip Vanchevski Profile Picture
    Filip Vanchevski 215 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    Update!

    I used a csv file, and managed to get through the error for some reason with other file formats i was getting that error.

    Today i need to figure out how to deal with The unit schedule id is missing.


    Already researched and saw that i need to input default unit, default price list and unit group.

  • Filip Vanchevski Profile Picture
    Filip Vanchevski 215 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    This is getting quite frustrating, i ran a full circle and came back to the same error with the duplicate reference.

    I even went as far as give my account column a bogus name (the account most definetly does not exist the name is made up) and got the same error, so there is no doubt in my mind that the account exist, anyone out there ran into a similar problem?

  • Filip Vanchevski Profile Picture
    Filip Vanchevski 215 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    Yeah i just did that got a bunch of other errors, imma try and fix those and see what i get.

    Will update the tread as soon as i get stuck again.

  • RaviKashyap Profile Picture
    RaviKashyap 55,410 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    Hi Filip,

    If you save the excel as csv and import that, you will get option to map fields as well.

    Worth a try.

  • Filip Vanchevski Profile Picture
    Filip Vanchevski 215 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    Im using a template created from Excel Templates option, so when i upload the file i don't get the option to do custom mapping, because the columns in the excel file are an exact match, so i'm simply prompted if i wanna allow duplicates and to set an owner to the records.

    Also i think it is worth mentioning that while testing the import data feature i imported all of the (read most of them) records but it was under the lead entity and out of around 800 records i managed to upload around 600 without errors.

    After that i deleted all of the records from the import delete option, where you can select to delete all the records that were imported, is it possible that even though i deleted everything they are persisting somewhere in the system.

    P.S Francesco i checked if there are any duplicates under my inactive accounts but that view returned nothing, there are no inactive accounts shown.

  • Suggested answer
    Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    Hi Filip,

    you certainly have a duplicated Label (also within inactive records).

    The fastest solution is to map your field over an unique attribute value.

    Please refer to this link:

    http://blog.xrm.com/2014/09/26/using-templates-for-data-import-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm/ 

    Hope it helps!

    If you found the answer helpful, please mark as Verified 

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    Thank You & Best Regards

    Francesco Picchi

    Microsoft Dynamics CRM Consultant, Bologna, ITALY

    Independent Contractor

    http://www.francescopicchi.com

  • RaviKashyap Profile Picture
    RaviKashyap 55,410 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    This is strange. I am assuming that you have you have already verified there are no accounts with that name?

  • Filip Vanchevski Profile Picture
    Filip Vanchevski 215 on at
    RE: Data Import - A duplicate lookup reference was found.

    Is it possbile that it is trying to create the Vendor/Account even though it already exists?, but then im thinking why am i getting the same error when i delete the records, i should be getting a whole different error.....

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