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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived) / Attempting to import p...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Attempting to import previously exported reference data gives: "The record could not be updated because the original record no longer exists"

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Posted on by slicendice 25

I'm attempting to export, modify and reload some reference data from CRM (2011). For testing purposes, I'm just using one record - I can export it fine (creates XML file) and edit it as required (just a simple change to one field). However, when I then come to import the data, it fails at the "Transform" phase with the error: "The record could not be updated because the original record no longer exists in Microsoft Dynamics CRM".

The record most certainly does exist as I can run a select in SQL Server using the GUID and it's definitely there (plus it's obviously visible from the screen where it was exported).

I've tried editing the export XML file in Excel and also just editing it using a plain text editor, but the error occurs for both.

Has anyone experienced this before? Any ideas what the issue might be or how to resolve it? I can't think of anything else to try.

Thanks 

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  • Stan Gifford Profile Picture
    Stan Gifford 10 on at
    RE: Attempting to import previously exported reference data gives: "The record could not be updated because the original record no longer exists"

    I know that it is a long while since original post but I have found two other reasons for this error.

    1. I found that I got errors on inactive exported records that had been merged into other records.

    2. Some of my records were migrated to the destination system via Power automate - some of the fields were mandatory such as address fields however the source system did not always have data for these fields, but however the record (Account in my case) was successfully created by Power automate. Once exporting the records with just the fields I wanted to update, these records could not be re-imported and gave the error "The record could not be......" whereas the error should have been something like "The record could not be imported because the record being updated is missing mandatory fields".

    Note. 2 may have occurred after migration, then Dynamics modified to make those fields mandatory!

    Stan

  • slicendice Profile Picture
    slicendice 25 on at
    RE: Attempting to import previously exported reference data gives: "The record could not be updated because the original record no longer exists"

    Thanks for the response David.

    In response to your points, yes the record is still active and yes the user importing does have access permission (it's the same user that created the record).

  • David Jennaway Profile Picture
    David Jennaway 14,063 on at
    RE: Attempting to import previously exported reference data gives: "The record could not be updated because the original record no longer exists"

    This sounds odd. A couple of things to check:

    • Is the record still active in CRM. It may be that CRM is only checking for active records (as inactive would be read-only)
    • Does the user importing the data have permission to access the record in CRM
  • slicendice Profile Picture
    slicendice 25 on at
    RE: Attempting to import previously exported reference data gives: "The record could not be updated because the original record no longer exists"

    Sorry, forgot to say...when I exported the data to Excel, I selected the option "Make this data available for re-importing by including required column headings"

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