Need to back fill an Entity's existing records

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Posted on by rmcanally65

Hi all:

I need to back fill an Entity's existing records to coincide with auto-numbering for an ID we are planning on implementing going forward. Basically, we have no ID number for Contacts and we will be needing this in the near future; however, this (if I understand auto-gen correctly) not back-fill the existing Contacts, and many of those Contacts that are active will need an ID.

My thought is to "back-fill" the existing Contacts based on Created On (ascending), but I was wondering if someone else has encountered such a situation and how you solved it.

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Wayne Walton 13,730 on at

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The easiest way to do this is to export the Contacts to Excel with the re-import button enabled. Then do your auto-number in Excel (which has numerous functions for various auto-increment), and re-import.

Then make sure whatever auto-number tool you use in CRM starts where the3 Excel document left off.

And yes, sorting by Created On makes the most sense.

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rmcanally65 on at

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Wayne:

The export and adding the auto-number in Excel worked fine (I honestly didn't think it could be that easy...); however, I keep getting an error when uploading the improved .xml file:

I have published all customizations, double- and triple-checked for the field being present on the form, etc., but keep getting the error. Any advise?

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Royal King 27,686 on at

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When you exported the contact records to excel did you add ContactNo field as Column in the view?

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rmcanally65 on at

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I did; obviously there are no values in that field yet, but the xml file does show the field present.

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Royal King 27,686 on at

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When you imported the data did crm auto map ContactNo field ?

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rmcanally65 on at

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Chitra:

I'm not getting that far; this error is as I try to import the file so I am not getting to the auto-map yet.

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Royal King 27,686 on at

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I would suggest exporting all the contacts again with only two fileds like fullname and ContactNo fields , add Autonumber value then try to import. It looks like something corrupted in updated file.

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rmcanally65 on at

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I modified the view to only include Full Name, Created On and Contact Number (all of which did map), but it also included FN, MN and LN; is that to be expected?

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Royal King 27,686 on at

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That should be fine.

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rmcanally65 on at

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Chitra:

I'm still getting the same error.

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