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Import excel into existing list (with data already in it)
Hi,
Is it possible to import data from an excel sheet into a SharePoint list that already contains data in it? Basically I just want to add to the list that's already in SharePoint without overwriting the existing lines or having to create a new list each time.
Thanks!
RRMX01 if you go to Edit in grid view on your list you can paste in data from an excel spreadsheet.
Rob
Los Gallardos
Microsoft Power Automate Community Super User
Also make sure you have removed any grouping of the list to obtain the small "add new item" to pop up at the bottom of the list.
RRMX01 I wish MS would add an import button! Edit in grid view sucks doing incrementals when we build a process and have hundred or even thousands of legacy data that we may hide from a view and create "categorized" views to see the legacy data. Lists can have more than 5k so we just hide them to avoid hang ups with form loading.
A list can store 30M list items, there is literally no need to export items out or archive anything into another list if you just create a yes/no field called "legacy" or "archived" and just hide the dang list items. Performance doesn't get impacted when these paramters are in place and views do not show the "legacy or "archived" list items with filtering.
That said, it would be nice if MS prioritized this to allow import so we can import and move on and wait for it to be done vs monitoring and spending almost an hour - 2 hours do 100 list items at a time.
We build automation solutions that sometimes involve tons of legacy records that need to be available for searching or reference, hints why we give them additional views grouped usually by the created by year or something. Just an example.You can paste multiple lines into the SharePoint List from Excel. First, in Excel, select the rows you want to copy. Then in the SharePoint list, in grid view, select a line and then select the edit icon (the pencil), then press ctrl v on your keyboard. It will paste all copied rows into the list.
- This works for me,
Thank you
RRMX01 Copy a few lines from your Excel schedule into your clipboard and paste into the first line of the list when editing in grid view. This will populate all lines from your clipboard one below each other in your list. Once saved in your list, you can request a new line be added to your list and copy the next block in the same manner into the new line and repeat until all lines from your schedule have been added to your list.
- I create a flow in Power Automate for such things. That way I can reshape or check data if needed and reuse that flow later in time.
- In addition to the comments posted, make sure that the columns in Excel match exactly the columns in the SharePoint list's view. For example, if you columns Title, Salary and Status in SharePoint, then you should have the same, matching data in Excel. The column heading names do NOT need to match, but the data and order must match. Also, if your view has additional columns visible such as Modified By, hide those. Otherwise, you'll get an error when trying to paste.
If you need to import a lot of items then you may wish to import in chunks of 100 and wait for the changes to be synched before importing the next set. i.e. avoid inconsistent data. Paul
When i tried to import Excel file to a SharePoint List, it only have about 150 records in the lists. while the excel file which is imported to List is over 500 records.
Regards,
Rasheed Ahmed
- Hi there have you waited for the upload process completed ? , at the left of your list, while you upload data it will have a little circle turn around for each row of your data, it wil move downward, as long as the data upload it will move down to the end. If you try to refesh the page while this circle not moved to your final line, you will miss your data
Paul_HK_de_Jong I'm using Sharepoint online (office 365), when i edit my list in grid view i can paste 1 record at a time successfully but can't paste multiple records, any ideas? I don't have a quick edit icon only the edit in grid view icon. Thanks in advance
BeachBennsyou cannot paste multiple items in grid view if you have disabled item checkboxes. make sure it is enabled.
RRMX01 if you go to Edit in grid view on your list you can paste in data from an excel spreadsheet.
Rob
Los Gallardos
Microsoft Power Automate Community Super UserRobElliott so the issue isn't the browser - it is likely bc you have it formatted as a table - you just need to copy your table data to new blank sheet and paste as values - fix the dates that you have to show as dates and then copy 50-90 at a time into the SP List using edit in grid view and VOILA!!!
I've read through this whole thread and followed all the advice on multiple attempts to get data new data in the list. In 2024 this feature of being able to paste multiple new entries seems to have been removed.
My data is in the correct format - as the formatted table that the original was imported from.
Paste data using the method outlined just pasted every column and row into one field on the SP page. Has MS removed the ability to update a field. It no longer works.Username635 I just used this technique earlier today with several rows of text columns (including one multiple lines of text column), and it worked fine. It is tricky selecting the first empty cell after enabling edit in grid view, without getting the active cursor element there (which will result in the paste filling just that single cell with all of the data, as you're seeing). Since the recent changes to bring the Lists App visual improvements over to SPO lists, that seems less predictable than it used to be, where you could click on a very subtle, tiny square in the lower left corner, to the left of the select row icon. Actually, it looks like the select icon is gone entirely for the Add new item row, but there is a similar tiny square in the lower _right_ corner instead that appears to work reliably.
My emphasis in green circles:
RobElliott I just ran into this myself. I just connected to the SharePoint list in MS Access and did a simple append query to the SharePoint list. I'm sure there's a more elegant way, but it's a solution that didn't require any coding (the append query is generated in the MS Access query builder).
