Is there a way to log specific rows with bad data from an Import Activity in Marketing Cloud?

Question

So I have an import activity, bringing in approximately 72 rows into a table. When I run the automation with "Skip rows with bad data" checked, I import 70 out of the 72 rows. I can manually figure out what rows have 'bad data', but I can't seem to determine what that bad data is.

When I run the import activity importing only when all rows have good data, I receive the message "An error has occurred". I consulted support and they stated that "the system was not able to read the File correctly hence it gave a Time Out error," but nothing further.

Is there a way in Marketing Cloud to capture rows with bad data, possibly in a separate data extension?

Answer 1

Your results should pop up in the import main directory of the enhanced ftp. Check the filename there, and based on that you can set up a file drop listening to the directory and reimport the results metadata - not the actual rows - into a DE.

Here is an example row which you can base your DE on.

Row Number  Error Number    Error Code  Error Details   Row Data
8   123123123   RequiredField   parameterContext    [][][]

You could then also setup a verification that counts the rows of your log DE and sends you an email if there is more than 0 records, or filter for a specifc errorCode etc.

Answer 2

Check the import folder on your FTP - there should be files there with that contain files showing rows that were not imported (and the reason why), but they will not be named after your import names - the file names use the following pattern:

[External key of the import definition] Results [YYYYMMDDHHMI].txt

So if you don't set an understandable file name, you could get something like this:

CC21FD27-A101-49E8-9214-20918C78C8E5 Results 202007060301.txt