How to fix common file upload errors
Last updated: 18 August 2026
When an upload fails in the Carbon Data Uploader, NetNada tells you what went wrong — and almost every problem can be fixed in your spreadsheet in a minute or two. This article groups the most common upload errors by the action that fixes them.
In this article, you'll learn how to:
- Save your file in a supported format
- Find and fix invalid or missing values before re-uploading
- Resolve unclear date formats and duplicate batch names
- Handle stalled uploads and oversized scanned bills
Save your file as CSV or Excel
If you see "This file format isn't supported", the uploader can't read the file type you've chosen. Open your data in your spreadsheet program and save it as a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file, then upload again. Formats like Numbers files, text documents, and older spreadsheet types aren't supported for spreadsheet uploads.
Find and fix invalid or missing values
If validation fails with a message about invalid or missing values, one or more rows in your file contain data NetNada can't process. Rather than guessing, let the platform show you exactly which rows are affected.
Open the submission details
View the errors on each row
Fix the highlighted rows in your spreadsheet
Re-upload the corrected file
| What's flagged | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| A required field is empty | Fill in the missing value, or remove the row if it doesn't belong in the upload |
| A negative number in a quantity field | Quantities like kWh or litres can't be negative — check for accounting credits or reversals and remove or correct them |
| End date before start date | Swap the two dates — the period must start before it ends |
| A unit that isn't recognised | Use one of the accepted units shown in the error, e.g. kWh rather than an abbreviation NetNada doesn't recognise |
| Text in a number column | Remove stray characters like currency symbols or notes so the cell contains only a number |
Make your date format unambiguous
If you see "Date format is unclear", your file contains dates that could be read more than one way — for example, 03/04/2025 could be 3 April or 4 March. Either write dates as year-month-day (2025-04-03), which is never ambiguous, or select the day/month order when prompted during the upload so NetNada knows how to read them.
Choose a unique batch name
Every upload batch needs a distinct name. If you see "Batch name already exists", another upload in your workspace already uses that exact name — add something distinguishing, like the quarter or site ("Electricity Q2 2026 — Sydney office"). Keep names between 1 and 255 characters, and if a name is rejected as reserved, simply choose a different one.
Re-upload files that stalled during processing
Occasionally an upload sits in processing too long and is marked as failed due to inactivity. This can happen after a connection drop or a temporary hiccup on our side. Nothing from the stalled attempt is imported, so there's no risk of duplicates — just upload the same file again.
Split large or complex scanned bills
Scanned invoices and bills are read automatically, but very large or very complex documents can fail. Keep each file under 25 MB. If a bill covers a long period or many sites, split it into smaller files or upload shorter date ranges — several small uploads process more reliably than one enormous one.
Help NetNada match your data to a category
If you see "No category match found", NetNada couldn't work out which GHG emissions category your file relates to. Two fixes:
- Use recognisable column headers — headers like "Supplier", "Amount", "kWh", or "Date" help the automatic matching understand your data
- Pick the category manually — select the GHG category yourself at the start of the upload instead of relying on automatic detection
Check airports in travel data
In flight uploads, the departure and destination airports on each row must be different — a flight can't start and end at the same airport. If a row is flagged, check for copy-paste mistakes in the airport columns, correct the wrong one, and re-upload.
When to contact support
If a file still fails after you've fixed the flagged rows, or an upload fails repeatedly with a generic processing message, contact help@netnada.com.au and attach the file along with the batch name. We can look at the processing record directly.