Mint Import Not working

Lee B

I created a test account in Simplifi. Exported a months worth of transactions from Mint. Used the current Mint Import functionality for the CSV file Mint created. All I get is an error loading the file and no transactions are loaded into Simplifi. "An error occurred, please try again".

I would love you to improve the Mint importing functionality. I have a large Mint CSV file ready to go when you do. Hopefully you will improve this functionality before Mint goes away in case I need to go back into Mint for anything (like re-classify categories to my new Simplify categories).

Is there any way to determine what the Mint Import error is? I would be happy to share the export file Mint gave me so you can test it in confidence.

jfrylove

Hi - I had the same error. The issue is that your Account Name in Mint csv file, does not match Account Name in Simplifi.

Solution: Rename the Account Name in Mint csv file to be same name as in Simplifi. (use find/replace in excel)

Also, if you use Tags in Mint, be aware that Simplifi sees each word as a Tag, so "Hide from Budget" in Mint, comes into Simplify as 3 tags: Hide, from, budget. Solution, rename Tag from "Hide from Budget" to "HidefromBudget" (use find/replace in excel). Getting rid of the spaces.

Coach Kristina

Hello @Lee B,

I would recommend carefully following the steps in this article: https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/8545901-how-to-import-transactions-from-mint .

I hope this helps!

George Sullins

The conversion experience from Mint is incredibly poor. First problem is not being able to import transactions into a connected account. Import only works for manual accounts. I have over 6500 transactions in Mint. When connecting to an institution, approximately 2 years worth of transactions are imported from the institution. Not enough. Why not all transactions? But the bigger problem is any information entered for a transaction in Mint is lost, i.e. modified descriptions, categories, tags and notes are missing. An option to import transactions from a Mint csv instead of the institution would almost solve this problem. The remaining unsolved problem is categories that are not part of the Simplifi defaults. The current import function does not recognize categories that are not part of Simplifi's defaults. I was not aware of this limitation. I went to the trouble of making sure all of the categories I had in Mint were in Simplifi, thinking the Simplifi import function would be aware of the added categories. I added all categories that I had used that were not part of Simplifi's defaults. Unfortunately, those were not honored by the import process and became Uncategorized transactions. All I can do at this point is modify the category of several thousand transactions, totally unacceptable. While I would like to use Simplify, it is unusable in it's current state. I think it is a great product with potential. Probably great for first time users that are starting from scratch, but not for users that need to transition from another platform.

ps56k

@George Sullins - yup - hard to believe that Simplifi is not bending over backwards to make sure every little detail in a Mint exported CSV is able to be imported….
Heck, they don't even have a way to import from their own Quicken Classic desktop software.

Coach Kristina

Hello @George Sullins,

I'm sorry to hear the conversion experience is sub par. If you're willing, please post your feedback on the Idea post linked earlier and/or on our feedback thread:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/5988/welcome-mint-users

Posting feedback in those threads helps us to improve the experience.

Thank you!

Lee B

To @jfrylove @Coach Natalie jfrylove, thanks for your input. I am using a sample account called Test. So I changed the AccountName field to Test. But I still got the same error. Here is a sample file of transactions. Also @jfrylove, Simplifi doesn't seem to be happy if you don't using the Mint CSV 'as is' from Mint. Yet, Coach Natalie seemed to be OK with your suggestion which included loading the CSV into Excel and re-saving it. Curious?! As for me, if the format is exactly the same, I don't see the problem with doing what you suggest or Search/replace in Notepad and resaving the file.

@Coach Natalie: I will re-read the instructions, but they are pretty straight forward and I have read them at least twice already.

Here are my transactions from the Mint CSV File. That I tried to load into my Test account in Simplifi. Interesting that the comment box transformed my CSV file to a table!! I am attaching the raw file as a zip file since CSV files are not accepted as attachments here.

Any additional thoughts would be appreciated.

TxDate	Description	OriginalDescription	Amount	TransactionType	Category	AccountName	Labels	Notes
12/31/2021	Monthly Interest Paid	Monthly Interest Paid	5.73	credit	Interest Income	Test	Sonata
12/30/2021	Gladeville Utility District	Gladeville Utility District	37.72	debit	TN Utilities	Test
12/03/2021	Chase Credit Cards	Chase Credit Cards	1050.00	debit	Credit Card Payment	Test		Check CC Payment
12/23/2021	Deposit from Capital One Money Market	Deposit from Capital One Money Market XXXXXXX0607	12500.00	credit	Transfer	Test		Check Transfer

Mint_Import_Test1.zip

ps56k

Yeah - interesting that the Forum Comment box transforms a CSV to a Table - I tried it too…

Here is a view of the raw CSV file - its just text from Notepad - (i cropped the Cap One line item text)

Coach Natalie

@Lee B, when importing from Mint, you don't want to alter the file in any way. Once you obtain the downloaded CSV file from Mint, you would then head straight over to Quicken Simplifi to import it using the "Mint" import option. Not properly following these steps can result in issues importing. The support article shared by @Coach Kristina above (click here) has the detailed steps and guidelines for this.

I hope this helps!

-Coach Natalie

Lee B

@Coach Kristina. I know this issue will go away over time since Mint is ending soon (or maybe it wont??). But it would be good if Simplifi could publish the logic with the Mint import process (not just the steps but the LOGIC) into some kind of official (and accurate) documentation. For example, after going around and around on this, I actually just deleted my accounts in Simplifi and started again clean. I found out that, as long as I did not try to import Mint transactions that were already in Simplifi (that is, transaction not brought over from the bank or credit card), the Mint file worked just fine (edited or not). What appeared (an educated guess since I don't have the documentation to be sure) to be the issue is that I had deleted the transactions from the bank and the credit cards for past months and then trying to import every transactions from Mint (including those I deleted). I believe (based on a post and further research), that the Mint import didn't work because it was finding DELETED transactions from the bank that I deleted and thus threw out the whole download file.

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE MINT IMPORTING PROCESS (logic) WOULD HAVE SAVED ME MANY HOURS OF WORK AND RE-WORK!

I hope these potential findings can help someone! I am not sure how many people with see this buried in this thread??

Lee B

@Coach Kristina. Another point. When I called the help desk on this issue (before I created this post), that person told me to create a 'test' account and just experiment importing different types of files (Simplifi import file and Mint import file). Although it sounded like a good idea, it ended up confusing me more. Because, I think, I successfully imported my transactions into the 'test' account. Then deleted them. Then tried again for different transactions. But, sometimes, the import had a transaction in it I had previously experimented with before and deleted. Without understanding the deleted issue in importing, I was getting several different results with importing my 'test' files and got pretty frustrated with, what appeared to be, inconsistencies with the import file process.

mas2024

What is the trick to this? I am still trying to import files. Unfortunately, I exported everything into a single CSV extract when I left Mint. So, the idea that I can't change the file - not going to work. As well, I did also export just from the checking account, and I have that file - untouched, it also does not import. Same message others are reporting above. And, yes, my Mint Account and the Manual Account setup in Simplifi do have the same name.

Please help! Hate to cancel after only a couple of hours, but if I can't get my transactions in - using Mint to get the offer - I'll have to do that.

Coach Natalie

@mas2024, please be sure to carefully follow the steps outlined here when importing transactions from Mint: https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/8545901-how-to-import-transactions-from-mint

Let us know how it goes!

-Coach Natalie

Farhan

The coaches in this thread are so incredibly unhelpful. They keep linking to the same [removed - profanity] article. I've gone through those steps and keep getting an error message each time. Moreover, if I try to "Import from a CSV" instead of "Importing from Mint", and I modify the CSV to match the required column headers, then all of the thousands of transactions get imported as "Uncategorized." This is awful and if it can't be imported correctly, I'm going to leave Simiplifi and find something else that can import the data from Mint seamlessly

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/22711#Comment_22711

I divided up the CSV into separate files by account. That modification in the CSV will work. There seen to be bugs in the import process as others are having trouble.

Farhan

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/23799#Comment_23799

When you did that, did the transactions get imported as "Uncategorized" or did the original categories from Mint also get imported into Simplifi? I also have just one CSV file because my Mint is already shut down and converted to Credit Karma, which is a terrible app.

I have tried sorting the big CSV file by account and then creating new CSV files for each account. However, Simplifi does not let me import the new CSV files. I get an error message. How did you get it to work?

UrsulaA

I got this to work around December 4. Similar to what you described, but filtered the CSV by account and then copied the results to a new CSV file with the same columns. Selected the Mint import option and got the categories to come in under Mint.

I ensured I did not overlap with the bank downloaded transactions as I connected the accounts prior to importing data.

If your account is manual first, then you can import the entire history and then connect the account.

Farhan

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/23815#Comment_23815

Thank you for your help. I'm glad it worked for you. I have tried multiple times to do the exact same thing but unfortunately I'm getting an error message when I try to import the CSV files

UrsulaA

@Coach Natalie @Coach Kristina is there an ongoing issue when importing CSV files? I see several users getting errors posting here. Can you or someone in your team help?

andy-minttoquicken

Consoldiating what I've found and and adding on:
1) Make sure category in Mint and CSV are named the same (by jfrylove).
2) Rename Tag (jfrylove)
3) Me adding on: open your csv file in both excel and using a text editor. My file had extra data at the end not viewable in excel. Removing them with a text editor allowed the import.

This being said, if quicken had more detailed errors rather a generic "something went wrong", it'd be easier to debug. The community is only helpful in providing feedback if better error messages are provided.

UrsulaA

Some transactions that had multiple tags in Mint or tags with spaces did not import for me. I added those manually.

For the second batch, I removed the multiple tags or tags with spaces and imported everything listed successfully.

johnpw

has anyone figured this out?

I deleted all my accounts

created a new manual account called "Mint History"

went into mint and downloaded my transactions ( the file is 4.6MB so thinking its everything not the 10K record limit)

tried the import and get the vague error message

Coach Kristina

Hello @johnpw,

When you say you get the vague error message, are you referring to "An error occurred, please try again"? I recommend making sure you carefully follow the directions at this link to import your file.

If the issue persists after you have followed those directions, please let us know so we can assist further.

Thank you!

UrsulaA

I also got the "error occurred, please try again" message and the transactions loaded in Simplifi anyway. Wait for the system to refresh and see if the transactions loaded before trying the import again.

The file that triggered the error message had over 5,000 transactions in it.

I imported other files in smaller batches (less than 2,000 transactions each) and the import worked without error.

CR11

New Simplifi user/Mint refugee here. Despite the free year offer, it seems as if Simplifi does not actually want our business after all. I've already spent a day waiting for my accounts from Chase and Discover to transfer - just keep getting a notice that they are in the process of transferring - all day. Now I'm finding out that there's not a simple procedure for transferring Mint data. We are busy people - that's why we are willing to pay more for an app that automatically syncs our accounts rather than use, say, Goodbudget.

I'm going to create trial accounts with Monarch, YNAB, and Empower. Maybe I'll have better luck with one of them.

UrsulaA

Here is a post from @Coach Natalie that is helpful for Mint imports.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/25019#Comment_25019

johnpw

so you had to split out each account into its won csv file.

in my mint I had Visa, Savings, IRA, oldCredit card, 2nd credit card.

I wasn't about to create all thsoe accounts so I created an account called "Mint History"

went into the csv file and replaced the Notes column with "Mint Account: Visa 1 - Mint Note: XYZ"

and changed every account to be "Mint History"

saved the new csv file and uploaded that.

so now I'm starting fresh with simplify for a year and see how I like it

may choose to import the different account data into its proper area when it makes sense later on

GlobeTrotter

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/23799#Comment_23799

This advice worked for me. This is what I did:

1. Export the data from Mint
2. Use Google Sheet, you can use any other spreadsheet program, and make separate CSV (leave the headers) based on the "Account Name" header colunn for each account
3. Created each Account on Simplifi
4. Import each csv

ps56k

if the Mint export does indeed fail - I guess @Coach Natalie should maybe help the authors update the posted instructions that it only works for single accounts or in fact split out the CSV into separate account files to be imported into Simplifi - either way, the “instructions” should be tested and verified

UrsulaA

From another thread @Coach Natalie said that the Mint import process is getting redone in the next release. Maybe hold off in importing until then?

whyme

So should I wait or split my mint CSV files into individual accounts. I have 80,000 transactions. You really expect that I should split them into 2,000? Please update your instructions because it does not make sense anymore. Mint only gives you one big data csv dump.