SOLVED

Import excel into existing list (with data already in it)

Copper Contributor

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!

46 Replies
best response confirmed by RRMX01 (Copper Contributor)
Solution

@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

Thank you! Didn't realise you could do that.

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

@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

In the edit in grid view screen just do a single click on the first column - don't click into it - and you should be ab le to paste in records, I do it regularly.
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.

@RobElliott  Pasting one at a time works, i can't paste any more than that. I'm testing with 2 records, the first one inserts then there's a blank row with no info from the second source row.

 

thanks

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.

@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.

@RobElliott sorry for old bump - this works in Internet Explorer (and Edge has an IE mode now), but as other commenters indicate, I cannot reproduce multi-line copy/pasting in a chromium browser.

Try as I may, I can't get this to work. I copy the Excel rows into my clipboard. I go my SharePoint list; select Edit in grid view; navigate to the bottom; choose Add Item; click in the first column and try to paste. Instead of adding fields across the row, it deposits the entire contents into the first cell. I've also tried pasting without clicking in the first cell but nothing happens. I've tried various browsers, but nothing seems to work. Any advise as to what I'm doing wrong?

@nestorph3010 Are you in Internet Explorer? I couldn't get it to work in Edge, but was able to paste a few hundred lines by opening it in Internet Explorer. Good luck!

@Jamie_Weller 

 

I figured it out!! I was struggling with this and really needed to make it work.

 

It depends on how you click on the cell. If you have the curser flashing in the cell to enter text then it will just paste whatever you copy from Excel as text. However, if you want to copy several rows or items from Excel, you need to click on the cell in grid mode. To do that, if you have the curser flashing, click on an area outside the list.

 

Step by step:

1. Click on "Add new item"

2. Select the cell you want the rows to go to, or the cell in column A to enter all columns

3. The cell will select and your curser will flash in the first column

4. Click below that row and under the end of the list

5. Your selection will become still the same cell but without the flashing cursor

6. Paste

7. If you had several rows whether just one column or several it will paste all the rows as new rows into your list. 

Tested and verified. Works like a charm. See a few screenshots below.

 

Text entry: (not what you want)

yyarin104_0-1649040472152.png which leads to the following:

yyarin104_1-1649040530520.png

 

 

No cursor selection should look like so:

yyarin104_2-1649040581560.png

And leads to the following:

yyarin104_3-1649040631171.png

Notice the "wrong" pasted option at the top and the correct pasting underneath that.

 

Browser: Chrome

View used: SharePoint Modern View

OS: MacOS 14

 

 

Pasting from Excel works for a few dozen rows, but gets very cumbersome with larger amounts of data. I have been able to insert larger data using Access, which can connect to the SharePoint list and allows you to write SQL-like insert queries.

@BenHoffmann Have you tried with Power Automate? it should also be possible to do a for each loop

@yyarin104 I'm new in Power Automate, would you be able to send some quick instructions on how to do this?? I have hundreds of thousands of records from Excel to import to a Sharepoint list. Thanks!

@iamhuman2414 this is a bit off topic, but do you find working with that many rows in a SP list is unwieldy? I have lists nearing 10k lines that are a pain to work with since only 5k lines will render at a time and that takes a while.

@Rache2195 Totally agree! We generally try not to let our SP lists get that big. We try to export them out by years/quarters/months and save the export within the site (then delete the data from the list) so they can still reference the data but it doesn't slow their list down. We only had to keep one list that large because we were using a list with a PowerApp to while we had an application outage.

You, @yyarin104, are a gentleperson and a scholar. Thank you!

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by RRMX01 (Copper Contributor)
Solution

@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

View solution in original post