Troubleshooting common problems

The file will not open

• "Not a CSV or Excel file": GridRinse opens .csv, .tsv, .txt, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xls and .ods. Save or export the file in one of these formats.
• "The file is empty" or "The sheet is empty": for workbooks, pick another sheet in the Sheet menu.
• Everything is in one column: check the separator shown under the file name. Separators are detected automatically (comma, semicolon, tab, pipe).
• The first row of data became the header: untick First row is the header.
• Warnings about rows with a different number of cells: short rows were padded with empty cells and extra cells went into extra_ columns. Nothing was dropped; check the listed rows in the Original tab.

Accents look wrong (é instead of é)

GridRinse reads files as UTF-8 and falls back to Windows-1252 when the bytes are not valid UTF-8; the file line shows which was used. When you download a CSV for Excel, keep Excel-friendly (UTF-8 BOM) ticked, or download XLSX instead. If Excel puts everything in column A, use the semicolon separator. See the guide on CSV encoding in Excel.

Dates are wrong or not changed

• A column like 03/04/2024 that could be day-first or month-first is left unchanged and flagged in Standardise dates. Choose DMY or MDY for that column.
• Numbers such as 45296 are Excel date serials. Tick Treat plain numbers as Excel date serials in the step options and choose the column.
• For Excel files, try the file's Dates menu: as shown in Excel or as ISO (YYYY-MM-DD).
• Values that cannot be read as dates are left as they were.
• Excel may re-format dates when you double-click a CSV. Download XLSX to avoid this. See fixing Excel dates.

Large files, limits and slow cleaning

• "Your plan handles files up to …" or "… rows per file": the file is over your plan's limit. See Plans and limits, or split the file.
• "Would need about … of memory": the browser tab does not have enough memory. Split the file, close other tabs, remove other loaded files, or use a computer with more memory.
• Cleaning is slow: use Cancel, then change a step or press Run again.
• "Processing took longer than three minutes and was stopped": a find & replace pattern may be too slow, or the file too large. Simplify the regular expression or split the file.
• "The processing worker crashed": try again; if it keeps happening, the file may be too large for this browser.
• Download buttons are disabled: wait until the preview has updated; downloads unlock when the preview matches your steps.

The verification email has not arrived

1. Check your spam or junk folder.
2. Go to /verify-email, enter your email and click Send a new link.
3. Links last 1 hour. If a link says it is invalid or expired, request a new one.

If you request several links in a short time, you may be asked to wait a few minutes.

I cannot log in

• "Confirm your email address first": open the link in your verification email, or request a new one as above.
• "Email or password is incorrect": check the address, or use Forgot password. The reset link expires in 1 hour, and resetting signs you out on all devices.
• Too many attempts: wait a minute and try again.
• Signed out unexpectedly: changing your password signs out other devices, and Sign out everywhere ends every session.

Still stuck?

See Getting help.