CSV Import Event Dates saying Jan 1 1970

[fred]

I’m having the same problem as identified here https://tri.be/support/forums/topic/csv-import-not-working-properly/

The start date of our events is saying Jan 1970 (http://www.uniqulture.com/events/) even though we have the correct dates in the appropriate column in the csv file. Here is the csv file we imported the events from https://drive.google.com/a/uniqulture.com/file/d/0B5PFIogSRjj1bzVGRTd1anJuYVk/edit?usp=sharing

Can you please inform on what needs to be done to have the proper start and end date imported?

Best,
Frederick

[Julie Kuehl]

Hey fred,

The CSV Importer is separate from the Facebook Importer, so I’m going to move your question over to the PRO forum to get you some help on this one.

— Julie

[fred]

Thanks.

I’m desperately looking forward to getting some help with this.

[Brook]

Howdy fred,

I was able to import that file without a hitch. All of the dates are correct, except for one event “The Essence of Joy”. However, when I inspected that event in the CSV I noted the start time was “TBA”. Since that is not a number that could definitely gum up the works. Jan  1st 1970 is the default start date/time for PHP, so when something is invalid (like TBA) that is the date you would get by default.

Are you 100% sure the Events columns match up in your import settings? Here are the settings I used. If you are, then I am at a loss as to why it is working fine for me and not you. It is possible this is caused by a 3rd party plugin or custom WP theme conflicting with the import, but that would be very rare for this sort of thing. You might try importing a simpler CSV first with just a few. The best and most reconizable date format you can use is UTC, which is YYYY-MM-DD. That is the format computers prefer because it is unambiguous and not dependent on locale, hence why it is called the universal standard. Perhaps you could try importing just a few events at a time and see if it chokes. If so, try using the date format above.

If that is not working it is definitely worth disabling all plugins except Tribe ones, and reverting to the default 2013 theme to see if the issue persists.

Please let me know if one of the steps above helps, or if I can clarify or answer more questions. Thanks!

– Brook

[fred]

Hi Brook,

I followed all your instructions: turned all plugins off, turned all plugins off and reverted to the 2011 theme. Still no success. How can I convert all the dates to UTC??

Since it worked for you, I wonder if it’ll work for you if you try it through our admin page.

Or
I wonder how https://tri.be/support/forums/users/mountainx/ solved it because he had the same issue and identified it as below:

We’ve identified the issue. The export of our events contained the value NULL for start and end time if none was set. However your import script only checks if time is not empty and therefor attempts to convert a date time with NULL in the value. This function fails and returns a date from 1970.

Best,
Frederick

[Brook]

Howdy Frederick,

I am sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you. We got a bit swamped here the past 24 hours.

I do not believe mountainx’s dilemma is the same, because at least the CSV file you posted I am not seeing any NULL dates.

You should be able to use any spreadsheet program to modify the date format. For instance, you posted the CSV to Google Docs. A simple change of date format for that column and then a redownloading of the file as a CSV should work.

I would be glad to try a test import on your site. If you would like to provide me with an admin login then I can. A private reply here should keep the info from the public. Could you possibly perform a backup of your site first. Not that I intend on breaking anything, but I might have to repeatedly try importing those events so it would be nice if we had a backup before such a large change. Also, could you enable the 2013 theme/disable plugins. If not I understand, but I would just like to make doubly sure that nothing is conflicting.

Let me know if that works for you. Thanks!

– Brook

[Author]

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