Issues uploading CSV UTF-8 file with members into Viva Engage

Question

I've been uploading CSV UTF-8 files with members into Viva Engage for months and as of yesterday, I've been receiving the 'sorry' error message.

What I’ve already tried

• CSV saved as CSV UTF-8
• One email address per row, no additional columns
• No blank rows, no external users, no distribution lists
• Batch size reduced to ~500 users
• File re-saved using Notepad (UTF-8, no BOM)
• Tested with smaller files (including very small subsets)

Any ideas why this might be happening?

Answer 1

Hi NRT

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum and for sharing your experience. I appreciate the detailed steps you have already tested. You have covered all of the usual causes, so I understand how frustrating it is to suddenly encounter a generic “sorry” error after months of successful CSV uploads.

If this aligns with your environment, it may help to know that Microsoft has already identified similar bulk import failures affecting multiple tenants. During these incidents, the recommended workaround was to add members individually while the engineering team worked on the backend issue. The problem has been associated with an internal VSO item, and mitigation work is already in progress to restore full CSV import functionality.

I have also reproduced the same service‑side Viva Engage CSV import failure currently affecting several tenants. This confirms that the issue is not caused by your CSV file. This suggests the issue is very unlikely to be caused by your CSV file and may instead stem from an internal backend problem that can only be fully resolved through Microsoft Support.

At this stage, the most helpful next step is to contact your Microsoft 365 administrator and ask them to open a support ticket through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Microsoft Support might review backend logs and check whether the failure aligns with a broader service issue or a recent change in Viva Engage.

• Your IT admin can use this official Microsoft article to open a support request: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

Please let me know how you get on, as your feedback is valuable to the community. 

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