actualbudget/actual

[Bug]: No transactions detected in bank CSV export

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#6327 opened on Dec 7, 2025

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 (9 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)JavaScript (7,129 stars) (603 forks)batch import
bughelp wantedtransaction import

Description

Verified issue does not already exist?

  • I have searched and found no existing issue

What happened?

When I tried to import the CSV exported from my bank's site, AB says there are no transactions in it:

But if I look into the file, I see that there are 5 transactions in it, and a header row, fields separated by commas. If I set the "skip start lines" to 1, AB says I cant skip more lines than there is, so maybe it cannot handle the line endings used?

According to the linux "file" command, the is a "Little-endian UTF-16 Unicode text, with very long lines". I dont know how to tell what line endings it has though, because suprisingly its much harder than on windows.. no text editor I know can tell that to me.

Another problem could be that AB does not allow me to select the standard date format used in my country (YYYY.MM.DD), but that would be on top of the line detection issue. If it turns out to be an issue I'll open a separate issue for that.

How can we reproduce the issue?

  1. You would need a sample export file from my bank
  2. Open AB's webapp in Firefox
  3. Select an account on the left
  4. Click Import at the top
  5. Select the sample CSV file

Where are you hosting Actual?

Docker

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Firefox

Operating System

Linux

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascriptnodejs
Domain
backendfrontend
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
basic knowledge of CSV parsingunderstanding of character encodings
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
Investigate the CSV import module, likely located in packages/loot core/src/import/ or similar. Reproduce the issue with a UTF 16 encoded CSV file. Check if the current CSV parser (possibly using PapaParse or similar) handles BOM detection and encoding conversion. Look into the line ending detection logic that causes the 'skip start lines' error. Consider using a library like iconv lite to convert UTF 16 to UTF 8 before parsing. Review existing comments for maintainer hints about the expected CSV format.