Data loader - can't change contact owner

[TVP]

I hope I am posting this question in the right place. I'm new to using the data loader and new to this community.

I have account owners that often have contacts owned by other users and sometimes that causes an issue. I ran a report of all contact owners and account owners. I sorted all the times where the account owner was different than the contact owner and deleted the ones where the account and contact owners were the same. I then copied the account owners and pasted them to match the contact owners in the spreadsheet.

I thought it would be easy to use data loader to replace the contact owners with my changes. I decided to use a test file first with just one record.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I have attached images of how I set the mapping and the error message I got. I selected "Contact" as the SF object in Step 2 of the data loader process. Best I can tell, it would seem I chose the correct mapping, but the error message says I have an incorrect type.

Am I doing something wrong or does data loader not let me make this change? If I am doing something wrong, what do I need to do different. If data loader doesn't allow this change, it doesn't make sense to me why it wouldn't.

[kim_lebicz]

Hi TVP

The Account Owner field needs to be a user ID not the full name. Hope this helps.

[TVP]

I still need clarification.  The response "The Account Owner field needs to be a user ID not the full name" has me more confused.  I left the Account Owner field blank and did not choose the full name.  Not even sure what is meant by "full name".

I selected in Step 2 of the Data Loader to pick the Contact object.  My understanding is that only the chosen object (the contact object in this case) in step 2 can have data changed.  Since I can only change contact fields based on this selection, I didn't bother to map any account fields.

Again my goal is to change the Contact Owner field.  I went maticulously through the list of available contact fields to map to the Contact Owner.  There was one and only one contact field I saw that indicated it was contact owner related - "OwnerID". 

My guess is the contact OwnerID is the unique identifier of the contact and not the actual name of the contact owner which is what I was trying to replace.  Unless I just completely missed the correct contact owner field to map, it would appear the data loader does not give the user the option to change the contact owner.

Can anyone confirm if my assessment is correct or show what I need to do to accomplish successfully mapping and changing the contact owner field?

Thanks!

[kim_lebicz]

Sorry I was unclear.

I noticed under the column header "Account Owner" you have the name Craig Reamsnyder. You need to put this user's (Craig's) User Id in this field not his name.

You have the Contact ID and the Account ID and in the Account Owner field you need the User's ID not their name.

[kim_lebicz]

Again sorry. In my last statement I meant to say Contact Owner, not Account.

"I noticed under the column header "Contact Owner" you have the name Craig Reamsnyder. You need to put this user's (Craig's) User Id in this field not his name.

You have the Contact ID and the Account ID and in the Contact Owner field you need the User's ID not their name."

[TVP]

I'm not following you at all.  I have that Account ID mapped to the Account ID.  I have the Contact ID mapped to the Contact ID.

The question is the Contact Owner file comlumn header which I currently have mapped to contact OwnerID.  I think the contact OwnerID is a unique identifier number and not the name of the owner as I intended.

The problem is I see absolutely no other field in the list of available contact fileds that indicates it is related to the owner.  Ideally I'm looking for a filed called "Contact Owner" to map "Contact Owner" instead of what I used "ContactID".  No such field appears to exist in that available list to map unless I am just missing it.

Based on the lack of any option in the list of available contacts fields that can be mapped, I can only conclude that data loader does not allow the user to change the contact owner.

Can anyone confirm if this conclusion is correct?  If not, can someone explain how I can change the contact owner in mass?

Also worth noting, I have Professional edition and cannot use the mass transfer contacts because Professional edition does not provide a way to transfer contacts in mass like it can for accounts and leads.

If I data loader cannot change it and Professional edition doesn't provide a mass transfer for contacts, it sounds like I am screwed.

Help!?

[TVP]

I follow the logic of what you are saying, but I don't think the data loader allows that. 

Doesn't the ID have to remain that unique identifying number? 

Doesn't it have to use this unique identifier for data loader to find the right records before other fields can be replaced?

[kim_lebicz]

I'm looking at your image above of your CSV Viewer and I see that you have Craig Reamsnyder in the Contact Owner field. That needs to be his unique id not his name.

[TVP]

I think I get it now.  I will go through the process again and look for a UserID option to map.  Let me give it a try.

Thanks.

[TVP]

I'm a little slow, but finally caught on to what you were saying.  I was able to get it to work.  Had to run a separate User report to get the user IDs and then used find/replace in my original spreadsheet and saved before running Data Loader again.

Thank you !