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Every row shows as new, but I published these before

Why a file you published earlier shows all its rows as New instead of Updated or Unchanged, how to find the changed ID, site or content type, and how to avoid creating copies.

  • 3 min read
  • Updated October 13, 2026
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When you upload a file that you have published before, the review should say Updated or Unchanged for most rows. If it says New for rows you know were published, publishing would create copies. Do not publish yet: the review is telling you that Content Uploader does not recognise those items.

Symptoms#

  • The New tile holds (nearly) every row of a file you have already published.
  • The review lists items as new, with an ID or a title that you recognise.
  • After publishing, your site has two of each article.

Likely causes#

Content Uploader recognises a row by its record ID (or, without an ID column, by its slug or title), among the items it published to the same site and content type. A row is new when none of that matches.

Confirmed (from how matching works, and from our tests of the update flow):

  1. The IDs changed. The export now numbers rows differently, an ID column was re-generated, or the values were typed in another form (HLJ-001 against hlj-001 or 1). The comparison is exact; spaces at the ends are ignored.
  2. A different column is now the record ID. Someone edited the configuration's Record ID setting.
  3. No ID column, and the title (or slug) changed. Without an ID, a retitled article is a new article.
  4. The file goes to a different site or content type: another configuration, or the same configuration pointed at another destination.
  5. The items were not published by Content Uploader: they were written by hand or by another tool. Only items Content Uploader published are matched (how rows are matched).
  6. The connector's records were removed (the plugin's tables were dropped on your site), so the site no longer knows which items belong to which ID.

Step-by-step solution#

  1. Open a new item in the review. It shows Row 12 · ID HLJ-114. Compare that ID with the ID of the same article in last week's file.
  2. Check the configuration: select Edit configuration and look at Record ID. If it names another column than before, choose the right one (choosing the record ID).
  3. If the source system changed its IDs, restore the old IDs in your file (a lookup column that maps new to old works), or accept that these are new items and delete the old ones on your site afterwards. Content Uploader never deletes anything.
  4. If the file has no ID column, restore the titles, or add an ID column that you keep from now on.
  5. Check the destination in the review's header (Publishes to … · Posts): is it the site and content type you meant?
  6. Upload the corrected file. When the review shows Updated and Unchanged for the known rows, publish.

How to verify#

  • The review shows the expected split, for example 2 new · 3 updated · 5 unchanged, and New holds only the rows that really are new.
  • After publishing, the site's list shows no second copy.

If you already published the copies#

  1. On the Sites page, the results show the ID on the site of each item Content Uploader now owns.
  2. Delete the extra copies on your site (WordPress: Posts; Joomla: Content → Articles), keeping the ones whose ID appears in the results (duplicates).

If it persists#

Contact support with the configuration's name, one record ID that you expected to match, and the date it was first published.

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