Clean an Apollo CSV Export

An export built from two saved searches usually has the same people twice, phone numbers in several formats, and emails in mixed case. Here is a worked example on a fictional export, with the exact result the free tool produces.

ℹ️ A worked example you can check. The before and after tables below were produced by the free tool on this site from a fictional sample file. Open the same file yourself and you will get the same result.

What Usually Goes Wrong

• The same contact exported from two saved searches, so the row appears twice
• One person listed twice with different job titles — which one is current?
• Work and mobile phones written as (415) 555-0142, 415.555.0177 and +1 312 555 0190 in the same column
• Emails in mixed case, with a trailing space on some
• A blank row where two exports were pasted together

The Sample File, Before

9 rows of fictional data with the problems above. Every person and company is invented.

Open This File in the Workspace Download the CSV

Clean an Apollo CSV Export sample before cleaning
First Name	Last Name	Title	Company	Email	Email Status	Work Direct Phone	Mobile Phone	City	State	Country
Dana	Whitfield	VP Sales	Corvane Example Inc	dana.whitfield@corvane-example.com	Verified	(415) 555-0142	415.555.0143	San Francisco	California	United States
Marcus	Oyelaran	Head of Growth	Tallis Example LLC	Marcus.Oyelaran@Tallis-Example.com	Verified	415.555.0177		Austin	Texas	United States
Priya	Raghunathan	Sales Director	Brightwell Example Co	priya@brightwell-example.com	Verified	+1 312 555 0190	(312) 555-0191	Chicago	Illinois	United States
Dana	Whitfield	VP Sales	Corvane Example Inc	dana.whitfield@corvane-example.com	Verified	(415) 555-0142	415.555.0143	San Francisco	California	United States

Tomasz	Kowalczyk	Revenue Operations Manager	Fennick Example Group	tomasz.k@fennick-example.io	Unverified	1-646-555-0155 ext. 22		New York	New York	United States
Priya	Raghunathan	Chief Revenue Officer	Brightwell Example Co	Priya@Brightwell-Example.com	Verified	+1 312 555 0190	(312) 555-0191	Chicago	Illinois	United States
Elise	Montrose	Account Executive	Harlow Example Ltd	elise.montrose@harlow-example.co.uk	Verified	+44 20 7946 0321		London		United Kingdom
Jorge	Santibanez	SDR Manager	Quillon Example SA	jorge@quillon-example.mx	Verified	55 5555 0188		Mexico City		Mexico

How to Clean It

1. Export from Apollo as CSV and keep an untouched copy.
2. Open the file in the Data Workspace. On the Analyze step, confirm that both phone columns are treated as Phone and the Email column as Email.
3. On the Clean step keep the suggested actions: remove exact duplicates, lowercase emails, merge duplicate emails, standardize phones.
4. On the Review step, decide the one conflict: the same email with two different titles. The tool keeps both rows until you choose.
5. Export the cleaned CSV together with the change log, and import the CSV.

Prefer the command line or an AI agent? The same result comes from smartdata-clean clean apollo-export.csv --dedupe-rows --lower-emails --merge-duplicate-emails --phones. See tools for agents.

The Result

9 rows in, 2 removed, 7 out. The exact duplicate is removed. The two rows for the same email with different titles are both kept and flagged, because a tool cannot know which title is current. The Mexico City number has no country code and its row says Mexico, so it is left exactly as it was and listed, instead of being turned into a US number.

Clean an Apollo CSV Export sample after cleaning
First Name	Last Name	Title	Company	Email	Email Status	Work Direct Phone	Mobile Phone	City	State	Country
Dana	Whitfield	VP Sales	Corvane Example Inc	dana.whitfield@corvane-example.com	Verified	+14155550142	+14155550143	San Francisco	California	United States
Marcus	Oyelaran	Head of Growth	Tallis Example LLC	marcus.oyelaran@tallis-example.com	Verified	+14155550177		Austin	Texas	United States
Priya	Raghunathan	Sales Director	Brightwell Example Co	priya@brightwell-example.com	Verified	+13125550190	+13125550191	Chicago	Illinois	United States
Tomasz	Kowalczyk	Revenue Operations Manager	Fennick Example Group	tomasz.k@fennick-example.io	Unverified	+16465550155 x22		New York	New York	United States
Priya	Raghunathan	Chief Revenue Officer	Brightwell Example Co	priya@brightwell-example.com	Verified	+13125550190	+13125550191	Chicago	Illinois	United States
Elise	Montrose	Account Executive	Harlow Example Ltd	elise.montrose@harlow-example.co.uk	Verified	+442079460321		London		United Kingdom
Jorge	Santibanez	SDR Manager	Quillon Example SA	jorge@quillon-example.mx	Verified	55 5555 0188		Mexico City		Mexico

What the tool left for you

The tool listed these 2 items for a person to check:

• Row 8 shares an email with row 4 but has different Title. Both rows were kept. Decide which is right.
• Phones not recognized, left unchanged: 1 (rows 10)

Checked, not just claimed

The original file, the cleaned file and the change log were run through the separate verifier. Result: PASS.

✓ Removed rows with a valid, verified reason: 2 of 2
✓ Rows: 9 in, 2 removed with a logged reason, 7 out
✓ Cells compared: 77; changed: 11; every change matched to the log: yes
✓ Log entries: 16; not matching the files: 0

The verifier confirms that the change log explains every difference between the two files. It does not judge whether each cleaning choice suits your situation; that part is yours.

The cleaning report

Report text for the sample file

SMARTDATAAI — CLEANING REPORT
Source: apollo-export.csv (fictional practice data)

SUMMARY
Rows in (excluding header): 9
Rows out: 7
Rows removed: 2
  Empty rows: 1
  Exact duplicates: 1
Cells changed: 14
  Leading/trailing spaces trimmed: 1
  Emails normalized: 2
  Phones standardized to +E.164: 11

COLUMNS DETECTED
Email: Email, Email Status
Phone: Work Direct Phone, Mobile Phone
Date: none
Name: First Name, Last Name

NEEDS REVIEW
- Row 8 shares an email with row 4 but has different Title. Both rows were kept. Decide which is right.
- Phones not recognized, left unchanged: 1 (rows 10)
- More than one email column found; "Email" was used for de-duplication and checking.

SAMPLE OF CHANGES (first 14 of 14)
Row 2 · Work Direct Phone: "(415) 555-0142" → "+14155550142"  [phone]
Row 2 · Mobile Phone: "415.555.0143" → "+14155550143"  [phone]
Row 3 · Email: "Marcus.Oyelaran@Tallis-Example.com " → "Marcus.Oyelaran@Tallis-Example.com"  [whitespace]
Row 3 · Email: "Marcus.Oyelaran@Tallis-Example.com" → "marcus.oyelaran@tallis-example.com"  [email]
Row 3 · Work Direct Phone: "415.555.0177" → "+14155550177"  [phone]
Row 4 · Work Direct Phone: "+1 312 555 0190" → "+13125550190"  [phone]
Row 4 · Mobile Phone: "(312) 555-0191" → "+13125550191"  [phone]
Row 5 · Work Direct Phone: "(415) 555-0142" → "+14155550142"  [phone]
Row 5 · Mobile Phone: "415.555.0143" → "+14155550143"  [phone]
Row 7 · Work Direct Phone: "1-646-555-0155 ext. 22" → "+16465550155 x22"  [phone]
Row 8 · Email: "Priya@Brightwell-Example.com" → "priya@brightwell-example.com"  [email]
Row 8 · Work Direct Phone: "+1 312 555 0190" → "+13125550190"  [phone]
Row 8 · Mobile Phone: "(312) 555-0191" → "+13125550191"  [phone]
Row 9 · Work Direct Phone: "+44 20 7946 0321" → "+442079460321"  [phone]

Values the tool cannot settle are left as they were and listed above. Where the day/month order of a date was worked out from other dates in the same column, that is listed above too.
Row numbers refer to the original file (header = row 1). Email checks cover format only; they do not confirm that a mailbox exists.

Where a Tool Stops and a Person Starts

Deciding which of two conflicting records is current, checking titles against a live source, and mapping Apollo's columns to your CRM's fields are judgement calls. That is what the Complex Cleanup and CRM Import Prep services are for.

See Service Levels From $19 How We Check Our Work

Apollo is a trademark of its owner. SmartDataAI is not affiliated with Apollo. The column names here follow a typical export; yours may differ.