Hi, what file type should be used to upload words from a file? “Add from file”
AI-generated summary
Users are experiencing issues uploading watched words via file in Discourse, despite receiving success messages. outofthebox initially asked about file format, and simon clarified that a .txt file with one word per line is required. However, uploaded words didn’t appear even with the ‘show words’ checkbox enabled outofthebox. simon noted that duplicate words can’t be added across different actions. outofthebox tried uploading to the blocked words section after deleting existing entries, but still saw no results. justin suggested checking browser console or /logs for errors. aaron.dryden reported the same issue and asked if outofthebox had resolved it — they hadn’t. JammyDodger tested successfully with a .txt file but noted that trailing commas are required for CSVs — aaron.dryden confirmed commas helped but found the process inconsistent. JammyDodger recommended breaking lists into batches or using spreadsheets to generate clean CSVs. aaron.dryden still saw erratic behavior — sometimes 0, 1, or 3 words uploaded with identical files. abrambailey identified Excel-generated CSVs containing hidden special characters as a culprit and noted the lack of HTML flag support in “Replace” tab uploads. They also reported that watched words break text even in post previews abrambailey and that word order doesn’t prevent text fragmentation when matching phrases like “AirPods Pro 2’s” abrambailey.
The upload input on the watched words page is looking for a .txt file. That file should contain one word per line.
Thanks! I’ve now uploaded my .txt file. I get a message that says, “Upload successful. Words have been added.”
However, no words then appear to be added.
Is the ‘show words’ checkbox checked? Words will only be shown when that box is checked.
Hi, yes. And when it isn’t checked, it shows the “0 words” text.
Which action are you trying to upload the words to? One thing to note is that you cannot add the same word to multiple watched word actions.
Hi, so I took the risk of deleting my watched words section, then attempting to upload the .txt file to the blocked words section. Unfortunately, it is still not loading the new word list from the document.
Do you see any errors in the browser console or /logs?
Having the same problem and can’t see any solutions on here - did you crack it @outofthebox ?
I’ve just given it a run-through on my test site with a 3 word csv file added to ‘Block’ and it has worked for me?
Could you give a few more details of what you’re trying and what’s going wrong?
Hi Aaron, I wish I could help, but I don’t remember how that worked out!
Exactly the same as the OP, thanks @JammyDodger
Thanks @outofthebox, it was a while back so understandable!
I’ve just given it a go with a .txt file rather than a csv and that did work for two of the three words, but not the third as I had forgotten to add the comma at the end. 
Does your word list have commas in, or just a list of words?
eg.
dog,
cat,
pancake,
Thanks so much @JammyDodger - I managed to get it working by adding the commas, but made one small tweak to the text and it won’t work again. Finding this function really inconsistent 
Working with 75 words or phrases so it’s a few too many to do manually
I think you can break them up and do them in smaller batches, which may help you find the one that’s giving you trouble. 
I also find typing them into a spreadsheet (with no commas) and exporting that as a csv to be a pretty smooth way of adding bigger lists if you ever need to do a bigger one.
Thanks for your suggestions @JammyDodger , I’m repeating the same task with the same files and sometimes getting no words added, sometimes one, sometimes three!
Will pick it up again tomorrow when Discourse may be feeling differently! Appreciate your help though 
In my case there was a special character being used by excel’s csv which was breaking it. I had to edit the csv in my text editor to fix it. However, there is another issue, which is that if you try to upload a list to the “Replace” tab, there seems to be no way of indicating in the csv that the output should be in HTML. The download also doesn’t provide any flag to indicate html or not.
One other interesting issue I have. I’m inserting links after product names like this:
And sometimes people do stuff like “AirPods Pro 2’s” and I’ve tried matching on the apostrophized version first to avoid having the link icon followed by
's but it seems it doesn’t matter the order of the watched words, the text is always broken up.
Noticed that Watched Words also manipulates text in the post preview. Is there any way to suppress this?