“The file you tried to import appears to be empty”
YNAB reporting "file is empty" for a file you can plainly open and read is one of the most confusing import errors — the file is not empty, but YNAB could not find a single row it recognizes as a transaction.
Symptoms
File-based import finishes instantly with "0 transactions imported" YNAB shows "the file you tried to import appears to be empty" The same file opens normally in Excel or a text editor
What actually causes it
Header row only
The export genuinely contains column headers and nothing else — banks do this when the selected date range had no activity.
Blank line after the header
Several importers stop at the first blank line. If your bank inserts one between the header and the data, everything after it is invisible to YNAB.
Semicolon-delimited CSV
European Excel exports separate columns with ";" instead of ",". YNAB then sees the entire row as one unrecognized column and imports nothing.
OFX file with zero transaction records
For OFX/QFX imports, the file may parse correctly but contain no <STMTTRN> entries at all.
How to fix it
- Drop the file into the fixer below — it reports exactly which of the causes above applies to your file.
- Semicolon delimiters and blank lines are repaired automatically; download the fixed file and re-import.
- If the file genuinely has no data rows, re-export from your bank with a wider date range.
Related import problems
Skip the manual edit — fix it automatically
The fixer distinguishes "actually empty" from "YNAB just can't read it" in seconds, locally in your browser. Free, no signup, no upload.
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