Importing a CSV file: 'Create missing select options'- dude where's my new options?

I can confirm that even though “Create missing select options” is selected, it doesn’t actually create any options, although they do appear in the preview…
 

Here is a workaround you can use while waiting for Airtable Support’s response:

Copy your list of values from your spreadsheet and paste them into a Single line text field in Airtable.

Then, click the field header, select Edit field, and change the type from Single line text to Single select.

And… Airtable will automatically detect all unique text values and prompt you to convert them into select options.

​@RobynWilson 

It works fine for me when using Airtable’s CSV Import extension, so it sounds like you’re using a different method of importing?

Sounds like you’ve already reported this issue to support@airtable.com, so in the meantime, I would recommend using the CSV import extension.

However, if you are unable to use the extension because you don’t want people to have access to the data layer, then I would highly recommend doing this with Make’s CSV integrations in conjunction with Make’s Airtable integrations.

I demonstrate how to automatically import & merge CSV files into Airtable on this Airtable podcast episode. This video will give you a step-by-step walkthrough on how to set this up with Make’s CSV tools.

If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one of the ways that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

Hope this helps!

If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

​@ScottWorld, FYI the CSV Import extension is not available in the free tier, and you don’t need an extension to import CSV files anyway. It’s a built-in feature available in the Free, Team, Business, and Enterprise plans.

Actually, the CSV Import extension offers additional functionality that you can’t get with the other methods of importing in Airtable. It is the most advanced tool (with the most features) that is built into Airtable for importing CSV files.

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

What features does it have that aren’t available in the regular built-in CSV import?

Off the top of my head: merging data, higher row limits, importing new records into linked record fields. Probably some other features as well. If you upgrade to a paid plan, you can play with it and see all of its functionality. But most importantly for this thread, it doesn’t have the bug that the original author posted about above.

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

I can confirm that this is actually not working while doing CSV import. Seems like a bug.

There is a simpler alternative for you in the meanwhile - arrange the columns in your CSV/Excel in the same order as present in Airtable. Then simply copy paste the data from your CSV/Excel file to Airtable. This will create the missing single select fields.