Update 'multi-select' picklist field values with Data Loader

If you need to replace the delimiter manually because of your region setting, then you need to ensure that the ; are kept for the multi select picklist.

This can be done by adding a step before saving the Excel file.

1. Prepare your data in Excel
2. Replace the (;) from the multi select fields with a different symbol (make sure that this symbol is not used in the text e.g.#)
3. convert the Excel sheet into CSV delimited
4. Open the sheet in Notepad, replace all Semicolons with commas
5. Replace the replacement symbol (#) with Semicolon

When updating values for multi-select picklist fields using Data Loader, remember to always:

• On the CSV file on the column where it has the multi select make sure to separate values using semi colon (;). Also, on the CSV file make sure that the values are the same values available on the multi-select picklist or the Global Value Set used.
• Once it is done open up dataloader click on the update button and follow through the process.
• If you are adding new picklist values to existing values, make sure that your csv file contains the current value and the new values separated by semi colon (;).