How to import and validate your list using Everest List Validation

Validating your list in Everest is a simple process that helps you easily maintain good list hygiene according to industry best practices.

Learn how list validation affects usage on your subscription.

Prepare your list

Formatting your list properly can help you avoid upload errors. Follow these criteria:

• A .txt or .csv file under 500 MB
• Maximum of 1 million email addresses
• Comma- or tab-delimited
• One column only, one email address per line
• No column header—the data should start in cell A1 or on the first line
• No duplicate email addresses
• No quotation marks or extra spaces
• No line breaks within an email address

Import your list

1. Sign in to Everest.
2. Use the navigation menu at left to go to Pre-Send, then List Validation.
3. Select Validate New List at the top right of the page. This action opens the Validate New List slideout.

In the slideout, you can choose whether to upload or paste in the list you want to verify.

• To upload your list:
  1. Choose the Upload List tab in the slideout.
  2. Enter a unique description or name for your list.
  3. Select your file for upload.
  4. Select Save List.
     
     
• To paste in your list:
  1. Choose the Paste List tab in the slideout.
  2. Enter a unique description or name for your list.
  3. Paste in email addresses, one per line.
  4. Select Save List.

Completed results

Once validation is complete, your validated list will appear as a widget at the top left of the My Lists tab. Hover over the donut graph for your list to see a breakdown of your results into three categories: Valid, Invalid, and Risky.

To see detailed results, select View Details for your list. This action opens a slideout where you can review your Invalid and Risky subcategories and download your validated list in full or by subcategory.

• Invalid Emails: This category includes why the emails were found to be invalid (address, domain, or account).
• Risky Emails: This category includes Unknown, Accept All, Disposable and Role Address emails. 

For best results, we strongly recommend mailing only to Valid email addresses.

Import error

If there is an error importing your list, you will see the message "There was a problem importing your list" in Grid view or "Import error" in List view.

• In most cases, this happens when the list is formatted incorrectly.
• During processing, if the first 100 email addresses in the list return as Invalid, processing stops so you are not charged credits for a file that may be corrupted or otherwise bad.

To correct this error:

• Check that your list is formatted correctly (see Prepare your list at the top of this page).
• If formatting is correct, add one Valid email as the first item in your list. This will allow the invalid emails in your list to be processed.

Download options

• Download Valid: This will download only the verified emails that are considered safe to send. This is the recommended option for uploading to an ESP and sending your email campaigns.
• Download Invalid (all subcategories): This will download only the Invalid records in your list for that subcategory. This is recommended for people looking to remove these results from their list manually. 
• Download Risky (all subcategories): This will download all the Unknown, Accept All, Disposable, or Role Address records in the list. This is recommended for people interested in managing their list engagement, since these emails are known to have lower performance in email campaigns.
• Download All: This will download all the records in your list, including invalid, accept all, and unknown.

You can also select several lists for download using the checkboxes at the right of each row. When you select a checkbox, the Download All button changes to Download Selected.

Viewing your results

Once you have downloaded any of the results files, all of your original columns of data will remain, and two new columns will be appended at the end of the file where you will find the primary and secondary status results for each email address.

Delete your list

You can delete your list by selecting the trash can icon on the upper right side of your verified list widget in the My Lists tab.

Note: Once a list is deleted, you are no longer able to view or download the results unless that list is re-verified. Everest does not store your files elsewhere or keep a backup. Do not delete your list unless you are absolutely sure you have downloaded the results.