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Troubleshooting

The tool runs but produces no output

Possible causes:

  1. Wrong district config — The config expects different filenames than what's in the input directory.
  2. Check the log for messages like Primary source file 'X.txt' is empty.

  3. Try a different config (e.g., sd48myedbc instead of myedbc).

  4. GDE files not in the input directory — Verify the files are present: 

    C:\GDE2Acsv\input\
  your Student Demographic file     ← must be here
  your Student Schedule file
  your Staff Information file
  your Course Information file
  your Emergency Contact file

  5. All students are inactive — Only Active enrollment status is exported.

  6. Run with --quality to get a breakdown: GDE2Acsv-windows.exe --sis myedbc --input ... --output ... --quality

SFTP upload fails

Error: "No password found" - The OS credential store was cleared (e.g., after a password change or server reinstall). - Re-enter credentials via the Setup Wizard → Step 4.

Error: "Connection failed: Connection refused" - Verify the SFTP host and port are correct. - Check that the server firewall allows outbound connections on port 22.

Error: "Authentication failed" - The username or password is incorrect. - Contact SpacesEDU to confirm your credentials.

Task Scheduler does not run the task

"Access denied" or task shows "Last Run Result: 0x1" - The task must be configured to Run whether user is logged on or not and with Highest Privileges. - Delete the task (schtasks /Delete /F /TN GDE2Acsv_Daily) and re-run the Setup Wizard as Administrator.

Task runs but nothing happens - Open the Run History page in the GDE2Acsv wizard. Scheduled runs write to the same ~/.gde2acsv/etl_tool.log as manual runs, so they should appear there. - If there's a run but it failed, look for Pipeline failed: lines in the log for the cause. - The task's Start in field does not matter — logs always go to ~/.gde2acsv/ regardless of the working directory.

Encoding errors in log

WARNING - Could not decode your Student Demographic file with utf-8, trying latin1

This is normal. The tool automatically tries UTF-8, Latin-1, and CP1252 in sequence. If all three fail, check that the file is a valid text file (not corrupt or binary).

"Mapping file not found" error

ERROR - Mapping file not found: config/mappings/myedbc_mapping.yaml

The tool cannot find its configuration files. This happens when: - The executable was moved without the config/ directory. - The tool is invoked from a different working directory.

Fix: The config is embedded in the executable (PyInstaller bundle). If you see this error from the bundled .exe, contact SpacesEDU — it may indicate a corrupted download.

Partial output files

If the tool crashes mid-run, you may find an incomplete output directory. Since v1.4+, GDE2Acsv uses atomic (transactional) writes — all CSVs are staged in a temporary directory first and only committed together on success. A failed run leaves the previous output intact.

If you find a .tmp_* directory in your output folder, it means the tool was interrupted during a write. Delete it and re-run.

SFTP Host Rejected

GDE2Acsv only allows SFTP uploads to SpacesEDU servers (sftp.ca.spacesedu.com, sftp.app.spacesedu.com, sftp.myblueprint.ca). If you see 'SFTP host not allowed', verify you're using the correct SpacesEDU host.

Record Count Drop Warning

If a run produces significantly fewer records than the previous run (>20% decrease), a warning is logged. This usually means the GDE export was incomplete. Re-export the files from MyEdBC and run again.

Wrong file extension (.csv vs .txt)

Some districts (e.g., SD40 – New Westminster) export GDE files as .csv instead of .txt. If the tool cannot find the expected file, check whether your district's files have a .csv extension and contact SpacesEDU to ensure the correct district config (e.g., sd40myedbc) is configured for your installation.

Records missing after SpacesEDU import

If GDE2Acsv completed successfully but records are missing in SpacesEDU, the issue is on the import side — not GDE2Acsv. Common causes:

  • Email domain mismatch — student or staff email doesn't match the district's configured domain in SpacesEDU.
  • Missing required field — a record was skipped because a required field (User ID, Name, etc.) was blank.
  • Orphaned enrollment — an enrollment references a Class ID or User ID that doesn't exist in the corresponding file.
  • Family without student — a family record references a student not in Students.csv.

Check the SpacesEDU import report for details. See also FAQ — What happens after upload.

Log location

Every ETL run — wizard, scheduled task, and CLI — writes to a single persistent log file in your user home directory, regardless of where the .exe lives or what working directory the task runs from:

Platform Log file
Windows C:\Users\<username>\.gde2acsv\etl_tool.log
Linux /home/<username>/.gde2acsv/etl_tool.log
macOS /Users/<username>/.gde2acsv/etl_tool.log

The Run History page in the web UI reads from this same path and displays the runs in a sortable table. The log rotates automatically at 5 MB and keeps 3 backups (etl_tool.log.1, .2, .3).