Number mangled by a spreadsheet

What is this issue?

An item number or barcode (ItemID, UPC, EAN or ISBN) looks like 1.23457E+11: a spreadsheet converted it to scientific notation.

Why eBay rejects this

The digits after the first few are lost, so eBay can't find the listing to revise or match the product. eBay's Seller Hub help asks for item numbers to be formatted as numbers with no decimals before saving.

Valid values / expected format

1. ✓true
2. ✓false

Fix in StriveFormats

Upload your CSV to StriveFormats to detect this issue across all rows, with clear line-by-line reporting.

Fix in Excel

1. 1In Excel, click the column letter for the ItemID / UPC column to select the entire column.
2. 2Press Ctrl+H to open Find & Replace.
3. 3In 'Find what', type yes, in 'Replace with', type true, tick 'Match entire cell contents', then click Replace All.
4. 4Repeat: no -> false, 1 -> true, 0 -> false.
5. 5Scan the column to confirm only true and false remain (and blanks if allowed).
6. 6Save as CSV (Comma delimited).

Fix in Google Sheets

1. 1In Google Sheets, click the column letter for the ItemID / UPC column to select the whole column.
2. 2Press Ctrl+H to open Find & Replace.
3. 3Find yes, replace it with true, tick 'Match entire cell contents', then click Replace All.
4. 4Repeat: no -> false, 1 -> true, 0 -> false.
5. 5Verify only true and false remain in the column.
6. 6Go to File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv).

Prevent it next time

1. ✓Always type true or false in lowercase, as in Shopify's own template. Don't use spreadsheet checkboxes; export them as text instead.
2. ✓If you export data from the platform's own admin panel, don't edit boolean columns in Excel, because autocorrect can quietly change the values.
3. ✓Set the cell format to Text in Excel before pasting boolean values to prevent automatic conversion.
4. ✓Use StriveFormats auto-fix as a final pass before every import.

How StriveFormats detects this

StriveFormats reads every cell in the ItemID / UPC column and checks it against eBay's accepted boolean values. Any value that doesn't match exactly, including mixed-case variants like "True" or "Yes", is flagged as an error.