Salesforce: "data value too large ... (max length=80)"
Salesforce publishes “data value too large: <value> (max length=80)” as the error for a value exceeding a standard field's character limit — Email on the Contact object is 80 characters, well short of the 254 RFC 5321 technically allows. Salesforce's own article documents this exact message for a Workflow Rule field update, not an import; the import-specific context — that the Data Import Wizard truncates or rejects an oversized value the same way — comes from FormAssembly's own troubleshooting page, a third party rather than Salesforce. The field limit is identical whether you hit this in a Workflow Rule field update or in an import — but this page and CRM Import Check both address the import case only, and neither will fix a Workflow Rule for you.
Built for anyone preparing a contact or company file for HubSpot or Salesforce — sales operations, RevOps, and agencies migrating a client's data.
Read from Salesforce HelpSalesforce Help · FormAssembly Help — help.salesforce.com documents this exact string for a Workflow Rule field update, not an import; the import-specific behaviour is documented by FormAssembly, a third party, not by Salesforce — disclosed here rather than presented as one vendor citation.
What this error means
Every Salesforce field has a maximum length, and several of the common ones are shorter than a person would guess — Email on a standard Contact is 80 characters, not the 254 the email standard itself allows. A value longer than the field's limit does not fail quietly: Salesforce either rejects the row outright or truncates the value to fit, silently cutting off whatever came after the limit.
What causes it, and what our engine actually checks
CRM Import Check's valueTooLong rule compares every mapped cell against the character limit declared for that field in Salesforce's own published specification — 80 for Email, 40 for Phone, 255 for Account Name, and so on — and flags any value over it, naming the limit and its source beside the finding. Run against a two-row sample file built to exercise it, the engine flagged an Email value built to exceed 80 characters.
What the engine found in a sample file
One row in the sample carried an email address over 80 characters, and the engine flagged it as valueTooLong, a blocker, naming the 80-character Salesforce limit beside the finding. A second row carried two email addresses separated by a semicolon in a single cell — a common export artefact — which the engine flagged separately as emailMultiple, since a cell holding more than one address is a different problem with a different fix.
valueTooLongBlocker1“alexandra.montgomery.fitzgerald.henderson.worldwide.enterprise.accounts.department@examplecorp.com”
80 — Salesforce Email field length
emailMultipleBlocker2“maria@acmestrategies.com; backup@acmestrategies.com” → “maria@acmestrategies.com”
Blocker stops the import outright, or lets it through with data silently lost. Warning usually gets through but is worth checking before you trust the numbers. Notice is informational — safe to leave, safe to clear.
Reproduced from a sample file — read September 9, 2026.
Check your own file for this
Drop the contact file you were about to import into Salesforce below. It is read in this browser tab, the same engine runs the same check, and you will see immediately which values are too long for the field Salesforce will put them in.
CSV, TSV or Excel, up to 20 MB
How to fix it by hand
Find the source the oversized value came from and shorten it there rather than in the import file alone, since the same field will reject the same value again next time. For an email address specifically, check whether the cell actually holds two addresses joined together — splitting them is often the real fix, not shortening either one.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does Salesforce reject a long email address?
- Every Salesforce field has a maximum length, and Email on a standard Contact is 80 characters — shorter than the 254 the email standard itself permits. A value over that limit is rejected or silently truncated, not accepted as written.
- Why does this page cite Salesforce and a third party together?
- Salesforce's own article documents this exact error string, but for a Workflow Rule field update rather than an import. The confirmation that the same message applies to an import comes from FormAssembly, not from Salesforce — both links are on this page so you can judge each source for what it actually backs.
- Can CRM Import Check shorten a value automatically?
- No — the tool tells you which values are too long and by how much, but shortening text is a content decision, not a mechanical fix this product will make for you.
What CRM Import Check does with this file
Upload a file carrying this problem into CRM Import Check and it lists every value over its field's limit, the limit itself, and where that limit is documented, before you import anything. It does not shorten a value for you — cutting text to fit is not a fix, it is the same silent truncation the problem is about.
The file you'd check is read in your browser tab — it is never uploaded anywhere.
What it cannot do here
The tool checks against limits it can read from Salesforce's own published documentation. A custom field with a limit an admin set is not something this product can see without connecting to your Salesforce org, which it deliberately never does.