Scheduled File Import
Instead of manually uploading a file every time, you can schedule imports. Set up your system to upload files to the Apsis Cloud SFTP server, and Apsis One picks them up on a schedule. Each customer account gets a dedicated SFTP area with its own credentials.
💡 Tip: A Scheduled Import can be a lightweight alternative to a full integration. It needs some familiarity with SFTP, or an automated upload script on your side.
ℹ️ Availability: Scheduled imports are not available on Freemium packages. Contact Customer Service if you are unsure whether your package includes this feature.
In this Article
About Scheduled Import
Scheduled Import lets you upload a file to a dedicated SFTP location and have Apsis One run a File Import against it on a schedule — daily, weekly, or whatever interval suits your data refresh.
This works well when:
The same kind of file lands in your back-office system regularly.
You want fresh data in Audience every morning without manual work.
You don't need real-time sync, but you do need reliable, recurring imports.
How it works
A Scheduled Import is built on top of the regular File Import. When the scheduled time arrives, Apsis One picks up the file from your SFTP storage and runs it through the same File Import pipeline as a manual upload — same validation, same mapping, same Report afterwards.
⏱️ Timing: Apsis One checks for due imports every minute. Your scheduled run is picked up within roughly 2 minutes of its scheduled time.
How to set up a Scheduled Import
There are three steps:
Initialise the cloud storage.
Upload a file.
Schedule the file import.
Initialising the Apsis Cloud storage (SFTP)
As is standard in Apsis One, you can initialise a separate cloud storage slice per Section.
Go to your user icon and click Account Settings.
Go to the Section where you want to set up the scheduled import.
Choose SFTP Storage in the left menu and click Create new connection to set it up. Then enter an SSH public key.
Generate an SSH key pair
SSH public key authentication is more secure than username/password authentication. You will generate a key pair on the computer that will connect to Apsis One, then paste the public key into Apsis One.
On Mac or Linux, run one of the following in a terminal:
# RSA ssh-keygen -t rsa # or ECDSA ssh-keygen -t ecdsa
Then restrict the permissions on the key files (replace <ssh-key-filename> with the name you chose):
chmod 400 ~/.ssh/<ssh-key-filename> ~/.ssh/<ssh-key-filename>.pub
On Windows, a third-party FTP client such as FileZilla can generate the key pair for you.
⚠️ Note: Only RSA and ECDSA key algorithms are supported. Ed25519 and other algorithms will not work.
Register the public key in Apsis One
Print your public key so you can copy it:
cat ~/.ssh/<ssh-key-filename>.pub
Paste the public key into the SSH public key field in SFTP Storage and click Create.
Apsis One creates a new SFTP login connected to the public key. Use this login ID together with your private key to connect.
Upload the file
From an interactive sftp session:
sftp> put /path/to/your/file.csv
Uploading is done with your preferred SFTP client. Single files are preferable, but folder structures are respected and will be visible when you pick a file during the schedule setup.
Prepare the file
Prepare a file with your Profile data:
Email addresses must be included.
Consent — make sure you have consent from all Profiles you add to a Subscription.
First row must describe the data of each column.
Format: CSV or XLSX
Size: up to 50 MB
The format of values for Attributes in your file must be correct for the system to recognise the data. Read more about supported data formats.
Scheduling the file import
Once the file is in SFTP storage, schedule the import.
Go to Audience → Imports → Schedule file import.
Choose the file you want to use from the file picker. The picker lists all files uploaded to your SFTP storage. If nothing has been uploaded yet, the picker will be empty.
Configure the import mappings — this is the same as a regular File Import. See mapping columns and Attributes.
Choose how to save the schedule:
Save & Pause — keeps the schedule but does not run it. Useful while you finalise the source file or wait for approval.
Schedule — activates the schedule. It will start running at the next scheduled time.
Find your scheduled imports in Import History → Schedules. Active schedules are marked as such.
Verifying it worked
After the scheduled time:
Wait up to 2 minutes for Apsis One to pick the schedule up.
Check the Import History tab for the completed run and open its File Import Report.
Verify a known Profile in the Profile 360 view to confirm the new data landed correctly.
What you can do with a Scheduled Import
Scheduled Imports support the same actions as manual File Imports. For each Unique Identifier (Email, Mobile, CRM ID), you can:
Add new Profiles
Update existing Profiles
Unsubscribe Profiles from a Subscription
Delete Profiles
Change a key (for example, update a Profile's email address used as the Unique Identifier)
💡 Tip: When you first set up a recurring import, run a small test file through the schedule and verify a Profile in the 360 view before turning on the production schedule.
Automation
In-house IT or consultants can prepare any internal computer system to connect and upload data to Apsis Cloud regularly — or after a change in the relevant files — using the credentials generated with SSH and Apsis One. The Scheduled Import then uses the latest file when it is scheduled to run.
A typical flow looks like this:
A user modifies a file in a shared or personal folder with new Profile data.
A script runs to upload the updated file to Apsis Cloud, replacing the old file.
The Scheduled Import runs at its set time and ingests the file into Audience.
If there is no need for real-time data, this can run at the end of each working day, giving marketers fresh data every morning.
Limitations
Limit | Value |
Package availability | Not available on Freemium |
Concurrent scheduled imports per account | 2 |
Concurrent scheduled imports per Section | 1 |
File size | 50 MB max |
File format | CSV or XLSX |
SSH key algorithms supported | RSA and ECDSA |
Uploaded file retention in SFTP storage | 30 days |
SFTP port | 22 |
SFTP hostnames | EU: |
Time to pick up a scheduled run | ~2 minutes after scheduled time |
Use Cases
Nightly CRM sync
Your CRM exports a fresh CSV of contacts every night. A script uploads the file to Apsis Cloud, and the Scheduled Import picks it up at 06:00 — your marketers see the new data every morning.
Weekly newsletter list refresh
Your subscriber list is maintained outside Apsis One and refreshed weekly. Schedule the import for every Monday so the latest list is in Audience before the Tuesday send.
Lightweight alternative to a full integration
You need automated profile syncing but don't have engineering capacity for a custom integration. A nightly SFTP upload plus a Scheduled Import covers most needs without writing API code.
Recurring suppression list update
Combine a daily Add & Update Scheduled Import with manual Unsubscribe imports as needed, to keep your sendable audience clean.
Pause without losing the setup
Your data team is rebuilding the source export. Use Save & Pause to keep all your mappings and the schedule definition in place, then re-activate when the new export is ready.
Troubleshooting
❓ My SSH key isn't accepted.
Only RSA and ECDSA key algorithms are supported. Keys generated with Ed25519 or older DSA algorithms will not work. Regenerate the key pair using ssh-keygen -t rsa or ssh-keygen -t ecdsa and paste the new public key in SFTP Storage.
❓ I can't connect to the SFTP server.
Confirm you are using the correct hostname for your region (sftp.ws.apsis.one for EU, sftp.ws-apac.apsis.one for APAC) on port 22, with the SFTP login that Apsis One generated for your public key, and that your private key matches the public key registered in SFTP Storage.
❓ The scheduled time has passed but my import hasn't run.
Apsis One checks for due imports every minute, so a run can be picked up up to roughly 2 minutes after its scheduled time. If nothing has happened after that, open Import History → Schedules and check the schedule is Active, not Paused. Then check that the file actually exists in SFTP storage at the expected path.
❓ The Scheduled Import didn't pick up my updated file.
Verify that your script replaced the file at the same path the schedule points to, and that the upload completed before the scheduled run. Files older than 30 days are automatically deleted from SFTP storage, so a stalled upload pipeline can leave the schedule with nothing to import.
❓ I want to stop my Scheduled Import temporarily without deleting it.
Open the schedule and pause it — the mappings and file selection are preserved, and you can re-activate later. This is what Save & Pause does at setup time as well.
❓ I want to set up a third Scheduled Import for the same Section.
Only one Scheduled Import per Section, and two per account, are supported. Combine multiple data sources into a single file, or consolidate your schedules.
❓ Where do I check whether the Scheduled Import ran successfully?
Each scheduled run creates a normal File Import Report. Find it in Import History in Audience.
❓ I'm on a Freemium package and don't see the schedule options.
Scheduled imports are not included on Freemium. Contact Customer Service to discuss your options.
What's Next?