In case no one responded to you privately -- for leading zeros the answer is:

If you are editing the file in Googlesheets or some other spreadsheet -- be sure to EXPORT as EXCEL file -- NOT as CSV.   Excel knows that the leading zero numbers are "numbers stored as text"

If you export as CSV, it treats everything as numbers and kills off the leading zeros.  AAAAH.

And -- sorry but there is no way to get them back and there is no simple way to tell your system which SKU used to have them.

Ok -- more information.  I lied. 

You CAN use CSV as the Export -- but you have to be much more careful at several steps in the process.   The problem happens when you OPEN that CSV file in another program, i.e. Excel or GoogleSheets, at which point those programs autoconvert the SKUs with leading zeros to simple numbers -- and kill off your zeros. UNLESS you are careful during the import.

For Excel, it will autoconvert if you simply doubleclick to open the file.  BUT if you do an actual file IMPORT, you can still control the format of each column (a bit of a hassle).  

Similarly, but a bit more simple -- if/when you import into GoogleSheet, you still need to do file import -- but there is a single checkbox that asks -- "Convert text to numbers, dates and formulas"  __ Yes   __ No.  

PICK NOOOOOOO.

Or you can simply do follow the mantra...Export EXCEL, Import Excel.  A bit easier.

Leading zeroes disappearing is happening in Excel files tonight, not just csv files! The identical bulk upload process I always use where I have text columns for my SKUs or where I have someone else's file, I edit for the '0nnnnnnnn notation to ensure that they are recognized by Excel as text, is generating Square SKUs with 7 digits instead of 8 and no leading zero when I look at it in my Square dashboard under my item list. It looks like someone changed the SKU field in the intake process to be numeric instead of alpha.

Please fix this ASAP. The only way to add products now with a leading zero is to do so by hand, individually using the dashboard interface. I tried two different Excel files that were manicured to maintain the zeroes and they were gone both times. At least it seems that the database has not been redefined.

Thank you.

Hi @semvaart - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community to bring this to our attention. I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with this.

For this issue, we'll need you to connect with our Support Team so they can gather the information required to create a support ticket, as we cannot access your Square account information here in the Seller Community. Then, our engineers can investigate this further. If you haven't already, please reach out to Support directly by logging into your Square account and heading here.

Thank you. I could not find the Square support "enter a message" last night.

@semvaart ;

I have had this issue with Excel with csv and the xlsx files.  But if I use Libre office Calc to open these files I retain the leading 0.  Even with the csv files I get a pop up asking the format of each column.  So I select Text for SKU, GTIN and Vendor code before the sheet is actually opened.  The other thing I use with excel is to import the files to excel using the get data from csv or workbook, then use the power query to change Excels auto assumption of these columns being numbers to text.  No matter how I tried to tell excel these were text fields it would open them as numbers and drop that leading zero.  Wish excel would save the formating as text when it was assigned.

Thanks. What is weird is that I never had this problem until last night. I have a database with a bunch of different bar codes with leading zeroes! My import last night just came out truncated. I will try it again tonight and see if I can get it to go. I'll report back if there is progress.

Thanks.

The batch upload worked this time.

I just tried the upload again. I had fixed the first dozen by hand and picked up the rest of the items after that. First I used a formula =CONCATENATE("0",Dn) to add a zero onto the text in the cell in column D numbered "n" and did that to all of the ones still missing the leading zero. I copied all those cells and did Paste Special with Values to put them into the upload spreadsheet columns where they should have been. Then to be sure, I selected all of the data columns and again selected TEXT as their cell format. I did not select the column and do it at the column level but at the cell level this time. I saved off my item library, ran the update, saved my library again and looked at it, and the leading zeroes are all in place that I was trying to update tonight.

The details above are for people who are not great with Excel and could use a little more specific info.

As long as I can make the problem go away, I'm good.