Ensure that the file you work with is an excel sheet in .xlsx format.

Excel does take into account the regional settings on your laptop. The preferred option is to set these to English (UK)


  1. Open the file on your computer and validate if all the formats and values are correct (see Format of files for the upload service).
  2. Save the file to your laptop as xlsx. Keep this file as you can update it when you have new data.
    1. Choose 'Save as'
    2. Select 'Excel workbook (.xlxs)'
  3. Save the file again but now as a tab delimited file
    1. Choose 'Save as'
    2. Select 'Tab delimited (.txt)'
  4. Go to the upload service (upload.sensingclues.org)
  5. Upload the .txt file in the correct folder.
    1. for each observation type, there is a folder in the upload
    2. choose the correct folder for the observations in your upload file
    3. IMPORTANT: do not open this file in excel or Numbers anymore! If you would 
  6. Rename the file to a .tsv file. E.g. when you uploaded Elephant.txt, rename the file to Elephant.tsv
  7. The upload runs every evening (European time), so you will only see the results in Focus or WildCAT the next day.



When you want to update your data, follow the steps below:

  1. update your .xlsx file
  2. save this file
  3. save the file as tab delimited (.txt)
  4. upload the file to the Sensing Clues platform
  5. change the name of the file from .txt to .tsv