Let me tell you a story about how my legal tech ride hit a massive speed bump. Have you ever watched your entire task list vanish during a software update? I have. My firm had the hiccup of the century when Zola Suite migrated our system—and poof, task assignments were toast. But don’t worry. The chaos didn’t last. With some creativity and a rebuilt import template, we got back on track fast.
TLDR
Zola Suite dropped the ball during a system migration and nuked all task assignments. We panicked briefly but built an import template to recover our data. It was surprisingly doable once we understood how Zola handles imports. This guide walks through what happened and the steps we took to fix it all.
What Went Wrong: Welcome to the Void
We planned a simple upgrade. Click, confirm, migrate—that was the idea. What we got was a mess. Tasks were still there, but the assignments? Gone. Just empty fields and blank faces.
It’s one thing to lose a note, another to lose deadlines.
Imagine hundreds of tasks across dozens of clients, all suddenly orphaned. The platform didn’t notify us about the dropped assignments either. We only found out by combing through our pipeline during a weekly team huddle.
The Confusion Begins
- Assigned users? Deleted.
- Practice areas? There… but not linked.
- Reminders? All vanished.
Zola’s support team said it must’ve been a corruption during the data transfer. OK… but now what?
Damage Control: What We Did First
Step one: Don’t panic. Step two: Rebuild a backup of everything we knew. We dug into our own operations to piece together who had what tasks.
Thankfully, we had exported our tasks in a CSV before migration. If you take away only one thing from this article, it’s this:
Always back up your data. ALWAYS.
Our exported file had all our tasks with descriptions, names, and due dates. But no assignments. Those lived only in Zola’s old system and vanished during the move.
So we asked ourselves: Can we re-import the missing links?
Answer: Heck yes. But it took some friendly wrestling with Zola’s import template.
Meet the Mighty Import Template
Zola lets you import tasks using a very specific CSV format. At first, it looked scary—columns like Task Status, Priority, Linked Matter ID, and a weird one called “Assigned Users (email)”.
After some testing, we figured it out. Here’s the basic anatomy:
- Task Name: What the task actually is (e.g., “Draft Motion”, “Email Client”)
- Description: Optional, but helpful for context
- Due Date: Format it like YYYY-MM-DD
- Linked Matter: This is your client or project
- Assigned Users (email): THIS is the magic column
If you use the email address associated with a team member’s Zola user account here, the task will automatically assign to them on import.
A Lightbulb Moment
We realized we could rebuild nearly all the assignments if we just matched task names to team members manually and dropped their emails into the right CSV column.
It was tedious—but better than starting from scratch.
How We Rebuilt It (and How You Can Too)
Here’s the simple three-step recovery recipe:
- Recover all existing task names and due dates from your backup.
- Create a new spreadsheet using Zola’s import format as a guide.
- Fill in the assigned user emails based on memory, meeting notes, and old project docs.
And don’t forget—Zola can import things in bulk. So if you’re nervous about trying it out, start small. Do one client or 10 tasks at a time. Once you’re confident, scale it up.
Tip:
If you’re unsure what your users’ emails are in Zola, just pop into Admin Settings > Users and copy them from there. Use the exact emails in the CSV.
Road Bumps We Hit Along the Way
This wasn’t a magical fix from moment one. Here’s what tripped us up:
- Date formatting issues: Zola *really* wants YYYY-MM-DD.
- Wrong Matter Names: You need to use “Matter Numbers” not “Nicknames”.
- Multiple Users?: Want to assign a task to two people? Separate the emails with a semicolon.
Each time we ran into an issue, Zola’s upload tool politely spat out an error CSV telling us what we did wrong. It wasn’t perfect, but at least it wasn’t silent.
Victory: One Upload to Rule Them All
After about 6 hours of spreadsheet Zen and way too much coffee, we had a clean import file ready to go. We crossed our fingers and uploaded it.
It worked.
All the tasks fell back into place. Assignments linked. Reminders restored. Deadlines resurrected.
Zola didn’t even blink—it treated the tasks like they’d never disappeared.
What We Learned
If you’re using Zola Suite or any practice management platform, here’s what you should do right now to avoid what we went through:
- Export your current tasks list regularly. Even once a month is better than never.
- Learn your platform’s import template. Knowing how imports work can save you hours in an emergency.
- Create a user email directory. Keep a spreadsheet of team users and their platform emails—it’s gold.
Bonus Round: Resources That Helped
- Zola Suite’s Help Guide: Search for “Task Import Template”
- CSV Editor: Google Sheets or Excel work great—but keep an eye on weird formatting auto-corrections!
- Calendar Comparison: Crosscheck your task deadlines with Google or Outlook calendar exports to make sure nothing was missed.
Final Thoughts (and a Mild Rant)
We get it—migrations are messy. But dropping critical data during a platform upgrade? That’s a legal heart attack waiting to happen.
Luckily, with a little hustle and some spreadsheet wizardry, we patched the hole. But let’s hope Zola learns from this and creates a migration process that respects existing task structure better in the future.
Until then, back up your work, learn the tools, and keep your deadlines safe.
You never know when a “simple upgrade” will decide to erase Tuesday’s to-do list.
Now excuse me while I set a reminder to re-export my next task list. Just in case.
