Benchling has addressed an issue where fields updated via spreadsheet import may have been parsed incorrectly. This occurred under limited conditions and did not result in any data loss.
Key Definition
Locale settings - User-specified regional preferences, such as date format (e.g., DD/MM/YYYY vs. MM/DD/YYYY) and number format (e.g., comma vs. period as a decimal separator), typically based on geography and language.
What Happened
During spreadsheet imports, the interface displayed date and number formats based on each user’s locale settings. However, if users with non-US locales did not manually confirm their settings during the import, the backend defaulted to the US locale (MM/DD/YYYY for dates and comma as the decimal separator).
This mismatch could lead to incorrect data:
-
Date Example: 03/06/2025 intended as June 3, 2025 (non-US) would be interpreted as March 6, 2025 (US).
- Decimal Example: 1,234 intended as “one point two three four” would be interpreted as “one thousand two hundred thirty-four”.
This affected .csv and raw text formatted imports (for entity or inventory creation/update involving date, datetime, or decimal fields) where locale wasn’t confirmed. It did not affect .xlsx formatted imports, which use a different parsing flow. Locale-agnostic date/datetime formats starting with YYYY (4 digit year) were also unaffected.
Resolution Timeline
- Non-Validated Cloud tenants: Resolved on June 2, 2025
- Validated Cloud Preview: Patch released June 4, 2025
- Validated Cloud Production: Fix included in 2025.2 upgrade on June 13, 2025
Who is impacted
If a user with a non-US locale, did not confirm the locale settings during a import (between April 19, 2023 and June 4, 2025), and they imported .csv or raw text files expecting non-US formatting, some date or decimal fields may have been misinterpreted. These values may appear valid but reflect unintended data.
Benchling is proactively notifying customers where we have identified potential impact. If you are receiving this notice, it means we believe you may have been affected. If you have additional concerns, please reach out to support@benchling.com.
What to do if impacted
If any values were incorrectly imported, you should:
- Manually correct any incorrect values, or
- Use the API to make bulk corrections
Benchling will provide an impact assessment. This issue originated with the spreadsheet update feature launched on April 19, 2023 and only affects cases where the non-US locale was set but not confirmed during import.
For assistance, contact your Benchling representative or support@benchling.com.