Firebase - Invalid JSON data or key values. Key values can’t contain $ # [ ] / or - json

Question

I'm trying to import my JSON file into my Firebase but it keeps giving me this error. I don't know why this JSON file isn't allowed to be imported into since JSONLint says it's a valid JSON file.
Here's the file:
{
"Featured" : {
"artist" : "james turell",
"artistEPK" : "artistsownepk.pdf",
"author" : "john queue author",
"date" : "7/28/2016",
"fullScreenImg" : "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687",
"linksToMedia" : [ "www.wallplay.com/project-name/james-t/press.html" ],
"linksToPress" : [ "" ],
"location" : "10 Main Street",
"mainImg" : "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687",
"pressImgs" : [ "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687", "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687", "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687" ],
"pressRelease" : "projectpressrelease.pdf",
"projectImgs" : [ "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687", "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687", "https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/wallplay-a8440.appspot.com/o/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-08%20at%2012.00.06%20PM.png?alt=media&token=1df5d60d-808c-48bb-a591-e005f82e4687" ],
"projectSubheader" : "subheader of project",
"projectTitle" : "title of project",
"projectURL" : "",
"soundFile" : [ ],
"text" : "here there would be a text for james turell",
"videoURL" : ""
},
"Future" : {
},
"Past" : {
},
"Present" : {
}
}
the issue happens when importing json using the web interface

Answer 1

I just spent some time on this and found the issue for me (and likely for many others) when getting this error message. It looks like firebase can only import files with UTF-8 encoding (no BOM)
I found it strange, as I couldn't re-import the content I had just exported.
I tried all UTF versions 8, 16 with LE and BE with and without BOM, only UTF-8 works
I wish firebase did not have this utterly misleading error message

Answer 2

Two things that might help someone else save a couple of hours of head scratching:
1) Empty strings are valid JSON keys, they're NOT valid Firebase keys.
2) While the web tool error message is horrible, the command-line tool actually provides useful information like, say, a line number (nice when you have a 300K+ line file)
E.g.
firebase --project database:set / import.json
to overwrite everything from the root

Answer 3

This happened to me, and had a totally different cause: I had Firebase functions that triggered when data is added to certain collections. The GUI tool gave me the unhelpful error the OP got. But running with the CLI, I got:
Error: HTTP Error: 400, This request would cause too many functions to be triggered.
So, the error ended up really saving my hide since running a function for each of the few hundred nodes I was importing would have been disastrous.
To solve the issue, I deployed my app code with the functions commented out and then was able to use the GUI to import my data. Once my data was in, I un-commented out the functions and deployed again.

Answer 4

My filename was "something-somethingelse", ie it had a '-' character in the filename. Changing it to 'something.json' solved the problem
So, don't have any special characters in your filenames.

Answer 5

The JSON you posted is valid for Firebase, so the issue is not with this JSON. It must be somewhere else in your application.

Answer 6

if you created triggered function a lot of. You have to remove triggered functions. Next try again. That way works for me.

Answer 7

I just found one more reason when Firebase throws this error:
This was the data firebase refused to upload:
{
"S. No.": 2,
"University Name": "Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur (Id: U-0003)",
"College Name": "Abhinav Institute of Management & Technology (Id: C-39450)",
"College Type": "Affiliated College",
"State Name": "Andhra Pradesh",
"District Name": "Prakasam"
}
I thought of changing the key name of "S. No." and it worked.
{
"S": 2,
"University Name": "Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur (Id: U-0003)",
"College Name": "Abhinav Institute of Management & Technology (Id: C-39450)",
"College Type": "Affiliated College",
"State Name": "Andhra Pradesh",
"District Name": "Prakasam"
}
The Firebase was accepting the later format (I believe the problem was with .(dot) followed by space.)
I hope this helps!!!

Answer 8

This was happening for me as well, as a web developer, I looked into the Developers Console and the actual error was because of authentication that Firebase's console was not able to authenticate while validating the JSON files.
So I did a "refresh" of the web page and it worked.

Answer 9

I have a similar problem with JSON containing huge data. I solved this problem by using firebase import tool. It has options for imports to specific nodes etc.