Uploading new members requires a password to be uploaded too

Is "importing members" (without a given password) really a very special case of importing?
(To me it seems to be the most natural way of uploading new members to the DB)

If you insist on inviting members to log in with a non-existant password, then you should prevent the non existing PW in the first place.
I.e. never import a new member without setting a random PW, or
I.e suppress invitation e-mails for all new members imported, or
alert the user what importing procedures are recommended to work well with the built in procedures,
or something else that prevents a non-working suggestion to be sent to the new member.

Since you recommend turning e-mails off while importing new members, I understand that the e-mails are not even constructed, just skipped
Is this correct?
(It could also be that they are indeed constructed, buffered and scheduled to be sent when e-mails are permitted again).

What are your recommended settings for importing a new set of members, to achieve a smooth flow of operations?

The import/export was originally implemented for users who kept asking how they can move users from 1 Joomla site to another. So yes supporting password import is needed and to its original design was typical. Doing an export first to get the structure however does not include the password column so I don't understand the issue here.

Since you recommend turning e-mails off while importing new members, I understand that the e-mails are not even constructed, just skipped
Is this correct?
(It could also be that they are indeed constructed, buffered and scheduled to be sent when e-mails are permitted again).

Emails will just be entirely suppressed. We do not have an email queue system (nor does Joomla, but there is a Scheduler in the works for J4 that could help change things).

What are your recommended settings for importing a new set of members, to achieve a smooth flow of operations?

Whatever settings work best for you. For ME personally I would exclude password column (this should already be the case when exporting) and enable reset password (set requireReset to 1). Next I'd set confirmed to 0 and block to 1 and enable email confirmation as well as randomly generated passwords in CB > Configuration > Registration. That should send them an email to confirm their account, send them a password in that email, and on first login require them to reset the password to their own custom password. This is entirely subjective to your needs.

How often are you importing users for this to even be a problem? User import is an advanced topic. We took a hands off approach from it. We take your data, bind it to the user object, and save; that's it. So how you want everything else to behave is entirely up to you and your sites settings.

Thank you,

As you say, importing members is not something I do frequently.
Which is precisely why a have not built a solid experience from this activity.
I believe that the info you just gave would be fine to include in the help file.

enable reset password (set requireReset to 1). Next I'd set confirmed to 0 and block to 1

where are these settings, please?

They should be columns in your import file. If they don't exist (they should with an export to get the structure) you can add them.

I need to upload 57 new users to the site this week and I have been struggling with this for hours. No matter what I do the only message that gets sent out when I upload my test csv file is this one:

"Hello New Intern2,

You have been added as a User to Albuquerque Area Extension Master Gardener Program by an Administrator.

This email has your username and password to log in to [site name]

Username: newi2
Password:

Please do not respond to this message as it is automatically generated and is for information purposes only."

I have set confirmed to 0 and block to 1, and enabled email confirmation as well as randomly generated passwords in CB > Configuration > Registration, as you recommended, because the behavior you describe is exactly what I want. I need the system to "send them an email to confirm their account, send them a password in that email, and on first login require them to reset the password to their own custom password."

My problem is that those settings resulted in the email message as quoted above - the password is not included. I have also tried setting approved to 1, next I tried adding confirmed set to 1. I got the same message - and no password. FYI -- I have "Notification Mail to User" set to YES under the User - Joomla! plugin - is that what is generating the quoted email message? I tried setting that to NO since it seemed to be overriding the CB messaging but then no emails went out at all when I uploaded the csv file.

1. How do I get the CB Pending and Welcome messages to go out instead of the message above?

2. Once I know how to get the CB messages to go out, am I supposed to leave the text that is there - "YOUR_REGISTRATION-IS-PENDING-APPROVAL-SUBJECT" and "YOUR_REGISTRATION-IS-PENDING-APPROVAL-MESSAGE" or replace that text with my own message?

Thank you for your help. Please let me now if I should start this as a new discussion.