diff --git a/public/userarea/process_import_xls2.php b/public/userarea/process_import_xls2.php
index 407ea08..25e4bd2 100644
--- a/public/userarea/process_import_xls2.php
+++ b/public/userarea/process_import_xls2.php
@@ -53,7 +53,44 @@ function normalizeColumnIndex($value): int
     return 1;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Trim a cell value treating invisible/Unicode spaces as empty.
+ * PHP's native trim() strips only ASCII whitespace (" \t\n\r\0\x0B"), so a cell
+ * that contains only a non-breaking space (U+00A0), zero-width space (U+200B),
+ * BOM (U+FEFF) or another Unicode space looks blank to a human but would still
+ * count as "filled" — pulling a ghost column into the import or retaining a
+ * visually-empty row. Normalize those to a real space before trimming.
+ */
+function cleanCellText($value): string
+{
+    $raw = (string)$value;
+    $cleaned = preg_replace(
+        '/[\x{00A0}\x{200B}\x{FEFF}\x{2000}-\x{200A}\x{202F}\x{205F}\x{3000}]+/u',
+        ' ',
+        $raw
+    );
+
+    // preg_replace returns null on malformed UTF-8; fall back to the raw value.
+    return trim($cleaned ?? $raw);
+}
+
 try {
+    // Quando il body POST supera post_max_size, PHP scarta $_POST e $_FILES
+    // (warning "Content-Length exceeds the limit ... in Unknown on line 0") e lo
+    // script riceve una richiesta vuota. Lo intercettiamo per dare un messaggio
+    // chiaro invece di "Richiesta non valida".
+    if (
+        $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST'
+        && empty($_POST) && empty($_FILES)
+        && (int)($_SERVER['CONTENT_LENGTH'] ?? 0) > 0
+    ) {
+        $postMax = ini_get('post_max_size');
+        throw new Exception(
+            "Il file caricato supera il limite di upload del server (post_max_size = {$postMax}). " .
+                "Chiedi all'amministratore di aumentare post_max_size e upload_max_filesize."
+        );
+    }
+
     if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST' && isset($_FILES['excel_file'])) {
         $template_id = isset($_POST['template_id']) ? intval($_POST['template_id']) : 0;
 
@@ -70,7 +107,7 @@ try {
          * Così non dipendiamo solo dal form e siamo sicuri di usare i dati salvati.
          */
         $stmt = $pdo->prepare("
-            SELECT 
+            SELECT
                 id,
                 header_row,
                 start_column,
@@ -142,14 +179,14 @@ try {
 
             // Recupera il mapping da template_mapping
             $stmt = $pdo->prepare("
-                SELECT 
-                    field_id AS excel_column, 
-                    field_id AS mysql_column, 
-                    data_type, 
-                    is_required, 
-                    default_value, 
-                    is_manual 
-                FROM template_mapping 
+                SELECT
+                    field_id AS excel_column,
+                    field_id AS mysql_column,
+                    data_type,
+                    is_required,
+                    default_value,
+                    is_manual
+                FROM template_mapping
                 WHERE template_id = ?
             ");
             $stmt->execute([$template_id]);
@@ -162,7 +199,9 @@ try {
                 $response['error'] = "Nessun mapping trovato per il template con ID $template_id";
             } else {
                 // Carica il file rinominato con PHPSpreadsheet
-                $spreadsheet = IOFactory::load($destination);
+                $reader = IOFactory::createReaderForFile($destination);
+                $reader->setReadEmptyCells(false);
+                $spreadsheet = $reader->load($destination);
 
                 $sheetCount = $spreadsheet->getSheetCount();
                 $sheetNames = $spreadsheet->getSheetNames();
@@ -189,8 +228,8 @@ try {
 
                 error_log("Selected XLS sheet - index: {$xlsSheetIndex}, name: {$selectedSheetName}");
 
-                $highestRow = $worksheet->getHighestRow();
-                $highestColumn = $worksheet->getHighestColumn();
+                $highestRow = $worksheet->getHighestDataRow();
+                $highestColumn = $worksheet->getHighestDataColumn();
                 $highestColumnIndex = Coordinate::columnIndexFromString($highestColumn);
 
                 $startRow = max(1, $header_row);
@@ -199,7 +238,7 @@ try {
                 // Advance startColumn to first non-empty cell in header row, matching JS behavior
                 for ($sc = $startColumn; $sc <= $highestColumnIndex; $sc++) {
                     $cl = Coordinate::stringFromColumnIndex($sc);
-                    $cv = trim((string)($worksheet->getCell($cl . $header_row)->getCalculatedValue() ?? ''));
+                    $cv = cleanCellText($worksheet->getCell($cl . $header_row)->getCalculatedValue() ?? '');
 
                     if ($cv !== '') {
                         $startColumn = $sc;
@@ -207,6 +246,19 @@ try {
                     }
                 }
 
+                $lastHeaderCol = $startColumn;
+                for ($hc = $startColumn; $hc <= $highestColumnIndex; $hc++) {
+                    $hl = Coordinate::stringFromColumnIndex($hc);
+                    $hv = cleanCellText($worksheet->getCell($hl . $header_row)->getCalculatedValue() ?? '');
+
+                    if ($hv !== '') {
+                        $lastHeaderCol = $hc;
+                    }
+                }
+
+                $highestColumnIndex = $lastHeaderCol;
+                $highestColumn = Coordinate::stringFromColumnIndex($highestColumnIndex);
+
                 // Debug dei parametri
                 error_log(
                     "Processing - template_id: $template_id, " .
@@ -269,7 +321,7 @@ try {
 
                         $columnLetter = Coordinate::stringFromColumnIndex($physCol);
                         $cell = $worksheet->getCell($columnLetter . $header_row);
-                        $cellValue = trim((string)($cell ? $cell->getCalculatedValue() : ''));
+                        $cellValue = cleanCellText($cell ? $cell->getCalculatedValue() : '');
                         $cellValue = preg_replace('/[\r\n\t]+/', ' ', $cellValue);
 
                         // Empty headers get __empty_N__ to match mapping page
@@ -306,7 +358,7 @@ try {
                         $filledCount = 0;
 
                         foreach ($headerFilledIndices as $idx) {
-                            if (isset($rowData[$idx]) && trim((string)$rowData[$idx]) !== '') {
+                            if (isset($rowData[$idx]) && cleanCellText($rowData[$idx]) !== '') {
                                 $filledCount++;
                             }
                         }
@@ -322,13 +374,13 @@ try {
                     // Recupera routine dal template
                     if ($template && !empty($template['idroutine'])) {
                         $stmtRoutine = $pdo->prepare("
-                            SELECT 
-                                idroutine, 
-                                name, 
-                                filename, 
-                                headerrow, 
-                                instruction 
-                            FROM routine 
+                            SELECT
+                                idroutine,
+                                name,
+                                filename,
+                                headerrow,
+                                instruction
+                            FROM routine
                             WHERE idroutine = ?
                         ");
                         $stmtRoutine->execute([$template['idroutine']]);