[ic] help with importing products

[Kevin Scott]

working with a new 5.1 install, working foundation demo with tools.
I exported the products table with admin UI.
added a couple thousand products to the tab delimited txt file.
imported the newproducts.txt with admin UI.
restarted IC.
upon inspection the products.txt file has all the records
as well as the pgsql database table products.
The items show up correctly in the admin UI.
BUT they only appear in the catalog AFTER I manually edit them in the UI
The admin UI even successfully populated the cat and area table.
I suspect this has something to with auto-export but am currently clueless
Do I really have to click through 2500 records?
pointers welcome, TIA