Rogue Automation? How to Investigate...

Ann Hannan

Hi All,

This morning a rogue automated email was sent from SmartSheet to myself, a few coworkers and an outside collaborator. I have checked the sheet where this automation lives and it is scheduled to trigger one week after a due date in the sheet. I say the email is rogue because there is no February due date in this sheet for the project. Therefore, the email was very confusing to all who received it. I have checked every test sheet, and archive sheet for any occurrence of this automation/project which may have triggered the email but can find none.

Additionally strange is that the automation is set for 10am and it was received at 8:55am.

My question is this - is there any place outside of the activity log that I could try to trace or understand why this message went out?

It is a "Message Only" - Alert Someone Workflow so the message does not include the sheet name or other recipients.

Grateful for any ideas that you might have!

Thanks,

Ann

Jeff Reisman

@Ann Hannan So you know what sheet the automation is on and what the settings for it are - how did you figure that out if the sheet name isn't shown?

What are the other automations on that sheet? Are there any move row automations that could have removed the row after it triggered the automation?

In the Activity Log - were there any rows deleted or changed in the week before the alert fired? You might have to download the activity log and then sort by Rows Deleted to find it.

Regarding the timing - who is the creator of the automation or owner of the sheet, and are they in the same time zone as you?

Kelly P.

@Ann Hannan

If you end up submitting a help ticket, there is a 16-digit ID number at the bottom of the alert you received that you can provide to the help desk so they can identify the issue.

Hope that helps!