Request an Update Automations - Received out of order

Mike TV

Yesterday one of the teams that reports to me reported 22 items to their sheet. They use a form on a dashboard to submit rows to the sheet. The rows added to the sheet were added in order and there is a Created Date column which gives the date and time they were entered. The times are all sequential on the sheet with the oldest at the top.

However, the emailed automation 'Request an Update' were received all out of order. That makes absolutely no sense. The new rows were added at a rate of about 2-3 rows per minute. So the 22 rows span from being added at 4:37PM through 4:48PM

The email notifications were sent in this wacky order:

Row 6 added at 4:41PM

Row 3 added at 4:38PM

Row 4 added at 4:38PM

Row 5 added at 4:39PM

Row 7 added at 4:41PM

Row 14 added at 4:45PM

Row 10 added at 4:42PM

Row 8 added at 4:42PM

Row 21 added at 4:48PM

Row 19 added at 4:47PM

Row 15 added at 4:45PM

Row 22 added at 4:48PM

Row 1 added at 4:37PM (first row added is 13th row emailed about)

Row 2 added at 4:37PM

Row 9 added at 4:42PM

Row 17 added at 4:46PM

Row 12 added at 4:43PM

Row 13 added at 4:44PM

Row 11 added at 4:43PM

Row 16 added at 4:46PM

Row 20 added at 4:48PM

Row 18 added at 4:47PM

When I get these requests, I need to assign a tag # to the item reported on the row. The tag #'s are sequential in order. Because of issues like this the team reporting to this sheet isn't able to know right away which item will be assigned to which tag based on the order they reported them in. They have to wait until I provide them the tag which has a label on it for which product it goes to. It's all out of order from the way they reported it so this slows the whole process down.

@Genevieve P. Any idea why these Request an Update emails aren't being sent in the order they're being received on the sheet?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Mike TV

Update Requests will be batched in an Hourly cadence - yes, they will appear in row-order (top down) in the batched format. You can test this by running the workflow manually (using "Run Now") for a select number of rows to see how it will appear.

Cheers,

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi @Mike TV

Notifications / workflows evaluate rows in batches; even when a trigger is set to "immediately", if the sheet is being continually updated (such as if multiple rows are being added within the same minute) it will sometimes wait to identify if any other relevant changes have been made before sending the email.

There are other factors that play in to email timings, such if you have a service that reviews your mail as it comes in for spam, your internet speed, etc. You can determine if any of these external factors adjusted the order by comparing it against how the notifications were received within Smartsheet, in the bell icon.

I tested this by sending 20 update requests to myself over the course of 5 minutes. My 7th request came into my inbox after the 12th request. However, when I check the notification center in-app, the 7th request is 7th in the list, showing in the expected order.

As a side-note, I see you said this happened on March 1st. Other members reported a delay in notifications as well on this day. You see more about the incident on the Status Page, here.

Cheers,

Genevieve

Mike TV

@Genevieve P.

If I change it so that they're sent once an hour instead of immediately, will they come in order then?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Mike TV

Update Requests will be batched in an Hourly cadence - yes, they will appear in row-order (top down) in the batched format. You can test this by running the workflow manually (using "Run Now") for a select number of rows to see how it will appear.

Cheers,

Genevieve