Inconsistently updating Latest Comment Column

Liz M.

New conversations sometimes immediately populate to the Latest Comment column. Other times I need to save & refresh browser which works inconsistently.

My last resort fix is to copy the new conversation, delete the original and then save a new conversation which then updates to the Latest Comment column.

Anyone else run into this or know why this happens? Impatient users?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Liz M.

You shouldn't need to delete / re-add the comment for it to appear in the Latest Comment Column, however you're correct that you may need to save and refresh for it to appear (this is expected).

If you're not seeing the column populate even after saving & refreshing (or exiting the sheet and coming back to it), please contact Support with a screen recording of the behaviour, identifying if this happens on all sheets or just one sheet.

Thanks,

Genevieve

Jennie Hoffmann

I am also having issues with the Latest Comment field. I have included the comment field in an approval request so the approver can add information about why they reject /approve. The rejection/approval is followed by an automation asking the original requestor to make corrections but sometimes the Latest comment field does not update before the update request automation runs and sometimes it does. How can I make sure the Latest Comment info sent out via an automation reflects the most current data that should have populated to that column?

Richard Corris

Having the same problem. Nothing works to get the comment to populate the last comment column.

Victoria_Indimar

@Richard Corris Was your sheet created with a template that included the Latest Comment column? Or did you create from new? I ask because I noticed that this only seems to be an issue for us when a Template is used to create the sheet and Latest Comment was included. Instead of using the Template, creating a new sheet with a Save as New from the template's master sheet did the trick for us. (It's like Smartsheet didn't update the Template function to account for the newer Latest Column feature.)

Zrob

I just discovered this feature, created a latest comment column, and am deeply disappointed. It's buggy and inflexible. Never updates after comments are added and saved. F5 seems hijacked, does nothing. I have to click the URL and hit enter to force the browser to reload completely, then after the delay, the latest comment is there. (eye roll)

We will keep making our guys type "date name : status update text.

Use case: We need the conversations to print in our reporting so the data must be in a cell. The comments feature of smartsheet is sadly utterly useless to us because it buries the conversations in an app-centric black hole that can't be accessed unless opening the thread panel. Comments are data. Give it to us please.

If there was a formula that let us access the comments, we'd be in business maybe. Until then, it's the stone ages.