Sheets to Workspaces - Permission Help

Jerika

Since Smartsheet no longer allows the creation of new folders in Sheets, I reorganized all of my items previously in Sheets into Workspaces. I deeply regret this, as I'm now having tons of permission issues with items I've shared with coworkers.

I need to share some items with one or more people, but I do not necessarily want all the same permissions for each sheet in my Workspace. I also cannot move any of the items back into Sheets. Please help!

Edit: I think I've figured out the issue - it seems that some of the sheets lost their sheet-level permission when I moved from Sheets to a Workspace. Not all of them did, though. I reshared those who lost them, and they seem to work for those who need access.

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

Hi @Jerika

You're not alone—this is a frustrating part of the transition from Sheets > Workspace. Here's what I found from testing and digging into Smartsheet behavior:

1. When moving a sheet from the "Sheets" folder into a Workspace, any sheet-level sharing is lost. That means users previously invited to specific sheets no longer have access unless you re-invite them.
2. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to retrieve share history using the Smartsheet API. Even the GET Events endpoint doesn't track share/unshare actions, which limits auditability.
3. As it stands, **you’ll need to manually add shares - a chore! - after moving items into a Workspace, especially if each sheet had unique permissions.
4. The effort users put into sharing sheets with the right people and right permission levels will be completely lost after the move. What a burden to users!
5. Regarding the share history, you can check past activities—including shares—using the Activity Log, but only up to 90 days can be downloaded.
6. To help:
   1. Filter the Activity Log for sharing activity.
   2. Export to CSV.
   3. You will get an email.
   4. Import the CSV
   5. Extract emails and permissions from the “Details” column using these formulas:
   6. Email:
      =IF(ISTEXT(Details@row), MID(Details@row, FIND(CHAR(40), Details@row) + 1, FIND(CHAR(41), Details@row) - FIND(CHAR(40), Details@row) - 1))
   7. Permission:
      =IF(ISTEXT(Details@row), MID(Details@row, FIND(CHAR(34), Details@row) + 1, FIND("permissions", Details@row) - FIND(CHAR(34), Details@row) - 3))

a-b

c.

d.

The imported sheet looks like this.

e.

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=15b9176ce52d47f58510ff5a2f786ed7

In the long term, you could use a helper tool that reads sheet shares, moves sheets to a workspace, and re-applies permissions automatically. Let me know if you’d like help building that kind of tool.