Why Isn't Assign Someone Automation Automatically Triggering

I have created a sheet to log all of the Change Orders coming into our PMO. The data in most of the columns are referencing a sheet that uses APIs to pull information from our client-facing system, but I had to create a separate sheet that is essentially a copy to support automations and some additional columns without breaking the API connections.

Several of the columns on the reference sheet use automations to fill in a contact for the name in another column. I have the automations set up to trigger the Assign Someone automation to fill that contact column any time a row is added or changed (see below).

This was working just fine until this week, when the automation stopped triggering. If I manually run the automation, it works fine, so I'm not sure why the trigger piece isn't working.

Does it have to do with the fact that the data the should be added/changed is coming in via INDEX/MATCH formulas?

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Accepted answers

Paul Newcome

Triggers cannot run off of cells populated by cell lins or formulas containing cross sheet references. You will need to set the trigger to run on a daily basis (you can set up more of them to run up to hourly) instead.

All comments

Paul Newcome

Ann.Cracovaner

Thanks @paulnewcome! That's what I suspected, so I appreciate the confirmation!

Paul Newcome

Happy to help. 👍️

Brook Waddell

@Paul Newcome - While it may be true that triggers can NO LONGER run off cells populated by formulas, this was definitely not the case, historically. I noticed this change not long ago and had to scramble to accommodate the change in functionality. I only assumed I missed some notice that this was happening, but evidently I wasn't the only one.

Paul Newcome

@Brook Waddell This has actually been the case for quite some time. I can say with confidence from memory for more than a year, but I would have to do some digging to find out exactly when it began.

Ann.Cracovaner

Update on this isssue:

I tried adding a "trigger" helper column that as the formula =[Assigned PM]@row so that it matches with what is being pulled in from the other sheet in the [Assigned PM] column. I was hoping that I could have the trigger block for the automation set up as follows:

That way, the change in the source sheet would prompt the change in trigger column, thus triggering the automation. But this doesn't seem to be working either. Since I need this automation to assign names in a contact column, I can't use the Hourly trigger to force the workflow to run on a timetable. I need this updated more than once each day, so setting up the trigger to run on a date isn't really an option either. Any other thoughts on a workaround here?

Paul Newcome

The reason the helper column didn't work is because you are still (in a round-about way) referencing another sheet for the attempted trigger.

The only option outside of 24 hourly workflows would be the API, the premium add-on Bridge, or some other similar third party app.

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