Contact List Type Time Outs

Dakota Haeffner

Has anyone been experiencing any difficulty when you add a Contact Column type and try to add names? Seems to be happening on all my Smartsheets instances. Two separate accounts on two separate machines, only on the contact column when I try searching for names.

Basically when I go to add a name for the drop down this is a huge delay in the keystroke and the letter appearing in the search bar. If the name I type doesn't have an account it basically times out and sometimes I have to refresh the browser window. My work around has been adding one name then saving each time.

Any suggestions or ideas on why this might be happening?

Naeem Ejaz

This is a known pain point that can happen with Contact Columns in Smartsheet, especially when:

• The sheet has a large number of rows or contacts.
• The browser is under heavy load or has cached scripts.
• The contact search is trying to query the entire account directory (which can be slow if the name doesn’t exist).

• Pre-populate Contact List
  • Instead of typing names, set the column to Restrict to list values and add known contacts in the column properties.
  • This avoids live directory search.

• Use Email Instead of Name
  • Typing the email often resolves faster than searching by name.

• Browser Optimization
  • Clear cache and cookies.
  • Disable extensions that might interfere (especially password managers).

• Split Large Sheets
  • If the sheet is very large, performance drops. Consider splitting or archiving old rows.