Receiving Reminders Not Receiving Notifications

ker9

Hi, I have an email address ("Support") shared to the Workspace.  It is receiving reminders (reminder@smartsheet.com) but it is not receiving notifications (notification@smartsheet.com).

The notifications are not going to junk mail.  Nothing was on the "Safe" list of the "Support" box but reminders were coming in.  I added smartsheet.com; reminder@smartsheet.com and notification@smartsheet.com to the Safe list.  Notifications are still not being received.

It should not be an issue of notifying me of my changes. To test I turned that on so it notifies both me and the "Support" email address.  I received notifications of my changes but they did not go to the "Support" email box.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Mike Wilday

Try going into Account > Personal Settings > notifications and turn on include my changes in notifications. That is the usual suspect in cases like these. 

ker9

Per original post, that is turned on.  It does not explain why it's not sending notifications to the "Support" email box.

Mike Wilday

Hmmm, sorry I missed that. I would contact support. 

Alison

Hello!

 

Would you be able to provide a screen shot or two of the rules you have set up?

 

I'd be glad to help look into this.

 

Alison

Smartsheet Technical Support

ker9

The IT department has added various smartsheet addresses to the whitelist, per an email I received from Smartsheet.  This did not fix the notification problem.  The Support box receives reminders but not notifications.

After a great deal of testing and messing around, I found that the problem is with the settings on the sheet for Alerts and Notifications permissions (apparently this setting has nothing to do with Reminders).  Regardless of the fact that the address is set up as a User in Smartsheet and setup as a shared viewer of the Workspace, it will not receive notifications unless the sheet is also setup with permissions to send to Any Email Address.  Once that permission is modified, the Support box receives notifications.

The PROBLEM is that the original sheet is a master and setup with send to Any Email Address, however, when it is saved as template, it loses that setting.  It also loses the email address in the notifications.  So now I have to teach a bunch of people (who are not always very tech savvy) how to change the permissions every time they create a new sheet from the template so the Support box can receive notifications. 

Smartsheet, you need to fix how this works with templates.  It should retain the original permissions and email addresses of the master sheet.

Please do not suggest that these not very tech savvy people do Save As from the master.  That is a recipe for disaster. They will often forget to do that and I will constantly be replacing it with a clean copy. 

Also, when you set up the notification in the sheet that came from the template, it does NOT give you a warning that the users listed will not receive notifications and requests and provide you with the link to the setting.  That warning does NOT occur. (example of warning that does NOT happen below)  

The notification in the sheet from template is setup to go to Shared user or email. 

 

 

Alison

Hello,

Thank you for clarifying.  I was not able to reproduce the behavior you're seeing with the warning not appearing in a sheet created from a template.  When I tested and created a sheet from the template and the settings remained as "Shared Users only," I added a user to the notification who was not shared to the sheet and I did receive the warning that you pictured above.  

Would you be able to write into Support at support@smartsheet.com or reply to the thread you mentioned for an agent to look into this with you?

Kind Regards,

Alison

Smartsheet Support

ker9

The user ("Support") is shared to the Workspace so it is automatically shared to the sheet, but it does not receive notifications unless we turn on settings for any email.  It does not give the warning I think because it is shared.  I even created a Licensed User for the Support email box and it still doesn't receive notifications unless we change the settings to Any Email Address.  I didn't test to see if it has anything to do with the level of Viewer.

Alison

Hello,

 

Thanks for letting me know about this.  It sounds like the warning isn't triggering because that user is automatically shared to the sheet.  If this sheet was not in a Workspace, the sheet's Alert Builder would show that warning you're mentioning when adding a user who does not fit the notification settings.

 

Those notification settings you're mentioning seem to be the reason why the user previously wasn't receiving the notifications on the sheet; the permissions settings shouldn't affect whether the user can receive the notifications, but if you'd like further help troubleshooting, please feel free to reach out to support@smartsheet.com and we'll be glad to help you look into this!

 

Kind regards,

Alison

Smartsheet Support

ker9

The only way to get that user to receive notifications was to change the settings on the sheet created from the template to Any Email Address.  

It doesn't make sense because the address is shared and is also a user, but that is what's happening.  I suspect it has something to do with sheets from templates.

Keep in mind, the user was receiving reminders but not notifications.  User would only receive notifications after I updated the permissions on the new sheet created from the template.

Alison

Hello,

 

Thanks for this information.  The best way to resolve this would be to open a ticket here: help.smartsheet.com/contact

 

After doing this, our team will be able to help you troubleshoot this behavior.  You can even provide the link to this Community chain so that the Support agent can see what we've already discussed.

 

 

Kind regards,

Alison

Smartsheet Support

ker9

That was already done, I figured out the problem and solution myself.  The rest is up to Smartsheet to fix.  Fix how templates work.

Alison

Hello there,

 

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this is causing!

 

The Support team has done some further investigation and we think we've found a reason why this is taking place. 

It sounds like your "Support" user is not a verified user.  While reminders go out to users who are not verified, notifications will not.  

The best way to solve this would be to have "Support" open their email and accept the invite to join the organization.  They will then set a password and will receive those notifications when you have your security settings set to "Shared Users only."

 

Kind regards,

Alison

Smartsheet Support

ker9

I am a system admin on the account and I set up the email address as a licensed user.  In doing that, they do not get an email.  The "User" in this case is a group email box and not a "person".

I didn't want to set them up as a user, I did it because I was trying to make this work by sharing the email address as a viewer in the workspace.  That didn't seem to be working so I created a User.  That really didn't work either, the only thing that seems to work is changing the Notifications and Alerts permission setting to All Email Addresses.

Kevin Tao

Hi ker9,

I'm a developer at Smartsheet who works on Alerts & Actions.  Sorry for the poor experience you've been having.  I can definitely understand why the behavior you're seeing is confusing.  When your sheet is not set to send to "any email address", notifications require that the recipient be a verified user (i.e. they have logged into Smartsheet).  This was originally a spam prevention measure (unfortunately spammers are always trying to find ways to use Smartsheet to send email on their behalf).

I think your support account is not a verified user.  You can check this by going into the Account menu and selecting User Management.  The "Status" column for the user needs to read "Active", but I'm guessing it probably reads "Invited".  If you log in to Smartsheet using the support account, that will verify the user and it will then be able to receive notifications without needing the "any email address" setting, and without the need to be a licensed user.  If the account needs an invite email in order to log in, you can send one using the dropdown menu to the left of the user in the list.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience.  Based on your feedback we are going to look into whether this spam prevention measure really makes sense.

Thanks,

Kevin

ker9

Hi Kevin,

The Support User is Active and the Send Invite option is grayed out.  As you are aware, this isn't a real person so it doesn't have a company sign in profile, no password, etc.  I didn't really want to set it up as a "user" I was just trying anything to make it work.  

In thinking it over, there may be some added confusion because I also had it on my list of contacts.  I've done so many things at this point I'm losing track, sorry. The most confusing part is that the box receives reminders without any additional permission settings.

Ultimately, I want notifications to go to a group email box without jumping through a lot of hoops to get there.  I have a team that isn't all that tech savvy and every added step is a possible point of trouble.

Because I'm using a template, to me its only logical that everything I setup with the template, including notifications, is also setup in the sheet created from the template. 

Can an email address alone be shared to a Workspace (as viewer) and be utilized in notifications automatically. I understand about spammers and it is a concern, but if it's an email address I add, it should be able to get notifications.

Thank you for your time and support on this issue.

Karin