This rule triggered itself directly or by at least 1 other rule, which is prevented.

JRobare

I have a SmartSheet constructed as follows:

1. A dropdown list contains five options to indicate the task status (Column = "Pickup Status").

Pickup Status Pending...

Pickup Now

Do NOT Pickup

Pickup Completed

Unable to Pickup

2 . The Foreman will use a form to submit the initial data and set a hidden field to "Pickup Status Pending...".

3 . "Pickup Status Pending..." will trigger an authorization eMail to be sent to the Project Manager by way of "Alerts & Actions".

4a. The Project Manager selecting "Do NOT Pickup" will set the "Pickup Status" to "Do NOT Pickup" and cause no further "Alerts & Actions" and the task will be considered complete.

4b. The Project Manager selecting "Pickup Now" will set the "Pickup Status" to "Pickup Now".

5 . "Pickup Now" will trigger an authorization eMail to be sent to Supply Chain by way of "Alerts & Actions".

6a. Supply Chain selecting "Pickup Completed" will set the "Pickup Status" to "Pickup Completed" and cause no further "Alerts & Actions" and the task will be considered complete.

6b. Supply Chain selecting "Unable to Pickup" will set the "Pickup Status" to "Unable to Pickup".

7 . "Unable to Pickup" will trigger an authorization eMail to be sent to the Project Manager for approval a second time in the event that the pickup was not ready on the first trip (thoretically bringing us back to step 4).

*THE ISSUE:  Every time the status is changed to "Unable to Pickup", SmartSheets flags the rule in Step 4 as invalid, disables it, sets the "Pickup Status" back to "Pickup Status Pending..." (which only comes from form submission), and sends the following eMail:

========== ========== ========== ========== ========== 

An Alerts and Actions rule has become invalid

Job Close Out

This rule triggered itself directly or by at least 1 other rule, which is prevented. Please modify the rules that are reacting to this one so they don't trigger each other.

This Alerts & Actions rule has been disabled. To re-enable this rule:

1. Open the Alerts & Actions menu at the top of your sheet and select Manage Alerts & Actions

2. In Alerts & Actions, edit the rule named "Jobsite Pickup Authorization Request" by double-clicking it.

Regards,

The Smartsheet Team

========== ========== ========== ========== ========== 

ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE:

A. I disabled all other Alerts & Actions, and when I changed the "Pickup Status" manually to "Unable to Pickup", the issue still occurs.  This tells me that the system believes it is self-referencing.

B. I modified the rule that triggers the Project Manager authorization request and attempted to recreate the issue with one rule triggered by either "Pickup Status Pending..." or "Unable to Pickup" as well as two seperate rules; one triggered by "Pickup Status Pending..." and one triggered by "Unable to Pickup", but the error still occurred.

Please advise...

Thank you

***

Attached is a flowchart of the desired solution.

Shaine Greenwood

Hello,

I'm not exactly sure what's at play here and it looks like you've done a lot of troubleshooting. Try a couple of things:

1. Try deleting the rule and recreating it from scratch.
2. Try making a copy of your sheet and triggering the rule in the copy. If you still get the error in the copy, contact our Support team to troubleshoot further. If you don't, then you might consider moving work over to the copy.

If the above doesn't work, please reach out to our Support team and we can troubleshoot further.

JRobare

I submitted a ticket through the support page within minutes of my first post, but never received any confirmation or response by eMail or otherwise. 

I copied the rule to another sheet and still had the same issue. 

The only workaround I could find was to make the status box value for the "Unable to Pickup Authorization" cell read "Pickup Status Pending..." so it is the same value as when the rule was triggered the first time.  The downside to this is that the user may provide the authorization to pickup a second time without knowing that the first attempt failed.  (I know I could add another cell to track the pickup failure, but that wouldn't be quite as elegant code-wise)