Automation Trigger "When Rows are Changed" not working

I have been banging my head on this. I need to set up a very simple trigger that when a cell is updated, a notification is sent about that row. I am using the "When Rows are Changed" trigger and defining my cell condition, and filters. I have also tried the "When Rows are added or changed" trigger with no success. I have yet to receive any notifications. I seem to only get notifications when I use the "When Rows are Added" trigger and add a new row. Those come through just fine.

I have boiled this down to a simple test (see attached screenshot) - to send a notification when any cell is changed. I still get nothing. Are these triggers working for anyone?????

Find more posts tagged with

Government

IT & Operations

Email Notifications

Comments

DevinD

And I should mention that I am hitting the "save" button .

Andrée Starå

Hi Devin,

How are your permissions set up? What change are you making on the sheet that should trigger the Automation?

Have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

DevinD

At the moment, it is not shared - only I can view (I am still building the sheet out). But I am sending the notifications to myself so I wouldn't think it would matter. And again, I receive notifications when the trigger type is "new rows are added", but nothing else.

All kinds of changes. I have tried changing multiple cells of multiple data types - Changing dates, changing text, changing text boxes.

Mike Wilday

Have you tried checking your personal settings for notifications on changes you make to the sheets? Navigate to Usermenu > Personal Settings > Notificatiosn and make sure the box is checked for Include my changes in Sheet notifications. See screenshot for example.

DevinD

THANK YOU! That did it. I knew nothing about that setting. Thanks again.

Mike Wilday

You're welcome. It's a common experience. I once fell victim to that checkbox myself. It drove me mad. But it makes sense for everything but the setup and testing of the functionality of alerts and reminders.

Andrée Starå

Easy to miss!

I didn't think of it because you were getting notifications for new rows, but I suspect that you didn't add them yourself, right?

Best,

Andrée

DevinD

I was adding them through a form, which I think bypasses it.

Andrée Starå

Ok.

I'll try to see if I can replicate it. Could be a bug.

Best,

Andrée

Sonia Leijenaar

I know this post is very old, but I'm having the same issue. I have unchecked and rechecked the notification options, and have received an "update request" email, but my automation still doesn't work. I have both date triggered and action triggered workflows, and they are incredibly simple -> when Status changes to Completed, change the % completion to 100 (for example). Any ideas? My sheet is shared to all users as well

Genevieve P.

Hi @Sonia Leijenaar

How is the Status column being populated, is this a manual change or done through a formula? Can you post a screen capture of your workflow set-up along with your sheet in grid view (but please block out sensitive data)?

Thanks!

Genevieve

David Acord

Hi @Genevieve P.

I'm actually experiencing a similar issue. I've created automation that reads 'when a new row is entered' and 'row ID' changes to anything, then alert X.

It works if I submit via a form, but last week when I entered in 8 entries manually, after hitting save, it didn't notify anyone.

Attached are screenshots, if that helps.

David Acord

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/306859#Comment_306859

Just to add that the update request icons on the left are because I manually added update requests a few days after the fact.

Genevieve P.

Hi @David Acord

My apologies for the delay in response!

I see in your workflow that the trigger is "when rows are added". Is it possible that when you manually created rows, you filled in a row that previously used to have information which was then cleared out instead of deleted?

If a row used to have information but the content was simply erased, then this row wouldn't be seen as a "new row" so the information you put in would have been an "update" not a new addition. You can check this by looking at the Cell History to see if previous content had been stored there.

Let me know if this was the possible reason!

Genevieve

Lori Martin

Mike Wilday, I just experienced this issue as well. Your assistance lived on, and you solved my problem! Thank you!😀

Sign in to join the conversation!

Quick Links

Trending discussions

Is there a way to prevent a shared user from seeing the data in the "View Detail" option?
Is there a way to prevent a shared user from seeing the data in the "View Detail" option? I'm trying to make sure that when a user is given access to view a report, they can only view the columns present in that report. The view might only show certain columns but the user can then click on the record as shown below and…
Gantt Chart Timescale not aligning with projects fiscal year and start/end dates
I have a project sheet with a Gantt chart where the timescale headings are not aligning with my project’s fiscal year and start/end dates. Configuration: - Primary heading: Quarters (displaying as Q4 2026) - Secondary heading: Months (MMM format) - Fiscal year start: February 2 - Week start: Sunday - Project start date:…
Changing how items are displayed on the calendar
Is there an overall calendar setting whereby I can choose a specific column to display in the calendar view? I have created an additional column that gives the task name (located in a child row) as well as the main task (in it's parent row). I want that to display in the calendar. Overall creating a content calendar and…