Rows Seemingly Moving by themselves

SammyMorey

We have been using SmartSheets in our workshops for around 5 months now as a schedule but there is one issue we have not been able to figure out why it is doing it. 

The smartsheets I am referring to are schedules with parent rows as our "Job" and the children as steps within that job. 

We have an automatic locking on the parent row which means that only our planners have the ability to move the parent rows around or use the sorting function (of which they do not touch as it was causing more issues then help). 

The planners will manually sort the jobs into order or date and priority for the workshop personnel so that they can view the plan in that order. 

I have seen this happen and it has happened to me 20+ times where the rows seem to move by themselves into a new order. 

The 2 people that had access to move the rows (myself and the planner) sat together on several occasions on one computer and moved the order of the jobs around. When we pressed saved smartsheet did it's saving process, then once it was saved we scrolled down and everything was out of order again (and yes we are sure we pressed save and not refresh - this has happened on many occasions over the last 5 months). 

Secondly, there has been times where we have pressed save and then refresh and the order is saved into the new order. During these times only myself and the planner have access to move the order of the sheet and neither of us have been at our desks. We come back, refresh and it is all out of order again. 

At first, I was sure that someone must be accidently reordering or something, but now I have witnessed the same thing time and time again. 

I have a theory it has something to do with if another user (even without the ability to move the rows around) has the sheet open on their computer in the original order... then after the order is changed and saved that user does not refresh. They they update a percentage or something without refreshing and one their version of the smartsheet auto saves it saves the old order overtop of the new order as that person did not refresh. 

So while they do not have the ability to "reorder" if the old order was still showing on their screen could this then override the new order the planner as saved as they didn't refresh? 

Does SmartSheet look for any new saves in the order before overriding this with a save someone else has done if they have not yet refreshed. 

I have seen this issue come up quite a few times now with other people in this community and we personally are losing a lot of time resorting our plans. 

If this is the issue (not refreshing and the old order saving over top of the new sorted sheet) is there something in the roadmap to combat this... or something we can do to reduce the amount it happens. Is it a case of turning off all the auto saves and training people to refresh before they walk away from their desk? 

Any insight would be great as this is a continual issue we are having. 

thanks so much 

Sammy

p.s. we have raised a ticket and are waiting a response. 

2 screen shots attached - first one with 2 childrens expanded. Second with them all collapsed and a few out of order yet again

 

Paul Newcome

I believe your theory about another user is correct.

 

If you saved something while they were making changes, they should have received a notification at the top of the screen letting them know that changes have been made and prompting them to refresh the sheet.

 

If they do not refresh the sheet, they will essentially save over your changes.

.

A few things to look for to verify...

 

In the top right corner, it will display an icon for each person that is currently accessing the sheet not including yourself. Keep an eye on that area to see if maybe someone else is in the sheet while you are making your changes.

 

You can also access the sheet's activity log and see if there are any indications there that someone else is changing things around.

SYSPK

This happened to me too.

 

I reordered some rows today, Saved, and then came back to the sheet and saw them in an entirely new order that I hadn't placed. I reordered twice more and Saved, and only the 3rd time did my Save stick.

I've also deleted a few rows from a sheet and Saved a bunch of times before finally seeing them deleted for good...

 

Amy Washburn

This have been happening to me quite a bit... I've tried completely restricting access, but the rows seems to jump around....but consistently. I wonder if it is somehow related to the pasted function (I paste many "chunks" of rows repeatedly.

SammyMorey

Hey guys - I spoke with Smartsheet people on this one - and it has to do with other users being in the sheet.

Even if they can not move the rows around, if they are in a previous view or order and have not refreshed, if they make a change and then save, their order (the old order) will save over the top of any new version orders.

Not sure if I have explained that very well - but hope that helps :)

Henry Pinzon

We had the same described issue this week - The bug or lack of capability to save work remains an area of opportunity for the product.

It will be great if someone take a look at this

LindseySch

any updates on how to avoid this?