Incoming Links Not Updating Repeatedly

Jim Hook

I have a couple of Smartsheets where just a few incoming links that have been working just fine for years will no longer update when the source cell gets new information. I've been forced to update some of the malfunctioning links manually several times but the problem persists when new data appears in the source sheet. Is anyone else having this problem? Smartsheet support says that there have been no recent changes to the linking software and they reinitialized my Smartsheets (not sure what that means but it has fixed problems before though not this time). Over several years using my Smartsheet application I've coded in many error checking features to make it easier to troubleshoot data entry errors but recently all the errors have been due to this linking problem. My application is fairly complex with 64 active Smartsheets and probably more than 100K links.

Bhanu Prakash

Hi All,

Thanks for reporting this issue. We recently introduced a regression that caused outbound links to not propagate value to destination sheet when the source sheet was updated via API call. The issue was fixed yesterday evening - 12/16. Any new updates to your source sheet will now be updated to destination sheets.

Separately, we will do an update to ensure all the impacted sheets are updated with the values from source sheets. This is work in progress and planned to be completed, by 12/20.

We are sorry that you faced this issue and are taking action on our side to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Thanks,

Bhanu Prakash

Product Manager, Smartsheet

Paul Newcome

I have been having this issue as well. I believe it started about a week ago. The source sheet works as it should, but all of the target sheets linked to the source sheet haven't updated (and won't update) for the past 6 days.

I reached out to support who has thus far been able to get it fixed. I am in the process of scheduling a screenshare with them to try to figure it out.

I will update this post with the results.

Ezra

We're also having this issue. Every Gantt chart has a link back to a sheet with a constantly updating date field (via Zapier automation) to determine if a particular task is "on time", "at risk", or "overdue" (just using Harvey balls to denote this status - green, yellow and red, respectively). The column shows the link going to the correct sheet/cell, but it's not updated in almost a whole week.. so our projects are not showing the correct green/yellow/red statuses.

Paul Newcome

@Ezra

I can't see the date in the target sheet, but would it happen to be Dec. 10th? That's when mine stopped updating as well. I am also using a similar setup where Zapier is used to update a TODAY function on one sheet that links out to other sheets.

Ezra

@Paul Newcome The date in the target sheet (column name "Time Trigger") is, in fact, 12/10/19.

Paul Newcome

Looks like it may have been a system wide issue then. I will definitely update this post with whatever I find out from the screenshare. I sent them a handful of dates and times I was available but haven't gotten anything scheduled yet. I will be sure to bring up that it is not just one or two of my sheets, but all of my sheets and other users are having the same issue since the same date...

Jim Hook

Thanks Paul. I'm in the middle of updating last week's project timekeeping and many links are not working again. Looks like it may take an hour to restore nonfunctional links.

Paul Newcome

The only way I have found to restore non-functional links has been to link it to a different cell in the sheet entirely.

With hundreds of sheets with broken links and hundreds of formulas on each sheet referencing the broken link, I am hoping that it is able to be resolved in a way that does not require manually updating absolutely everything.

At least right now my formulas are referencing a date, so even though it is a stale date at least the formulas aren't broken. It is just stale data.

Fortunately I had backup methods in place so that up-to-date data is sent out regularly, but it doesn't solve the stale dates on the sheets and associated dashboards that people prefer to view since it is supposed to be "live".

Jim Hook

Paul, I'm with you on this problem. My Smartsheet app has 64 active sheets and I've had to probably fix over 100 incoming links today across several sheets to process last week's timekeeping data. I'm sure that there are other broken links but only cells where data has changed appear to be broken.

When I double click on a cell with an incoming link the data does not match with the source cell. Deleting the link and relinking it doesn't fix the problem. I have to double click on the cell, select an adjacent cell to the desired source cell and create a link and then go back and do it again to link in the proper cell. So far double clicking on a cell with an incoming link points to the right source cell but it is just not updating.

Paul Newcome

@Jim Hook

I have found that if you move the cell that is linked by selecting the cell and then click/drag on the border, it will update. I am not sure if that is a permanent fix or if it just updates for the move and then stops working again as I have just not had the time or patience to check. My problems with that are many to include (as we both have stated before) WAY too many sheets to do this to and I also have the problem in that I squeeze everything in where it fits. I don't often have a bunch of empty cells on a sheet not to mention I put this link in a specific place on each sheet for organization and consistency.

I still haven't heard back from support about a date/time for the screen share, but I have bookmarked this thread and put a note on my monitor to update once this mess gets resolved.

Ezra

@Jim Hook @Paul Newcome My Gantt sheets all seem to have updated around 4am CST. I'm still curious about the root of the problem, but at least all of the managers are in less-than-panic-mode.

Andrée Starå

@Ezra Thanks for the update!

Paul Newcome

@Jim Hook @Ezra

Yeah. It looks like mine got updated around the same time. Shortly after midnight here in E.S.T.

I too am curious about the root cause, but at least it is fixed. Phew.

Bhanu Prakash

Hi All,

Thanks for reporting this issue. We recently introduced a regression that caused outbound links to not propagate value to destination sheet when the source sheet was updated via API call. The issue was fixed yesterday evening - 12/16. Any new updates to your source sheet will now be updated to destination sheets.

Separately, we will do an update to ensure all the impacted sheets are updated with the values from source sheets. This is work in progress and planned to be completed, by 12/20.

We are sorry that you faced this issue and are taking action on our side to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Thanks,

Bhanu Prakash

Product Manager, Smartsheet

Paul Newcome

@Bhanu Prakash

Thanks for the update.

Andrée Starå

@Bhanu Prakash Excellent! Thanks for the update!