Why are blank rows added when submitting a form?

Tammy Fanara

When a form is submitted, it adds the data several rows below the last data entered. I do have an auto-numbering column, and wondered if that causes a problem?

Andrée Starå

Hi Tammy,

It’s probably not the autonumbering that’s causing it. Try deleting the extra rows and save and then try submitting the form again.

Did it work?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Paul Newcome

To expand on Andree's correct advice...

You can't just delete the data out of the extra rows, you need to delete the rows themselves. If a form is set to insert new entries at the bottom of the sheet, it will go the the first UNUSED row and not necessarily the first blank row. Hope that helps explain the "why" of it.

MicheleC

I am having this issue as the OP defined it. I deleted all of the blank rows after the last submittal. A new form was submitted last week and there are about 20 blank rows between entry 12 and 13. I also am using an automatic numbering process for each submittal.

Have any solutions to this problem been identified?

Thank you,

MicheleC

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/292509#Comment_292509

Huzzah!!! I needed to delete EVERY SINGLE EMPTY ROW and Poof! It works!

M_Ben

Is the only solution to keep deleting the blank rows? I also get good results when I delete every blank row, but the issue always appears again at some point. Does anyone know what is causing it?

It doesn't appear to to be related to my form submissions, because my new entries appear at the top of my list, and I only notice blanks rows from time to time depending on how my list is sorted. I can keep deleting them when they appear, but is there a way to prevent it?

Andrée Starå

Hi @M_Ben

I hope you're well and safe!

There will always be 10 extra rows at the bottom.

Sometimes a row can look empty, but it has been activated. The simplest way to solve if you have any issue is to delete all the empty rows.

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Paul Newcome

To add to Andree's response... Make sure you are actually deleting the row itself using the row options and not just deleting the data out of the cells in the row(s).

Barry Bowles

I hear the repeated advice that Smartsheet always adds 10 blank rows to sheets and to just delete the rows ( and it does cause problems and its driving me nuts after deleting them 6 times from the same sheet in pasyt 2 days) but no-one is saying WHY?

Why does smartsheet add 10 blank rows? - it seems ludicrous to just tell users to delete the blank rows when they occur, especially if adding those rows actually has a function because deleting them would countermand that functionality and that would be bad advice.

what functionality does adding 10 blank rows achieve? -

anyone?

Smartsheet staff?

Neil Watson

@Barry Bowles we use forms in mutie sheets, adding to the bottom and have not experienced this before. Is it worth copying all the existing records to a new sheet and after deleting all rows, bringing them back to see whether the issue is resolved?

Jason Duryea

I’ve had form submissions add blank rows, then the next form submission will appear after these blank rows.

Yes, Smartsheet does keep 10 blank rows at the bottom of the Sheet. However, the random blank rows added between form submissions (I believe) comes from the user copy & pasting text into the form which contains some sort of character that is causing the problem.

I know text with bullet points will likely cause this, but there may be other special characters as well. It might be hidden formatting characters that the problem.