Why sheet requires saving when nothing changed?

Win LeDinh

This happens on 2 of my 10 sheets, and only started happening a few weeks ago. The moment I mouse over the grid of my sheet, the disk save icon immediately goes blue (enabled), thus indicating that something changed on the sheet. Thus when I now click on another sheet, a dialog window prompts me to confirm to save my sheet, don't save, or cancel. It indicates changes have been made to the information in Smartsheet.

I can't find any sheet configuration or personal settings that would cause this odd behavior. I am certain it isn't my auto-save feature under personal settings, because this issue always happen on the same two sheets. It is an inconvenience having to deal with the dialog.

My activity log confirms that the sheet was viewed, but not editing changes occurred. So why does Smartsheet think that the sheet changed the moment I hover over the grid?

Win LeDinh

Hi @Andrée Starå here is the final resolution/reply I received from the support folks:

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After consulting with my senior resources in regards to the issue you are experiencing with the sheet and save button constantly being active when opening the sheet, it appears the sheet is in a state of "Dirty Save". 

"Dirty Save", refers to an active save icon on the sheet when it is first loaded, or remaining active after the sheet is saved. This is due to a calculated difference between the data in the client and on the server. Currently there is no way of fixing this, and it seems that the solutions previously provided are you best option. 

Please let me know if you have any further technical questions on the above.

Andrée Starå

Hi Win,

Are you using the TODAY function or a formula that checks when the something was last modified or similar?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Paul Newcome

I had this happen to me today as well. Cross sheet formulas didn't update until I opened the sheet and then I was able to save.

There is no TODAY function used on that sheet either.

Andrée Starå

@Paul Newcome &@Win LeDinh

For one of my clients, it seems like it was the Modified column and formula we used to get the last modified date.

Win LeDinh

Thank you everyone for your tips! I had both the Created By and the Modified By columns, and after removing them, the problem went away.

Win LeDinh

So for one of my sheets, removing the Last Created By and Last Modified By columns fixed my issue. However, for my other sheet, I need both columns since I have other formula columns that references the Last Created By column, or a automation workflow that references the Last Modified By column, thus I cannot delete those two columns.

I still don't know what recently changed that could have caused this problem. A few weeks ago this issue didn't exist. I did save a copy of my original sheet, then deleted rows from the original sheet that I no longer needed. I didn't create any new formulas, and even if I did, there is no reason for Smartsheet to think that the sheet changed when no editing changes are made to the sheet. Very odd behavior.

Andrée Starå

@Win LeDinh

Ok. Yes, that's odd.

If you haven’t already, I would recommend that you reach out to the Smartsheet Support Team.

Let us know what you find out!

Win LeDinh

I just submitted a ticket to the support team to inquire. I shall post their response/resolution in the near future.

Andrée Starå

@Win LeDinh, Excellent!

Win LeDinh

Hi @Andrée Starå I was able to pinpoint the issue, but don't really know the root cause- seems like a bug in Smartsheet, but I gave the Smartsheet support folks enough information to research into it.

The issue is related to using 01/01/2020 in one of my date columns. I have two date columns, Begin Date and End Date, and three formula columns that rely on those 2 date columns (well, column A relies on those 2 date columns, while columns B and C rely on column A). If I have 01/01/2020 in one or both of those date columns, Smartsheet, for some odd reason, thinks that the 3 formula columns have changed whenever I access the sheet. We verified this by enabling the Highlight Changes feature and selecting Last Hour or since "I last viewed this sheet". The one specific row with the 01/01/2020 date will always highlight the 3 formula columns each and every time I access the sheet, thus the disk icon goes blue within a second of opening up the sheet! If I look at the activity log, it only shows that I viewed the sheet and no editing changes were made.

If I change the date to Jan 2, 2020 (01/02/2020) in the Begin Date and End Date columns, then the problem goes away. Using 01/01/2021 is ok, I have no issues thus problem only exists for 01/01/2020. I haven't tested other dates, so there might be more.

Andrée Starå

@Win LeDinh, Strange! Thanks for the update! Keep us posted if you hear anything back from support about the issue.

Win LeDinh

Hi @Andrée Starå here is the final resolution/reply I received from the support folks:

---->

After consulting with my senior resources in regards to the issue you are experiencing with the sheet and save button constantly being active when opening the sheet, it appears the sheet is in a state of "Dirty Save". 

"Dirty Save", refers to an active save icon on the sheet when it is first loaded, or remaining active after the sheet is saved. This is due to a calculated difference between the data in the client and on the server. Currently there is no way of fixing this, and it seems that the solutions previously provided are you best option. 

Please let me know if you have any further technical questions on the above.

Andrée Starå

@Win LeDinh

Excellent!

Thanks for sharing!

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