How to include predecessors when copying to another sheet?

Christa Johnson

I am trying to copy rows to another sheet but the predecessor relationships don't carry into the new smartsheet when I do. How can I copy rows and retain the predecessors?

Bassam Khalil

Hi @Christa Johnson

Hope you are fine, unfortunately, when you copy or move rows between sheets the dependency is not copied, you can play around by exporting the original sheet to Ms Project as XML and import it to the new sheet, or you can copy the values in the Predecessors column and paste it in the new sheet.

FWPBIDev

Ridiculous. Would be much easier and more user-friendly to include the predecessors and allow users to delete inapplicable ones. The current workflow is absurdly unnecessary. Simple fix. Do it. Geez.

yolan

I can't believe this is not fixed yet !

George B

I was really disappointed to find out that predecessors are lost when copying from one sheet to another. It's totally ruining my plans for a project I'm working on. I have a portfolio sheet that needs to have additional projects added to it over time. My idea was to have a template sheet containing a single project, and then copy and paste that project to the portfolio sheet whenever a new project needs to be added. But losing the predecessors means the automated scheduling is lost.

PeterUser

It is crazy and unacceptable to rework multiple streams in separate sheets when combining into one. What is the ETA for this enhancement to ensure a seamless experience?

The more I use Smartsheet, the more I start looking for alternatives for future projects. This is just one of the examples of things that are annoying and not taken care of over the course of time.

DoubleR

This needs to be fixed - it creates a lot of rework.

mtp105

I completely agree - very frustrating. Please also add that predecessors do not get deleted if you delete a start date. Sometimes you just need to reset all the project dates. Deleting any date cell removes the predecessor. I can understand somewhat that if you changed a date the predecessor could be assumed not needed, but deleting a date should keep the predecessor intact and be used whenever predecessor dates are entered.

FYI - PLEASE VOTE on this request for an update for copying rows to another sheet here:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/92514/inlclude-predecessor-references-with-copy-to-another-sheet

If I can find a request for keeping predecessors when a date is deleted, I'll add that too.

mtp105

Per my above comment, I wasn't able to find an existing request for not automatically deleting predecessors, so I created one. PLEASE VOTE for it here:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/120992/stop-predecessors-from-being-deleted-when-a-date-is-deleted

David Bramer

The workaround to this is to take all the rows you want to copy, move them to the very first row of the existing smartsheet and then add enough empty lines to the new smartsheets you want to copy it too.

The predecessors will not copy but then you can separately copy just the predecessor column making sure to select the same starting row number in the new sheet as in the old sheet you are copying from before you paste.

Once the new data and the predecessors are copied you can move them freely in the new smartsheet and the predecessors will automatically update wherever you put them.

Jhcarper

I am new to smartsheet as of this last month. Finding this issue today and then learning that its been documented as early as 2021 and still not addressed is making me pause to consider this transition. This should have been fixed a long time ago.