Date auto fill not working?

Angela_74

I am trying to fill 3 months of consecutive dates without manually typing them all in, but all I get is the same 2 dates repeated, instead of consecutive dates? I am typing in the first 2 dates, then dragging the corner down, but all it does is repeat those 2 dates.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Angela_74

What's the pattern between the two dates? It sounds like Smartsheet is recognizing the two dates as their own pattern to repeat instead of looking at the days between them. (See: Create a Series of Numbers or Dates with Drag-Fill)

Try adding 4 dates, to show the repeating pattern, and drag the 4 down instead of just two. Did that help?

Cheers,

Genevieve

Angela_74

The dates are consecutive, so 01/01/22, 02/01/22 etc. The same things happens when I do 4 dates in a row, it just repeats those 4 dates.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Angela_74

Can you check the Column Type for that column? If it's set to Text/Number then the values will simply copy. In order for the date to auto-fill it would need to be a Date type of column.

Let me know if that was the issue!,

Genevieve

JKlanderud

I am having this same issue. When I try to autofill the dates, I just get the same repeated pattern, not consecutive dates. The column is set to date format. Thanks

Mary McCabe

Any answers on this?

Im having the same issue, tired changing data type to data, tried adding a series first. It keeps copying when dragging rather than auto fill.

Reviewed via google and smartsheet help---no answers to this.

Preferably, Id have January 2023, February 2023, March 2023.

But I would settle for 12023, 2/2023, 3,2023

Thanks!

Mary

Genevieve P.

Hi @mary twomley

The Auto-Fill function is looking at the number of days between dates. This means that you'll want to have the Column set to a Date format, then have just two dates in the Date cell.

Note than when you drag-fill, it will add 31 days (versus 1 month):

If you add three dates (e.g. the first of each month) then when the days between the dates don't match it will repeat your current values instead of adding new ones. Does that make sense?

Cheers,

Genevieve