Intermittent circular reference from cell link

Hi.

I have a series of linked sheets based on the PMO templates provided by Smartsheet.

There are 3 sheet types.

Project Intake Sheet - there is one of these.

Project Metadata - as many as required

Project Plan - as many as required

The Project Intake Sheet supplies data to the Project Metadata sheet via an index formula. Key metadata is input onto the intake sheet, and an autonumber generated. The Project Metadata sheet has the autonumber input and the index formula pulls through the metadata. There are then a series of columns which are joined back to the Intake sheet via a manual cell link. It's some of these I have the issue with. They take data from the project plan via a cell reference, and then these cells are subsequently referenced by the intake sheet.

I added 2 more columns to this which link to cells on the project plan. Those cells contain formulae.

If I link to these cells from the intake sheet, I get a circular reference

If I remove the formulae, create the link, then put the formulae back, I don't get a circular reference error and it works fine.

So what's going on? It clearly isn't consistent. Bug?

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Accepted answers

CycleBagEd

This was a bug and investigated by Smartsheet support

All comments

Genevieve P.

Hi @CycleBagEd

If it works fine when you add the formula after creating the cell-link, then I would stick to creating your fields this way. However you'll want to ensure that the column you're adding the cell link to isn't being used in the formula at all.

I will say it's hard to tell what may be going on without seeing a screen recording or screen captures. I've checked in with Support and it looks like you've already been in contact with them about this issue; I would suggest continuing to work with them in a private channel so you can share more details on your set-up.

Cheers,

Genevieve

CycleBagEd

Thanks @Genevieve P. I am going to email them the details now.

I can't proceed with a formula that needs to be rebuilt - too time consuming - however I have determined that if I build the formula on the SHEET and then link it through, it works first time.

If I build the formula in the sheet summary and then pull through to the sheet proper to enable me to access it via cell linking, that's when I get the error, although I would caveat I have changed the syntax whilst doing this (using descendants to collect the range rather than a whole-column sumif) so this is not a perfect test.

CycleBagEd

This was a bug and investigated by Smartsheet support

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