Automation to send Alert "Hourly" results in error

Stephanie Kiecker

I have asked for an Alert to be sent Hourly each time a new row is added to my sheet:

but when I hit Save I get the following error:

I did click on Learn more which tells me:

"There are some tasks you can’t do with hourly, daily, or weekly workflows

If your workflow is set to Hourly, Daily, or Weekly, you can’t use any of these action types:

• Clear cell value
• Assign people
• Record a date 
• Move rows 
• Copy rows 
• Lock rows 
• Unlock rows 
• Request an approval"

At this point I am perplexed because I am not asking for any one of these....I am asking for an Alert

There is nothing more I can see that would be preventing my Alert to send Hourly...Am I missing something or should I submit a Ticket?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Stephanie Kiecker

I hope you're well and safe!

Strange!

Do you have any other Steps in the Workflow?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Stephanie Kiecker

No, what I show in my original message show how the Automation is set up - when I hit Save, it forces me to change to "when triggered" but for now, I have disabled the automation. What is shown above is how I WANT the automation to fire

Paul Newcome

It looks like there are placeholders being used in the subject line/body of the message. Those have to be set to run immediately because of how they work.

Andrée Starå

@Stephanie Kiecker

Paul is correct!

@Paul Newcome Good catch!

Stephanie Kiecker

THANK YOU! That was my issue - I have removed the "placeholders" (didn't realize that is what they were called) and I was able to change to send automation Hourly!

Paul Newcome

Happy to help. 👍️

PDunn

Thank you I was struggling with this as well. Maybe update the information about using hourly trigger and note the placeholder info will create the error. I use placeholders all the time to personalize my notifications with task owners names.

Paul Newcome

@PDunn I'm not sure I follow. It is noted above that placeholders need to be triggered to run immediately and that they cannot be used with hourly automations.