Rows will not stay in place. NEED HELP NOW

OrbitalPorcupus · 05/17/19

We use a sheet as both a schedule and data collection tool as part of a much larger system we just put in place (literally 5 days ago, moved from google sheets). The information is organized manually first by employee and second by the priority of projects. Recently, the information in the sheet began jumping randomly throughout the document. No matter where rows are placed they somehow seem to end up somewhere else on the document. It is wasting both the time of the directors, who have to manually go back and reorganize all of the information every time they open the sheet as well as the employees who have not been able to prioritize their workload because the information never stays put.

There are no filters being used, most people on this sheet only have view only access, and since it's hand sorted anyone who DOES have editing capability knows not to use the sort function. Simply changing a few cells or moving a couple rows up/down seems to mess the entire thing up sometimes.

I know for a fact it's not user error, because I have made sure to go into the sheet when noone else was on to see if the problem still occurs. Ohhhh boi. Yup.

After months of having to work with a program that is in need of some serious updating (the amount of workarounds and duct tape/superglue fixes to stupidly simple pitfalls), this is seriously the icing on the cake. I mean honestly, the one thing you would expect a spreadsheet to do is stay in the order you last left it.

I need to know why this is happening. I don't need another goofy solution/workaround. Just why. won't. my. sheet. stay. in. order.

-reports are not an option as I need to be able to quickly edit/add rows/move rows/delete rows.

-I will not consider adding a sorting column because a) That is an extra step which will still get missed when the other 20+ people finally have editing capability and the issue will remain and b) there is already a concern that we might reach the max cell/column limit too early. (which btw is ridiculous considering this isn't exactly a free tool)

We're becoming increasingly frustrated, losing time and money, and every day becoming more and more doubtful that moving to this was a good option.

Kara Lumley · 05/17/19

Orbital,

Please open a ticket with Support - https://help.smartsheet.com/contact

They will be able to help troubleshoot.

Best,

Kara

jim.reese106526 · 10/05/19

We went live with Smartsheet a week ago and are using a sheet to schedule with an admin and several editors and we are are having similar issues. We have noticed that when and editor checks a box in a column and saves we end up with rows arbitrarily moving out of sequence. I have a help ticket out on this, but have not had anyone contact me yet. It is very time consuming and frustrating to go back a re-sequence.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated

Andrée Starå · 10/05/19

Hi Jim,

Can you describe your process in more detail and maybe share the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@getdone.se)

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

jim.reese106526 · 10/05/19

Hi Andree,

Yes, we have a log or spreadsheet that we are using to schedule work flows for approximately 5 processes. As an individual completes a process, they will add a check box to show that have completed their process. We try to work in a first in first out manner, however, sometimes an individual will be working on something out of sequence. Our scheduler moves the work that has been started back into sequence. The issue we have been noticing, is that as someone saves or refreshes, the rows will be come jumbled or mixed and the scheduler will have re-sequence the rows back in order.

Andrée Starå · 10/06/19

Ok.

Are you using hierarchy (Parent/Children)

Are you sorting the sheet or using any filters?

Can you share some screenshots? (remove/replace any sensitive data)

Susan Amundsen · 04/03/20

Andre'e,

We are having the same trouble. We enter our activities in the order that makes sense to us. In the case below, activities were entered consecutively as numbered in the RowID column. There are times where we insert activities after the fact, but not within this list below. After entering the list and saving, upon opening the list, activities are out of order. I cannot figure out what the sheet is sorting on, it’s not any of the column dates that I can see.

We do use parent/child hierarchy and no filters are applied. We want the list to remain in the order we entered the activities. Can you help?

Andrée Starå · 04/03/20

Hi Susan,

@Susan Amundsen

Strange!

What do you see when you look in the Activity Log?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Susan Amundsen · 04/06/20

I just created a test sheet to play around with issue. Once you sort the list say by start date, how to you revert back to the way the activities are entered?

Andrée Starå · 04/06/20

@Susan Amundsen

Either by sorting by created date or an Auto-Number column.

Susan Amundsen · 04/06/20

I do not have the option to sort by created date, so I will need to set up for and Auto number col. Thank you.

Andrée Starå · 04/06/20

@Susan Amundsen Excellent!

I'm always happy to help!

You could add the Created Date column now and use it going forward if that helps.

✅Remember! Did my post help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

netizenden · 10/07/20

Hate to say it, but this is why data should be presented to users in an application front-end (at minimum a 'form' construct), which should be based on queries/filters as needed. Then the user's specific view can be tailored for their specific role / expected view, etc.

After 20+ years using MS Access and Excel (and mysql, etc.) I'm having to work with SS and it's not the same. I use the Live Data Connector from Access to pull down what SS has present (I initially pushed data into SS only after manipulating in Access).

Now when I do the LDC / link refresh (ODBC), I'm having to figure out a stable 'record ID' that is not constantly changing with row movements. Access and other DBMS tools don't care about 'rows' - they use distinct record IDs to maintain consistency.

I'm interested in the 'autonumber' field in SS - that may be what I (and poss. the OP) need for that stability.

netizenden · 10/07/20

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/265224#Comment_265224

Follow-up:

Yes - that worked using the 'auto-number' field with 'Fill' format.

Added that field, saved the sheet, system auto-populates the column (field is not editable, as expected)

Then grabbed row_id 0001 and moved it down a few rows:

Refreshed MS Access live link, and row_id does not move in the dataset, nor does the value change with 'row movement' in SS (above)

Inserted a new record in SS, and row_ID is system-incremented as expected:

So this 'auto-number' field will be synonymous with 'primary key' in DBMS terms.

Meredith Krueger · 06/28/21

Has the random sorting issue been resolved? We are seeing the same thing happening to our sheet. It is very frustrating.

BrittColby · 10/15/21

Wondering the same thing. I have multiple sheets and have had this issue for years. It is becoming increasingly frustrating and has me searching for another option.

Rows will not stay in place. NEED HELP NOW

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