Why am I being told "Workflow timing is unavailable" when I try to set it to daily?

ro.fei · 03/14/23

Trying to make this automation run daily, but it's saying I can only set it to "When Triggered" but I can't figure out why. It's just a simple alert workflow. Any ideas?

Paul Newcome · 03/14/23

Do you have any {{Placeholders}} in the subject or body of the alert?

ro.fei · 03/14/23

@Paul Newcome Yes, I do. Does that affect the options for Workflow timing?

Andrée Starå · 03/15/23

Hi @ro.fei

I hope you're well and safe!

Yes, when you use the Placeholder feature, the trigger can't be Hourly, Daily, or Weekly.

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

If you have any of these action types in your workflow, set it to Hourly, Daily, or Weekly, and then save it. The app will prompt you to do either of these tasks:

Save the workflow with the When triggered setting, or
Return to editing the workflow.

Also, you won’t be able to use placeholders for workflows that run hourly, daily, or weekly.

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Paul Newcome · 03/15/23

@ro.fei Yes. When using a {{Placeholder}} you cannot use time based triggers because the {{Placeholder}} pulls in specific data from the row that triggered it. If it was to run daily and multiple rows were to be sent, it would either send the same thing multiple times with the placeholders or group the placeholders together. I feel like either way would not be ideal.

RC_SG · 01/04/24

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/367291#Comment_367291

But why?

I'm trying to move rows to another sheet once every hour. I want to do this because I want there to be somewhat of a grace period for anyone to add notes to it before it's officially moved.

I also need this because since we can't determine automation order, nor can we have a "Change Cell Value" action in addition to a "Move Row" action, I need it so that when a job is marked as complete by three columns, that it both changes the status to "COMPLETE" AND moves the row to our Archive document.

I had this originally as two separate automations, but then ran into the issue that it would move the row to the other sheet before it changed the status.

This is such a basic and simple feature in automation that it's beyond me that Smartsheet doesn't have this or arbitrarily throws road blocks up.

Kevin Hietpas · 08/01/24

I'm not sure if anyone here has the authority, but can that little nugget of wisdom be added to the official Smartsheet help article (https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2479236-trigger-blocks-when-your-workflow-is-executed).

Just spent hours trying to figure out why this wouldn't work when I made sure everything on the list was removed from the automation.

Thanks!

TBodine · 08/02/24

Agreed @Kevin Hietpas ! I just spent so much time trying to figure this out. Smartsheet please add this condition to the help article.

Why am I being told "Workflow timing is unavailable" when I try to set it to daily?

Answers

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

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