Hi everyone,
I'm investigating an odd pattern in one of our Smartsheet sheets and would appreciate a second set of eyes.
What we're seeing
We've noticed several Activity Log entries showing approximately 1,500 cells changed at a time. In multiple instances, the activity appears to be associated with the same 2 users, one US, and one UK based.
The Activity Log entries are typically in the range of 1,477-1,500 changed cells.
The interesting part
When drilling into the affected cells, the changes are almost entirely limited to these columns:
- Modified
- Modified By
- Date/Time Created (Formula)
- Date/Time Resolved (Formula)
However, these are formula-driven columns, not user-entered data.
Date/Time Created = (Start Date + Start Tim combined)
Date/Time Resolved = (Stop Date + Stop Time combined)
What we've investigated so far
When reviewing Cell History:
- The formula/result columns show activity.
- The underlying source columns (such as Stop Date) show no corresponding changes.
- This makes it appear that the formula outputs are being recalculated or refreshed even when the source values themselves are unchanged.
Additional observation
One user involved is based in the UK, while I'm in the US.
The changes go seem involve changing the date formats, at least as it appears in the logs.
For instance:
04/24/2026, but the UK user shows 24/04/2026.
Initially I suspected a locale/date-format issue, but after reviewing the source date columns, it does not appear that the underlying dates themselves are changing. The behavior currently looks more like formula outputs being reevaluated rather than actual source data changes.
Questions
- Has anyone seen Activity Log entries where formula-result cells are logged as changed despite no changes to the underlying source values?
- Are there known actions (reports, workflows, row moves, integrations, Data Shuttle, etc.) that can trigger large-scale formula recalculations that appear in the Activity Log this way?
- Is there any way to determine whether these entries represent true data changes versus formula re-evaluation/refresh events?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. We're mainly trying to determine whether we're looking at a genuine bulk update or simply a recalculation event that is being surfaced in the Activity Log.
Thanks!
