Google sheets not copying!

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

Hi,

I have over 40 tables in my app and a google script to make a back up copy ever so often. The script stopped working yesterday morning. I can’t make a copy manually when in the googlesheet or from the sourde file in the google drive.

I get this error:

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I have identified the sheet and column responsible. If I delete the Order Id Column form the “order details” table then the sheet will copy otherwise it won’t. There is no formula or anything - just the order id written to the spreadsheet.

I had to create a new column and copy and paste the data and change a few formulas to get it working.

It seems as though there was somthing in the column that it didn’t like.

I found the offending sheet by downloading the googlesheet as excel. When is opened it up it showed errors on certain sheets. One of which was my order details. Then I delete various columns and tried copying to find the column stopping it.

I still don’t lnow why thos happened.

Any thoughts?

Phil

1 Like
2

I don’t have a clue but great detective work finding out the cause.

3

Phil_Waite:

When is opened it up it showed errors on certain sheets.

What were the errors?

4

Phil_Waite:

I have over 40 tables in my app and a google script to make a back up copy ever so often.

Perhaps contact the author of the script for help debugging?

5

I have attached a screen shot of the error mesaage in excel.

The same problem has come up again having fixed it. It is the Order Id column in my Order Details sheet.

I have noticed some Order Ids have this '72424394 as the order id rather than something like this as expected a86d1a4be.

I’m assuming this is something to do with the formatting but I have it set to “text”.

Deleting all IDs that appear like this does allow me to copy the sheet either though.

Many thanks

Phil

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6

Phil_Waite:

I have noticed some Order Ids have this '72424394 as the order id rather than something like this as expected a86d1a4be.

In the worksheet, change the format for that entire column to Plain text:

3X_5_1_51de68ee0bec42897001797f2f0ce99a51016a18.png
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Ideally, the entire worksheet should be configured to use the Plain text format. At the very least, though, any worksheet column with values generated using UNIQUEID() in the app should be Plain text.

7

Hi Steve,

Changing every column to Plain Text stopped calculations in google sheet from working. For example the formula below stopped working. Order details G:G is the Order ID in the order details table, A444 is the Order ID being matched in the Orders table and p:p is the monetary value of each order detail.

Result was 0 when everything changed to Plain Text.

=SUMIF(‘Order Details’!G:G,A444,‘Order Details’!P:P)

8

The google sheet won’t copy even when I go to File then Make A Copy

9

Sounds like you need to engage Google Sheets support. The problems you’re having are not AppSheet-related

10

Hi,

Eventually I found that deleting a tab on the sheet that had about 10K rows but wasn’t in use by the app sorted the problem.

Not sure why as np formulas or other rows referenced it.

Phil

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