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Why does my Google Sheets formula not automatically recalculate?


I have this formula in a cell in a 'Summary' sheet which is waiting for a new sheet to be created with its name being a date:

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP($A3, INDIRECT("'"&TEXT(BN$2,"m/d/yyyy")&"'!$E$6:$o$100"), 11, false), "")

However, when I add the new sheet with the name that would match, then it doesn't automatically recalculate and pull in the values from the new sheet.

The weird thing is if I add a column to the left of this column that has the formula shown above, then it recalculates ... and all is well. Another weird thing is if I add a column far enough away from the column in question then it doesn't recalculate in the same way that it does when I add a column near the column in question (hmmmm....).

What is going on here? And how can I work around it? Seems Google has some major bugs around this area or something ...


Solution

    • This is due to INDIRECT.

    • A partial workaround:

        =IFERROR(INDIRECT("'"&C9&"'!A1"),RAND())
      
    • Use this instead of just INDIRECT in your formula. It still won't update on opening and closing. But it'll update, Whenever there's a edit anywhere in the sheet (making this a double volatile combo with RAND()).

    • Also, Try turning on recalculations every 6 hours or so in spreadsheet settings.

    PS: Your Spreadsheet might burn🔥🔥 due to the heavy volatility.