# Failing to write to a specific cell in a Google Sheets data source **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions about Thunkable X\ **Tags:** beginner, google-sheets\ **Created:** [August 30, 2024, 11:19am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652 "2024-08-30T11:19:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grinkingr3yr6z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@grinkingr3yr6z](https://community.thunkable.com/u/grinkingr3yr6z)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 11:19am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652/1 "2024-08-30T11:19:59Z")
Hi team, as per the subject, I have a small project I am working on for myself as a learning exercise (it’s a personal recipes database, and am trying to set it up to find any matches on rows that match a certain string - ie. looking for an ingredient, etc). In the project, I have a Google Sheets data source with 3 tabs - one with the source data, one that will be used purely for filtering the data, and the 3rd for doing the actual filtering. The issue I have is that, for some reason, I’ve been unable to get my app to update cell A2 in the filtering tab. It simply does nothing. This is the cell I am trying to update, on the “Filter” tab (potentially expanding this out, but for now, I am concatenating all the source fields in order to simplify doing a fuzzy search/filter for partial matches - I just need to be able to update this particular cell with the search string the user has entered, in order to facilitate the filtering): ![Cell](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/f/6/f67f2c631e9582113affd4d66d75a7846f745caa.jpeg) The tabs I have in my sheet: ![Tabs](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/5/e/5e76a73a2f6ade25db8f3e1661731dbabdaf0adb.jpeg) This is how I have the block set up to do it (the logic I’ve used for this, is that once they’ve typed a few characters, it’s enough to start filtering on, at which point I want it to update cell A2… which the filtering in the View\_Table tab is set up to atuomatically filter the data on. I’ve tried both 1 and 2 for the index, just to see if I could get it to work, but it just does nothing): ![Block](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/a/9/a9eb000cab439da7ea961985ce41f1d6ae9caf6c.jpeg) I’ve been looking over a number of different topics on this, tried Google, CoPilot, etc… and so far am drawing a blank as to why this is refusing to write… the data connection is fine, as I am able to pull data from the main table without issue - I can also pull it from the View\_Table without issue. Suggestions/comments/questions very welcome 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![grinkingr3yr6z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@grinkingr3yr6z](https://community.thunkable.com/u/grinkingr3yr6z)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 11:26am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652/2 "2024-08-30T11:26:37Z")
I did just notice when I referred back to [this thread](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-what-are-the-ids-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/1860999/9) that I was using as a reference when I went for the specific row #, rather than trying to find an ID… and I noticed that I had a standard text value in there rather than an actual value block. However, I’ve updated it, and it’s still not writing: ![Block2](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/5/7/570aa32ffa54d28795e9f0ae5f985df504e34a23.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652/3 "2024-08-30T14:42:27Z")
This works for me so I think there may be a problem with your Google Sheet not being synced in Thunkable. This can happen if you change the name of a column header or add/remove columns. And no, it doesn’t matter if the row id is a text string or numeric value. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/7/2/7269738b80765ed4435a112954f75d5b8882a6c5.png) Can you update the value in that cell when the Screen Opens (without any conditions), just as a test? ---
**Author:** ![grinkingr3yr6z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@grinkingr3yr6z](https://community.thunkable.com/u/grinkingr3yr6z)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652/4 "2024-08-31T04:45:35Z")
Thanks for the confirmation that it SHOULD work! That’s always a good start knowing that you’re at least on the right track lol. I had a look, tried simply writing a fixed value, which didn’t work. So then I added a create row call on a different table, just to test it out - and THAT didn’t write, either… (and yes, I’ve done a sync of the DB - I did that yesterday also, but forgot to mention it) ![Block3](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/d/0/d05ffec8d7a64b3b6d4ba777ad9cc7091f493a9c.jpeg) Wondering if I may need to disconnect/reconnect the data source just to re-establish write permissions (I’m still able to read data without issue)? ---
**Author:** ![grinkingr3yr6z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@grinkingr3yr6z](https://community.thunkable.com/u/grinkingr3yr6z)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2024, 4:48am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652/5 "2024-08-31T04:48:17Z")
Oh!! I just found the answer, I think. Got a good hit on the “related topics” at the bottom this time around. No idea why it didn’t show this one up earlier lol. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/4/1/41315b6495c56e9c12ba5b199604f0e229e116b1.png) From [Writting to Google Sheets seems to be unreliable](https://community.thunkable.com/t/writting-to-google-sheets-seems-to-be-unreliable/2973797) ---
**Author:** ![grinkingr3yr6z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@grinkingr3yr6z](https://community.thunkable.com/u/grinkingr3yr6z)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2024, 5:20am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652/6 "2024-08-31T05:20:57Z")
Worked around it this way - check to see if there’s an entry in the table… if there is, update it. If there isn’t, create it: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/4/d/4dd2c65d48d0709ff51087fece330b56b347f1fc.png) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/0/f/0f59f292712368bce16ff80133ae10de8a6f27e8.png) [@system](https://community.thunkable.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2024, 5:21am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/failing-to-write-to-a-specific-cell-in-a-google-sheets-data-source/3167652/7 "2024-11-29T05:21:45Z")
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