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Workflows

Smartsheet Enable or Disable All Workflows

Smartsheet allows automations to be disabled at the sheet level — but only individually, one workflow at a time. Sheets that use many automations for notifications, approvals, and row updates require opening each workflow separately to change its enabled state, which becomes a repetitive and error-prone process on sheets with ten or more automations.

Without Grid Tools

The daily workaround

Opening each workflow to disable it
Disabling automations before handing a sheet off to another team or archiving it requires opening every workflow and changing its state individually.
Inconsistent disabled states across workflows
When disabling workflows manually, it is easy to miss one, leaving an automation running on a sheet that is supposed to be inactive.
Same effort to re-enable later
Re-enabling all automations after maintenance requires reopening and toggling each workflow again — the process is identical in both directions.
Time cost scales with automation count
A sheet with twenty workflows requires twenty separate open-toggle-save operations just to change the enabled state of all of them.
Screenshot: Workflow list with many automations in various states
Workflow list with many automations in various enabled states
Screenshot: Opening each workflow to locate the enabled toggle
Opening each workflow individually to locate the enabled toggle
Screenshot: Repeating the process across every workflow on the sheet
Repeating the same open-and-toggle process across every workflow

With Grid Tools

How Grid Tools handles it

Enable all workflows with one action
Grid Tools adds a bulk enable control that sets every workflow on the sheet to enabled in a single operation.
Disable all workflows with one action
A matching bulk disable control turns off every automation on the sheet at once, with no individual toggles required.
Consistent state across all automations
Bulk operations apply to every workflow simultaneously, eliminating the risk of accidentally leaving one in a different state.
Faster sheet maintenance and handoffs
Disabling or re-enabling all automations as part of a sheet handoff, archive operation, or maintenance window takes one step instead of one per workflow.
Screenshot: Grid Tools bulk enable-disable controls in the workflow list
Grid Tools bulk enable-disable controls in the workflow list
Screenshot: All workflows set to disabled in a single operation
All workflows set to disabled in a single operation
Screenshot: Workflow list after bulk enable — all automations active
Workflow list after bulk enable — all automations active

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between disabling and deactivating a Smartsheet workflow?

In Smartsheet, 'enabled/disabled' is a sheet-level state that controls whether a workflow is available to run. 'Active/inactive' controls whether an individual workflow is currently running when triggered. Grid Tools provides separate bulk controls for both states.

Does Smartsheet have a bulk enable or disable option for workflows?

No. Smartsheet requires each workflow to be opened individually and its enabled state changed one at a time. There is no native bulk toggle in the workflow list.

When would I want to disable all workflows instead of deactivating them?

Disabling prevents workflows from being triggered or running at all. Deactivating keeps them configured but paused. Use disable when you want to hand off or archive a sheet and ensure no automations fire under any circumstances.

Will bulk disable affect automations that were already disabled before I ran it?

All workflows are set to disabled. Workflows already in that state remain unchanged. When you bulk enable, all workflows — including those previously disabled — are set to enabled, so review the list if some should remain disabled.

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