Schedule & Send Emails Addon FAQ

Please note: You can't save your files to Google Drive without scheduling your reports because you need to specify when the saving should happen.

>> Get more details in tutorial.

Export Settings

Is it possible to give PDF files an own filename?

You can re-name your file sheets (PDF, XLSX, ODS, CSV) as desired:

>> Get more details in tutorial.

Can I send only values (instead of formulas) with XLSX files?

Yes, there is a work around for that:

Simply create a new sheet, use the =FILTER formula to reference your values and specify the first column of your referenced area as filter so it will always be true.
For example:
=FILTER('Sheet 1'!A1:F99;'Sheet 1'!A1:A99='Sheet 1'!A1:A99)
The exported excel file will still contain dummy formulas, but it will keep the values even if referenced sheets are missing.

Alternatively just use CSV as export format, CSV does not contain any formulas and can be opened with Excel.

How can I only export new rows or new entries from today?

The addon can't filter or alter your spreadsheet's data. But you can simply use the =FILTER formula to filter your data to only include rows from today.

Create a new sheet and input the following formula in Cell A1: =FILTER(A2:A;B2:B<(TODAY());B2:B>(TODAY()-2))
This will show your data from column A with values only from yesterday. The date is in column B.

I recommend you always filter your data on yesterday's date and schedule your emails at 1am. This way you will always have the complete set of data from this day.

Email Settings

Can I send emails to multiple recipients at once?

Yes, for sending your sheets to multiple recipients at once simply add several email addresses in the designated text field and separate them via a comma.

The same applies to CC and BCC field too.

I am trying to send emails to a group email address under G-Suite. Individual emails are working fine but the group email addresses are not working, why?

Unfortunately Google has a limit here in which you might fall: You can send one email message to a maximum of 50 recipients only.

Do you have more than 50 people in your email group?

If yes, it depends on the email provider you currently use how the emails get processed.

If you are using a Gmail-group, Google automatically split the group emails to the different people. For example, when you have 100 people in your group, Google sends 100 emails, one for each person in the group.
If you are using any other provider like GoDaddy, your email is first sent to the group-email address. Second GoDaddy splits the group-email and sends one message to each person within the group. In this case you can send the email to much more than 50 people because the provider take care differently to send messages.

Can I manually send emails (without scheduling)?

Yes, you can send sheets manually to your recipients. This is helpful when you want to test your setup and send a test email to you, before you start sending it to e.g. your boss.

Furthermore this is also helpful when you often need to send Spreadsheet data manually per email but don’t want to export the files and attach it to you email client each time.

Choose the blue “Send Email Now”-Button in the Email Settings for manual sending.

>> Get more details in tutorial.

Can I run a Google Script before the email sends?

Currently not, because I want to make the plugin useable for everybody with very different use cases and I don't want to make it super complicated for other users. That's why it is mainly important to me to only add features which are of value for many people.

But feel free to send me your specific use case via the contact form: On this way I could already help several people with very specific use cases and we always came to the conclusion that the Add-On already worked fine for that.

Can I insert dynamic cell values into the email To-field?

Yes, this feature is available since January 2018 to the To, CC, BCC, email subject and email body field.

You can now dynamically add the current date or any cell value to the above fields.

>> Get more details in tutorial.

Dynamic Date Value

Use the "Current Date" button in the Email settings to include the current date in your subject and email body:

You can manipulate the date by increasing or decreasing the number of days via "+Value" and "-Value".

For example: If you want to get the date from yesterday change the date-variable to the following: {%Date-1%}

Dynamic Cell Value

Use the "Cell Value" button in the Email settings to use the value of any cell in your spreadsheet and insert it to the subject or email body:

The value is taken from the current cursor of your current sheet. For example: I am currently in the "Features/Road Map" sheet and my cursor is on the cell A3. So the value of this cell will be included in my email body.

The great thing of this feature is the dynamic usage: If the cell A3 dynamically changed daily, you will get the daily value of this field in your email body.

Dynamic Use Cases

In which timezone the emails got send?

Timezone is taken from the Spreadsheet settings which you can find in Google Spreadsheet under File → Settings for this spreadsheet → General.

Google-Spreadsheet-Add-On-Timezone-Setting

If your emails are not correctly send, please check your timezone settings first.

For example, if you are in New York and wondering why your emails were sending 6 hours earlier than you requested, it might be because of wrong timezone settings. If this is the case, change the timezone to the correct one.

Can I add images to the email body?

Yes, you can add images to the email body via the image-icon in the editor.

An pop-up opens which looks like this:

To insert an image you have to add the image URL in the source field of the pop-up. You can add any image formats available like .jpeg, .png, .gif.

Please note: The image URL must be publicly available.

Is it possible to send emails only if a cell is filled with data?

Yes, see this FAQ: Can I define a condition to trigger a schedule?

Note: Future versions will have a more convenient method to define custom conditions inside the addon without any workaround.

Schedule Settings

Is it possible to schedule more than one schedule per document?

With the PRO version you can set up as many schedules as you need like in this example:

Is there any way to have a Monday to Friday daily schedule option (weekdays only, not at Saturday and Sunday)?

Yes, this is possible by creating a weekly schedule and selecting only weekdays (blue = selected).

I need to send reports every 4 hours. Is this possible?

Yes, just create an hourly schedule and select "every: 4" to execute it every four hours.

Is it possible to plan the schedule for a specific date in future and send it just once?

Yes, simply select "one-time" in your schedule settings.

>> Get more details in tutorial:

Can I schedule my emails to a specific time like 2:30 pm?

Unfortunately it is not possible to choose a specific time like 2:30 pm to send your reports because Google didn't allow that.

Instead it is possible to choose a specific hour of the day like from 2am to 3am or from 4am to 5am.

Is it possible to have smaller time frames for sending emails?

Unfortunately it is not possible to have smaller time frames for sending daily emails because Google doesn't allow that.

Instead it is possible to choose a specific hour of the day like from 2am to 3am or from 4am to 5am.

How can I disable the automatic scheduling?

To disable scheduling for one specific person, delete this person from the email addresses field. Save and schedule your settings again.

To disable scheduling for all recipients, click on the “Disable Schedule” button. You will be noticed that scheduling is disabled via a red bar at the top of the add-on.

>> Get more details in tutorial.

Where can I see and manage my scheduled emails on each spreadsheet?

Currently there is no further user interface to manage all email schedules on all your spreadsheets.

This must be done individually for each of your Spreadsheets.

Can I schedule an export whenever a change is made in a sheet?

Yes and no. You can't send an email every time a change is made - this could lead to hundrets of emails, which in turn would quickly hit the email limit.

It makes much more sense to schedule an export every hour (or once a day) but ONLY if changes are made. This is possible by using a custom condition. This condition could for example check if there are any new rows with yesterdays date, otherwise the schedule wouldn't be executed. Details on custom conditions are explained in the next FAQ:

Can I schedule emails every time a new Google Forms response is added?

Not immediately as this would probably send too many emails and hit the daily email limit. But you can use an hourly schedule and only send if new form responses are added to your sheet. Have a look at the next FAQ for more details: Can I define a custom condition to trigger a schedule?

Can I define a custom condition to trigger a schedule?

Currently there is no option for a conditional schedule.

BUT there is a very handy work around which is even better: Use a dynamic cell value as your recipient and create your own condition if the schedule will be sent or not:

Create a new sheet in your spreadsheet file called "schedule-conditions"
Create your condition, for example only send the schedule if cell B1 in Sheet1 is not empty: 'Sheet1'!B1=""
Insert an IF formula in cell A1 of "schedule-conditions": IF([your condition];"[recipient if condition is true]";"[recipient if condition is false]")
1. The first parameter is your condition
2. The second parameter are your recipients if the condition is true, or no recipient if you just add empty quotations marks.
3. The third parameter are your recipients if the condition is false. Make sure you add quotation marks before and after it.
The full formula in cell A1 could be: IF('Sheet1'!B1="";"";"myrecipient@example.com")
1. The condition checks if Sheet1:B1 is empty, if yes, send the scheduled email to nobody (no email address), if not, send it to myrecipient@example.com
Finally add a dynamic cell value in your email settings: {%'schedule-conditions'!A1%}
Add a time schedule to check your condition e.g. daily.

In this example the addon checks daily if the cell Sheet1!B1 is empty and will either send the email to nobody (=will not send any email) or if the cell is not empty to myrecipient@example.com.

Errors

drive.google.com refused to connect

If you get the error "drive.google.com refused to connect" you are probably logged in with multiple Google accounts in one browser. In this case please log out from all Google accounts and log in with only one account. You can also use an incognito window to check if this solves the issue.

Sadly this is a known bug from Google which causes addons to use the wrong Google account and therefore fail to load. You can star this issue at Google's bug tracker.

After saving the schedule, the loading icon didn’t stop loading. What can I do?

Please try to use the Schedule & Send Email Add-On in another spreadsheet first.

1) If there is the same issue, please try to de-install and re-install the plugin again.

If this also doesn't help, have a look in your developer console and send me the error message (screenshot or text or both) via my contact form. I will then have a more detailed look on that. You will find the developer console in Google Chrome browser while pressing F12: A pop up opens where you can navigate to the second tab called "Console". Refresh your site with F5 and have a look on the error message which appears there.

2) If the Add-On works in another Spreadsheet but not in your required, please find the hidden sheet “data-analyticskiste-emailschedule” at the bottom of your Spreadsheet, next to the first sheet name, as you can see in the following screenshot:

Open the sheet to unhide it and delete it afterwards.

Save your Email schedule again: The Add-On settings will be reset and should work now.

If not, go further with the first step above.

I can not open the addon, the loading icon spins forever.

This might be because you are logged in with multiple Google accounts in your browser.

Currently there is a bug by Google which confuses Google addons which account to use (technical details can be found here: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/69270374 )

Just log out from all your accounts, log in with only the account you want to use the plugin with and try it again.

The best way to keep logged in with multiple Google accounts is to use profiles in Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2364824

I can not open the schedule settings, the loading icon spins forever.

If you only see a loading icon after you select "Edit Schedule Settings", you will have to reset your timezone settings.

Just go to Files / Spreadsheet settings / time zone and select a different time zone. Click save and open the time zone settings again. Now select your correct time zone according to your country and save again.

It will take up to one hour until the changes have any effect. Afterwards your schedule settings will work again.

I lost my settings. Can I restore them?

Yes, all your settings are saved in a hidden sheet called "data-analyticskiste-emailschedule" starting in column P:

Use the Version History of Google Sheets to get all your versions available.

To do this: Select your settings sheet and go in the menu to File --> Version History --> Show Version History.

You will find all your old versions of your settings.

Just copy the content of the sheet, close the version history (Do not restore it! It will restore all sheets.) and paste the content in your settings sheet again.

Now just refresh your browser and open "Manage Schedules" again.

Which spreadsheet is sending my emails? I lost track of my schedules.

If one of your spreadsheets is still sending emails, but you can't remember in which file you configured your schedule, you can find the file with this instructions:

Have a look at the source code of the email you received.
Scroll down to the bottom and search for "spreadsheet-id".
There will be a HTML code which includes the ID of the sending spreadsheet. It will look like this:

<span id='spreadsheet-id' class='1eFd5_X9xxxC-BgY3vjoYx38a3444i7oG_jacc_dssyp-YVYR2o'>&nbsp;</span>

Append the bold highlighted ID to this URL: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eFd5_X9xxxC-BgY3vjoYx38a3444i7oG_jacc_dssyp-YVYR2o will open the sending spreadsheet file in this example.

PRO

Can I transfer my PRO license to another account later?

Yes, you can transfer your license to to another account if you switch your address or if your colleague continues to manage your schedules.

Just send me a support request with the old and new Google Account Address and I will transfer it for you: Contact Support

Didn't get an answer?

Can't find an answer in the above FAQ list? Write me via my contact form.