My order tracking spreadsheet crashed mid-month and I lost 47 shipment statuses

This happened last Thursday around 2pm. I had this big Google Sheet tracking all our incoming stock from three different vendors. I got lazy and stopped using a proper database tool cause the sheet was working fine for like 8 months. Then it just froze up and when I refreshed it, half the rows with delivery dates and tracking numbers were gone. I spent the whole afternoon digging through old emails to piece back what was coming in. Found out later there's a cell limit in Sheets I hit. Has anyone else had to rebuild a tracking system from scratch after a crash like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_clark1mo ago

So you're saying you spent 8 months using a free spreadsheet tool for mission critical supply chain data and you're surprised it broke? That's not a crash, that's you getting what you paid for. Databases exist for a reason, and ignoring the warning signs for almost a year is just poor planning.

jenny5801mo ago

Oh man, I feel your pain so much. I lost 23 rows from my own vendor tracker back in March when I accidentally hit ctrl+z too many times in Google Sheets and it broke. The cell limit thing is real sneaky too because it doesn't warn you until you are already in trouble. What worked for me was switching to Airtable's free tier just for the basics, since it handles way more rows and has automatic backups every hour. I also set up a simple weekly export to a local file on my desktop, just a plain CSV, so even if the online tool glitches I have something to fall back on. It took me a weekend to rebuild but now I feel way less stressed about losing everything again.