function today() does not update to todays date on Catalina computer but works OK with same file on Mojave computer.

Question

function today() does not update to todays date on Catalina computer but works OK with same file on Mojave computer.

I have a spreadsheet in Numbers (version 10.0 (6748)) where I calculate the "age" of my invoices. It makes the calc using the DATEDIF function between one cell with my invoice origin date and a second cell with the function TODAY(). If I load this spreadsheet up on my laptop running Catalina (10.15.4), the value in the cell with TODAY() does not update to todays date and therefore the invoice "age" is incorrect. When I load the same spreadsheet on my iMac running Mojave (10.14.6) the date updates to todays date as expected and the invoice "age" is correctly calculated.

I am running the same exact version of Numbers on both computers.

I tried replacing the function TODAY() with NOW() and I get the same results.

Is there an ability in Numbers 10.0 to stop updating calcs? I can not find any info on this. I know Excel can do manually only calcs but I didn't think Numbers could.

Is there maybe a bug in Numbers in how it handles these two date functions?

Thanks for your help.

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on May 22, 2020 3:12 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Walt Robinson Author

Level 1

4 points

May 27, 2020 9:14 AM in response to SGIII

Just wanted to report that I rebuilt the sheet and now all functions update OK, including the TODAY() function. Must have been an issue with the translation of this file from Excel. Even though it looked OK, something was screwy. Thanks for all the help, now all is good.

Regards,

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Answer 2

Badunit

Level 7

28,324 points

May 22, 2020 5:41 PM in response to Walt Robinson

I had not noticed. I just created a test document with the TODAY and NOW functions and I will check it after a day to see. The NOW function is updating the time everytime I open the document and whenever I make any changes to it. I cannot verify the Today function until tomorrow at the earliest. I have Catalina 10.15.4 and Numbers 10.0 (6748).

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Answer 3

May 23, 2020 5:04 AM in response to Badunit

Thanks for that check. I just opened my spreadsheet in my Catalina computer and TODAY() showed last Tuesday. I then closed it and opened the exact same spreadsheet (sync'ed with DropBox) in my Mojave computer and TODAY() showed correctly (Saturday). I then saved the file and closed it. After it updated across DropBox I opened that file again in my Catalina computer and TODAY() showed correctly (Saturday).

So, to me it is not doing the calc for TODAY() on my Catalina computer but only showing the last saved value.

Any ideas as to why it might be doing that?

Sorry, I forgot to mention that this spreadsheet was originally made in Excel and then opened and saved in Numbers. Not sure if that makes a difference, however this does seem to be the only spreadsheet that this behaviour happens. I had upgraded to the new version of Excel (needed with Catalina) and it through off all my formatting, so I figured to change the sheet to Numbers as it's more fun to work with anyway. So what could be different with just this spreadsheet? Any ideas would be welcome.

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Answer 4

Jun 9, 2020 9:01 AM in response to Badunit

Same case with me. Catalina and Numbers (Spanish versions) were in a secret plot not to update Today() function on opening or editing a file.

I didn't have Mojave at hand for testing but the imported file from Excel behaved properly on Numbers on my iPad Pro 2018.

My workaround was to create additional sheets in the same spreadsheet, copy data/formulas/etc. and delete the offending sheets.

Problem fixed, mystery solved.

Carlos

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Answer 5

SGIII

Level 8

36,134 points

May 23, 2020 7:57 AM in response to Walt Robinson

I'd suggest:

Putting the document on iCloud Drive instead of Dropbox.
Rebuilding part of the document in Numbers (without exporting from Excel) and seeing if that works.

SG

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