If you've received a message about calculations being disabled due to doc size, learn how to resolve the issue here.
If your doc becomes so large that calculations are no longer performant, this may result in formulas and calculations being temporarily disabled. As your doc approaches the formula calculation limit, you will receive warnings within the doc. Once the limit is exceeded, you will see a message in your doc that states “calculations have been temporarily disabled.” If this is happening to you, then you’re in the right place. This article will explain why this is happening and how you can get calculations re-enabled.
Within this article, you’ll find...
Why are calculations disabled in my doc?
Formulas and calculations may be disabled if your doc has grown to a point where calculations are no longer performant. If you navigate to the Statistics section of your doc (click on the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner, select Doc settings, then select Statistics), you will find helpful information about the quantity of data in your doc. You may also see a Formula calculation limit section (note that this section only becomes visible once your doc is at least 50% of the way to the limit). This section shows you the percentage of available doc space left until you hit the calculation limit.
When 100% of the available space has been used, calculations will be disabled. You will still be able to make edits to your doc, but formulas (and automations) will not run until your doc size is reduced sufficiently.
So why does doc size matter, and how does that relate to calculations? When you access a Coda doc, the full doc is downloaded into your browser cache so that you can work in it even without an internet connection. But the bigger the doc size, the tougher it is for your browser to run it. If the doc grows big enough, it may become too big for your browser to load at all. This is why calculations might be turned off.
Therefore, if calculations have been disabled, the solution is to reduce the size of the doc back down below the size limits. Once the doc is scaled back sufficiently, calculations will be automatically re-enabled. Check out the following section for instructions on how to do this.
Re-enable calculations
In order to automatically re-enable calculations, you must first solve the issue that caused the calculations to be disabled initially. In other words, you will need to reduce the size of your doc down below the formula calculation limit.
Exactly how you downsize your doc will depend on the content of your doc and your specific needs. Often times, removing unnecessary rows, high-volume columns, or tables/views will be the key to downsizing your doc.
You can learn all about managing doc size, including how to start downsizing, in this comprehensive article.
When you receive a message about formulas not calculating, you can click on the View details button to investigate.
This will take you to the Statistics section of your doc settings, where you will see information about how far over the formula calculation limit the doc currently is. Note that you can also access this statistics panel by clicking the three-dot menu in the upper right of your doc, selecting Doc settings, then selecting Statistics. This should give you a sense of how much data you need to remove.
As you downsize your doc by archiving and deleting stale data, the doc will automatically attempt to re-enable calculations. If you've deleted enough data to bring your doc below the limit, the calculations will be successfully re-enabled. If you haven't deleted enough data, you'll see a message suggesting that you delete even more data.
The Formula Calculation Limit section of the statistic panel will reflect the deleted data, and give you a sense of how much more space you need to free up. Continue the process of deleting data until calculations are successfully re-enabled.
FAQs
What does “calculations have been temporarily disabled” mean? What are the implications?
Things can be deleted or added and edits can be made, but Coda will not calculate the results of formulas and automations will not run. If a formula is changed for a column, the values in that column will not be updated to the new results until calculations are turned back on.
If I delete things from my doc with calculations disabled, will those deletions actually happen?
Yes, you can downsize your doc by deleting old rows, unused columns, and even remove things like conditional formatting. These deletions will all take place and help to downsize the doc to a level where calculations can be reenabled.
What does “formula calculation limit” mean?
This is the size limit of a doc up to which we’ve tested and can support formula calculations running efficiently and performantly. Beyond this size, we disable calculations.
Will I receive warnings as my doc is approaching the calculation limit?
Yes - you we will be sure to give you multiple notifications as your doc gets closer and closer to the calculation limit. When your doc is 50% of the way to the limit, the formula calculation limit info will appear in the statistics panel. When your doc is 90% to the limit, you should see a “approaching calculation size limit” in-doc notification. And once your doc has hit 100%, you will see an in-doc message that “calculations have been disabled.”
Are there any other doc limits I should be aware of?
Yes, there are a few different limits to be aware of, including object limits on the Free plan, automation limits, and more. Limits tend to vary depending on what pricing plan you’re subscribed to. Learn all about the various doc limits here.