Trigger Re-calculation of Calculated Column Without Checking Document Out

Question

I have a SharePoint Document Library that holds a bunch of Documents. I need to check the document out in order to edit anything on it including metadata (so it seems).

I have two calculated columns.

One populates a number, referring to the number of days before the document is due for review. It gets this from the Next Review Date column and does some math. 0 indicates the document is overdue.

The second column checks the first column and populates text labels for different levels of being due. (60 days out, 30 days out, 7 days out, and overdue).

One solution was to run a Power Automate flow every day and make a small modification to make the column recalculate, but this does not work without checking the doc out. If I do this, then it will increment by 1 major version every day, and I cannot have that.

I tried using REST API to modify the Description of the Days Before Due column in order to make it recalculate, but it was giving me the same issue of needing to check it out.

How can I create some dynamic alerts that send emails out on the 60,30, and 7 days, without being able to have working calculated columns? This SharePoint oversight is somewhat lame in that it does not update automatically.

How else could I do this?

Answer 1

Hi @Inhoff, Christopher ,

Thank you for posting in this community.

You're encountering a common limitation in SharePoint: calculated columns don't update automatically unless the item is edited. This behavior can hinder dynamic alerts based on dates, as the calculated columns won't recalculate without manual intervention. To implement dynamic alerts without relying on calculated columns, consider the following approach using Power Automate. But you mentioned that if you did that, it would increment a major version every day.

Unfortunately, There is no better way to accomplish it at the moment.  I recommend you give suggestion in the feedback portal and help to make improvements. Many features of current products are designed and upgraded based on customers’ feedback.

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