My new app has no data — where did my rows go?
Updated Aug 9, 2026
Your data is safe, and nothing went wrong. A brand-new app always starts empty — here is why, and the two ways to fill it.
Why the app starts empty
Sheetward treats your workbook as a blueprint — a design specification, like an architect's drawing. It reads your sheets to work out your forms, field names, data types, dropdown lists and rules. The cell values are only samples. Sheetward looks at them to guess each field's type: a column of dates reads as a date field, and amounts formatted as money read as currency. They are not loaded as records.
| What's in your workbook | What Sheetward does with it |
|---|---|
| Sheet layout, headings, field names | Becomes your app's forms and fields |
| Dropdown lists and rules | Becomes the app's pick lists and checks |
| Cell values (the rows themselves) | Used only as samples to guess each field's type — never loaded as records |
The app you get matches your workbook's design, but its record list starts at zero. Think of a fresh expense-claim pad with no claims filed yet.
Two ways to add your data
| Approach | Best when | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Type records in with a form | You have a handful of entries, or new ones arrive day by day | Transaction Data |
| Load a file in one go | You have existing rows to bring across | Import |
Enter records one at a time
- Open the app and go to Transaction Data, then select the form.
- Enter values and check for errors.
- Click Create Record.
- Repeat for each new record.
Load your existing rows in one go
- Open the app and go to Import.
- Upload a workbook (or CSV) whose columns match the form's fields.
- Review the preview and confirm.
Good to know
- If your app defines a key (and optional sub-key), importing the same key again updates that record instead of creating a duplicate. That means you can re-import a corrected file without doubling up.
- Import needs the file's columns to match the form's fields; check the preview before you confirm.