How to Find and Remove Duplicate Rows in Smartsheet
Smartsheet has no built-in "remove duplicates" button, so duplicate rows tend to pile up quietly and inflate counts, reports and rollups. The standard manual fix is a helper column with a COUNTIF formula; here is how to set it up, where it gets tedious, and the automatic alternative.
Flag duplicates with a COUNTIF helper column
Add a new column (call it "Duplicate?") and use COUNTIF to count how often each row's key value appears in its column. For a sheet keyed on an Order ID column:
- Insert a helper column next to your data.
- In its first cell enter:
=IF(COUNTIF([Order ID]:[Order ID], [Order ID]@row) > 1, "Duplicate", "Unique") - Drag-fill the formula down the column (or convert it to a column formula so new rows inherit it).
- Create a filter where the helper column equals "Duplicate" to see every duplicated row together.
- Review the filtered rows and delete the copies you don't want to keep.
Where the manual method gets painful
The formula flags every copy — including the one you want to keep — so you still have to eyeball each group and decide which row survives before deleting the rest by hand.
If a duplicate is defined by several columns together (say Name + Email), you need COUNTIFS or a concatenated helper column, and the formula grows accordingly. And because the helper column is a permanent fixture, the cleanup becomes a recurring manual chore every time new rows arrive.
Remove duplicates automatically
Our Deduplicate tool does the whole loop in one pass: you pick the sheet and the columns that define a match, it finds the duplicate rows, keeps the first occurrence, and shows you exactly which rows would be deleted before anything is removed. No helper columns, no formulas, and it is just as fast the tenth time as the first.
Do it in one pass instead
Find and delete duplicate rows across your Smartsheets automatically, with a preview before anything is removed. Keep reports and rollups clean.
Try Deduplicate FreeFrequently asked questions
Does Smartsheet have a built-in remove-duplicates feature?
No. The grid has no native dedupe button — the common workaround is a helper column with a COUNTIF formula, followed by filtering and deleting rows by hand, or using a bulk tool that automates the pass.
How do I find duplicates across multiple columns?
With formulas you need COUNTIFS across each column, or a helper column that concatenates the values before counting. A dedupe tool lets you simply tick the columns that define a match.
How do I keep one copy and delete the rest?
A COUNTIF helper flags every copy including the original, so manually you must pick survivors yourself. The Deduplicate tool keeps the first occurrence of each group automatically and previews exactly which rows will be removed.