BUG? - API-created timeline items triggered automation, now 3,466 items undeletable

Platform discussions
1

Documentation states: “Timeline items created via the API won’t trigger automations that run when a new E&A timeline item is created.”

However, my automation DID trigger during a CRM migration. The items created during those automation runs (using shortLivedToken) are now:

  • Undeletable via API (UNAUTHORIZED)

  • Undeletable via UI

  • Unreadable via API

I’ve tried personal API tokens, admin tokens, and app OAuth tokens. Nothing works. Support ticket submitted but no response.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there any way to delete these items, or does this require Monday.com engineering?

2

Hello @LisaA Yes this has come up before and unfortunately it usually requires intervention from Monday engineering.

What is likely happening is that those E and A timeline items were created by an automation execution context tied to a short lived token that no longer has a valid owner. Even though the documentation says API created items do not trigger automations there are known edge cases during migrations and bulk operations where automations still fire. When that happens the resulting timeline items can end up in a corrupted permission state.

That explains all three symptoms you are seeing. Unauthorized on delete via API. Not visible or editable in the UI. Unreadable via API regardless of token type. Admin and app tokens still respect internal ownership rules for timeline items so they cannot override this state.

There is no supported self service way to delete or repair these items. They live in an internal audit layer that only Monday engineers can modify. Support is the correct path and they will need to escalate it to engineering to run a backend cleanup or reassignment.

When they respond be sure to include
The board ID
Item IDs affected
Approximate timestamps
Confirmation that the items were created by an automation during migration
That short lived tokens were used at the time

In the meantime the only workaround is to ignore the entries or recreate the affected items if the noise is blocking users.

You are not doing anything wrong and this is not something you can fix with a different token or permission level.

Dr. Tanvi Sachar
Monday Certified Partner, Monday Wizard

3

Hello, @drtanvisachar E-ZPass Delaware

You made some solid points, and I appreciate you taking the time to break everything down so clearly. Thanks for making this information available!

4

Hello @LisaA Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad the explanation was helpful and clarified what’s going on. Hopefully support can get this escalated quickly and resolved on their end. If anything new comes up or you need help framing the follow up with them just let me know.

5

Hi @LisaA If you ever run into issues like this in the future or need guidance around Monday.com migrations, automations, or APIs, feel free to reach out to the team at monday wizard. We’re always happy to help.