I have two boards connected.
When Board A item status changed to Approved, a new item is created on Board B so the team can start doing work. The items are connected and a mirror column is setup on Board A to mirror the item status of Board B.
However, when the item status of Board B changes, I want the item status of Board A to update automatically. How do I do that?
I’ve tried looking through the Automation Templates and creating a New Workflow but I can’t figure it out.
When you go into the automation center, you’ll use the ‘connected & mirror columns’ section on the left. Then you’ll want the 3rd one ‘when status changes to X, change another status to Y’
Desiree - www.thecleverclovers.com
Hello @sarah.thornburg
You’re super close. The key detail is that Mirror columns are read only, so they can’t update Board A.
To sync the status back, set an automation on Board B that updates the connected item’s Status on Board A (using the Connect Boards column).
If you don’t see a recipe like “When status changes, change status in connected item”, then cross board status updates aren’t available on your plan, and you’ll need a workaround like Make or Zapier to push the update back.
If you’d like hands-on help or want us to walk through this live, you can book a 1:1 paid 60-minute strategy session with our team here:
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Hi @sarah.thornburg
This can be achieved using Make.
You can set up Make to watch for status changes on Board B, and when the status updates, Make will automatically find the connected item on Board A and update its status to match.
Since mirror columns are read-only, they can’t trigger automations directly. Make works around this by reading the connection between the boards and updating the actual status column on Board A, keeping both boards in sync automatically.
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hi @sarah.thornburg !
One thing that helps a lot here is Time in Status. Even if you rely on cross-board automations, it gives you clear visibility into when each status actually changed on both boards and whether anything is lagging or not syncing as expected. That makes debugging and validating these chained workflows much easier.
There’s a 14-day trial, and happy to walk through the setup on a quick demo if helpful.
Hi Sarah,
I totally understand the frustration — mirror columns are read-only, so they can reflect data but cannot push changes back to the source board. This is a very common limitation people run into.
There is an app called “Same Item Multiple Boards” that handles exactly this — it creates a true two-way sync between boards, so when the status on Board B changes to “Done,” Board A updates automatically (and vice versa). No need for complex workarounds.
You can see how it works here:https://sameitem.com
