Use this article before you make a large or risky change. It explains the safety rules for mass updates, mass deletes, and custom data tasks, including what Rhythm refuses before a run starts, what limits a run, what Rhythm does not protect you from, and what cannot be undone.
These tools work best for straightforward loads, such as changing existing values or adding records in one pass. They are not the right tool for conditional inserts, conditional updates, or creating several related records together, so plan a different approach for that work.
Refused Before Anything Runs
| Rule | When you find out | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| The record type must support bulk operations. Each application decides which record types support them, so there is no fixed list. | At the preview step, after you set up the change | The preview error card, Unable to preview import, with a message that the record type "does not yet support bulk data operations" |
| The method you choose must have the matching input: a file, at least one ID, or an expression | Step 1 | Next stays disabled |
| A mass update must include at least one field | The field step | Next stays disabled, and the field list reads You have not selected any fields to update. Please select at least one field to continue. |
| You must acknowledge the preview | The preview step | The commit button stays disabled until you tick the acknowledgement |
| If you ask for the results email, you must enter an email address | The preview step | Please enter an appropriate value for Completion Email. |
Document entitlements are one record type that does not yet support bulk data operations. Rhythm is adding support for more record types over time.
Warning
Custom Data Tasks imports are not available to every user in all cases. If the first record-type screen appears but you cannot continue past it, ask an administrator to confirm that your account has permission to import records. The screen can appear even when you cannot complete the import. Whether the Import Records option appears can also depend on whether it has been turned on for your account, so ask Support if you expect to see it and do not.
Refused Inside the Run
Rhythm runs these checks after you start the operation but before it changes records. If any check fails, Rhythm stops the run and leaves every record unchanged.
| Rule | Message |
|---|---|
The file must end in .csv, .xls, or .xlsx | "Invalid file extension, unable to determine file type" |
| Rhythm must be able to open the file without signing in | "Unable to read file" |
| The file must contain data | "The specified file is empty" |
| An ID in a file cannot appear more than once | "The source file has n row(s) with duplicate identifiers. Please make sure all identifiers are unique." |
| Every ID in a file must have a value | "n records found where the column column had no value; unable to ascertain IDs for these records" |
| The record type must be stored in a way bulk selection can read. Record types with one settings record for each Rhythm account cannot be selected | A message that the record type's storage is not supported for bulk data operations |
Rhythm checks files for duplicate IDs, but it does not check a pasted list of IDs for duplicates.
Limits
| Limit | Value | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Record types per operation | One | Change contacts and memberships in two separate operations |
| Run time | Fifteen minutes for a preview, and fifteen minutes for a run. A run's time includes selecting the records, working out the changes, and applying them | Very large selections may not finish. Records written before the limit remain written, and the rest are untouched |
| Batch size | One hundred records per batch, up to ten batches at a time | If the owning application rejects a whole batch, Rhythm does not retry it. The records in that batch are reported as errors |
| Spreadsheet sheets | First sheet only | Rhythm ignores all other sheets |
| Spreadsheet rows | Reading stops at the first row with an empty column A | Later rows are ignored, even if they have data |
| Expressions | Every record of the type is still read | An expression narrows which records change, not how long the run takes |
There is no fixed maximum number of records. For very large changes, split the work by file or by a narrower expression so each run finishes well inside the time limit.
Before you run a change against your full population, test it on one or two records and check the result. That confirms the update behaves the way you expect before you commit it more broadly.
What Rhythm Does Not Protect You From
- Records changing between preview and commit. Rhythm works out the records and values again when you commit. With All Records or an expression, the run includes records that match at commit time, even if they were not in the preview.
- Running the same operation twice. Rhythm refuses a second identical request only when it arrives in the same second as the first. Otherwise, it runs again and re-applies every change. In the wizards, selecting Back from the completion step offers the commit again with the acknowledgement still ticked.
- Overlapping operations. Two bulk changes over the same records both run, and each record ends with whichever change reached it last.
- Other people's edits during the run. If someone edits a record while the run is in progress, the bulk operation overwrites that edit.
- Business logic that runs on every save. If your account has logic attached broadly to a record type's save event, a bulk change can trigger that logic just as an ordinary save would. It can also overwrite values the logic stamped when the record was created. This applies to more than mass update tools: scripts, publishing changes, portal edits, and console edits can all trigger the same logic. If a value should be set once and then left alone, protect it with a creation-only guard rather than relying on nobody editing the record in bulk.
- Expression mistakes. If an expression fails for a record, Rhythm leaves that record out without showing an error. The expression box shows This expression is valid. for any text, so check the preview's row count.
- Blank values. A blank fixed value, or a blank cell in a mapped column, clears the field.
- A run that stops early. If a run hits its time limit or an unexpected error, it ends without a results spreadsheet or email. The completion step may show missing or partial counts, and records written before the run stopped stay written.
Nothing Can Be Undone
Rhythm cannot reverse a completed mass update, mass delete, or custom data task. The mass delete wizard warns you that deletion is permanent. The mass update wizard does not warn you, but the update is just as permanent.
- Updates: The preview's Old columns are the only record of prior values. If you kept the preview and no one has changed those records since, you can restore those values by hand with a new file-driven mass update. Records that changed again after the preview will not restore cleanly from it.
- Deletes: Deleted records cannot be restored from the spreadsheets because they hold only IDs and names.
- Bundled imports: If records were loaded as part of one large implementation import package, you cannot pull just one record type back out of it. For example, if inventory records were loaded alongside other data in the same package, the only rollback option is the entire import, not the inventory records alone.
The audit history keeps each record's earlier versions, so you can look up what a record held before. See Audit History: What Is Recorded and How to View It.
Warning
Before any change you might want to reverse, download the preview and keep it. A later preview or run of the same record type on the same day replaces the file.