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When adding a new column in Glide while using third-party data sources such as Airtable, or Excel, you may notice that the User-Specific setting is automatically enabled and cannot be turned off. This behavior is intentional and occurs due to how these external data sources interact with Glide’s API.
💡 Important Note: This issue mainly affects Airtable and Excel. In Google Sheets, you can add columns within Glide without the User-Specific setting being automatically enabled.
Why Does This Happen?
Glide connects to external data sources through APIs, but these platforms have limitations when handling data updates from third-party applications. Unlike Glide Tables, which natively support per-user data, Airtable and Excel do not have built-in row-level user-specific data storage.
How to Create a Non-User-Specific Column
If you need a standard (non-user-specific) column, you must first add the column manually in your external data source (Airtable, or Excel). Once added, it will appear as a regular column when synced with Glide.
Steps to Add a Non-User-Specific Column:
Open Airtable or Excel, where your Glide app is connected.
Manually add a new column in the external data source.
Go back to Glide’s Data Editor and refresh or sync the data.
The newly created column will now be available without user-specific settings.
Handling Image Columns
If you need an image column, you don’t need a specific image-type column. Since Glide stores images as URLs, you can simply use a text column to store these links. When you upload an image in Glide, it is converted into a URL and saved in the text column, allowing it to function as an image column.