# Start stopwatch and leave it running while visiting other tabs
**URL:** https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061
**Category:** Ask for Help
**Created:** [November 28, 2020, 2:51pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061 "2020-11-28T14:51:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Todd\_Lichtenwalter](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Todd_Lichtenwalter)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 2:51pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/1 "2020-11-28T14:51:47Z")
My students will find it more practical if I am able to set the stopwatch to run in the background while they use the other tabs in the app. As it is, once they start the stopwatch, they are blocked from using the other features of the app. Most of the time this will make using the stopwatch a no go since they are waiting several minutes and need to get other work done. Is there a way to alter things so that this can be overcome?
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/2 "2020-11-28T16:54:19Z")
How is it blocking them from using the app? I have a stopwatch on one tab, can start it, and still navigate around the app while it’s running. All it’s doing is writing the start time and/or duration to the sheet so the stopwatch knows where it’s at while counting. The stopwatch is just performing a realtime calculation based on that start time and duration set in the columns. It just makes that calculation look pretty with the stopwatch display and realtime count.
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### Author:  [@Todd\_Lichtenwalter](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Todd_Lichtenwalter)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/3 "2020-11-28T17:00:08Z")
Hmm, that is not working for me… but let me login and try again. Last night it was not working but last night some weird things were happening with Glide- could hav been my internet connection or Glide team doing some behind the scenes work…
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### Author:  [@Todd\_Lichtenwalter](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Todd_Lichtenwalter)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/4 "2020-11-28T17:03:48Z")
Still getting the same issue. I think now looking at it fresh, my problem may be that I am launching the stopwatch from a form button and it is in the form until I click submit. I used the first stopwatch demo app that Glide released last week because it allows my students to log their timings. I think I will need to make a second stopwatch component elsewhere for instances where the timer needs to be left to run in the background.
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### Author:  [@Todd\_Lichtenwalter](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Todd_Lichtenwalter)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/5 "2020-11-28T17:06:24Z")
Yep, that was it. Problem solved- I will add a second stopwatch component elsewhere for those scenarios. Thanks Jeff
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/6 "2020-11-28T17:21:10Z")
If you still need the stopwatch values in a form later, you can have the stopwatch outside of the form, run it, then pull the stopwatch values in through the column value components in the form.
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### Author:  [@Todd\_Lichtenwalter](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Todd_Lichtenwalter)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/7 "2020-11-28T17:24:24Z")
Oooohh, thanks a great tip, thank you!
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### Author:  [@POWH\_RPS](https://community.glideapps.com/u/POWH_RPS)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 1:56am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/8 "2020-12-03T01:56:56Z")
Hi all,
I have the same problem @Todd_Lichtenwalter was having. I have two stopwatches implemented in a tab (detailed layout) and, as soon as I hit “back” to work on other tabs, the counts disappear.
I tried to create a tab dedicated to stopwatches, but it behaves the same (as I change tab, stopwatches reset to zero).
Is there a solution for it? Shouldn’t the stopwatch only pause/reset when the pause/reset buttons are tapped?
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 2:06am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/9 "2020-12-03T02:06:57Z")
Does the start time stay in the sheet after you start the stopwatch and change tabs? Are you sure that your stopwatch is not inside of a form?
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### Author:  [@POWH\_RPS](https://community.glideapps.com/u/POWH_RPS)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/10 "2020-12-03T02:30:23Z")
Actually I have noticed it does not write any values in the table. I had two stopwatches, now I only have put one. In the related sheet tab, I have two columns: Stopwatch and duration. they have been edited in glide as “time” and “number”.
Am I doing something wrong on the table itself?
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 2:44am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/11 "2020-12-03T02:44:18Z")
Is your stopwatch inside of a form or in a details screen?
Do you have the stopwatch set to fill those columns you created?
Does your screen have a row that it is attaching to, so it can update those columns in that row?
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### Author:  [@POWH\_RPS](https://community.glideapps.com/u/POWH_RPS)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/12 "2020-12-03T03:04:51Z")
I am not sure I fully understand, I’ll try.
the stopwatch is in a details (layout) screen, added as component.
The referring Google sheet tab only has two values: “Stopwatch” and “duration 1”. These have been recognized by Glide as column headers, and I have set them as “time” and “number”. I do not know what you mean by “speedy set”
there are still no row values in the Google sheet or in the glide editor.
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/13 "2020-12-03T03:10:12Z")
Yeah, I tend to fat finger my words. I fixed my comments.
I think the problem is that you don’t have any rows. Glide can’t update a row that doesn’t exist. I would add another column heading (can be anything) and put something in row 2 of the sheet for that column. Your detail screen is currently not linked to row and doing this will give it a row to update.
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### Author:  [@POWH\_RPS](https://community.glideapps.com/u/POWH_RPS)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 5:41am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/14 "2020-12-03T05:41:47Z")
Thanks, I fixed the issue.
I needed to create a new tab (using the Glide editor), properly set the type of columns (“time” and “number”), put on a number on the first row (1 works ok) and then start using the stopwatch.
At that point, the count will continue also if I browse on other tabs.
I created 2 stopwatches now (2 sets of columns), and they both work as they should (independently).
I think the key fix was to create a new tab using the Glide editor, but I might be wrong…
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 5:48am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/start-stopwatch-and-leave-it-running-while-visiting-other-tabs/19061/15 "2020-12-03T05:48:58Z")
The key is having a row to update. Creating a new tab shouldn’t have made the difference, but once you added data manually to create the first row, then glide had a row to update and write values to.