Workfront

DeniseMoore · 7/18/25

The Approvals Widget has switched order so the oldest are on page one.

We would prefer it go back to the way it was -- newest to oldest.

I am an admin and haven't made any purposeful revisions to any setup or layout for this to occur and cannot find a place to change it.

Any ideas?

skyehansen · 7/18/25

I’m currently talking to Adobe about this and they can’t fathom why I want to be able to toggle the sort order. So far my reasoning has been that it is possible to do this everywhere else in the system, and I have also made a recording of the experience of many of our “proof managers’” view (they manage the proof review process) showing a bit about how annoying it is. Without this ability I think we would have to try and set something up in Fusion to remove old approvals but even so, it’s a lot to handle.

I would appreciate hearing your reason for why you need it back the way it was, so I can add it to my own list and continue to fight the good fight. Hope we can help each other.

DeniseMoore · 7/20/25

Interesting. Well, let's just say, I can't fathom why they would think I would want to toggle to the last page to get to the most recent. ; )

I would like it back to the way it was because I appreciate not having to click on other pages to get to the most recent requests for approval. I appreciate the new ones being at the "top" so to speak. Having them on page one let's me more quickly get to these. I also don't like that you can't right click within the widget to open up the task or project or whatever in a different tab. That slows me down as well. Thanks for asking!

skyehansen · 7/20/25

thanks for the response. I’m wondering if you can expand a bit on why you need to see newest first. As you can guess, I got questioned on this as well. I’m not sure if my answer was lame or not (I said the old ones were “there for a reason [the reason for mine being that those are the proofs they are managing rather than the ones they are assigned]”) but I think if you have a reason it would be good to lead with that. Thanks again.

DeniseMoore · 7/21/25

Why did they feel the need to change it? Why would I want to have to scroll through later pages to get the most recent? Here, we have all of our other "inboxes" (even outside of Workfront, like Outlook) set so that the newest request comes to the top of the queue/inbox. And I'm not a proof reviewer, but I'm a task approver. I don't like having to scroll to other pages just to get to the most recent. And those that have both proof reviews and task approvers also like to have the most recent at the top (meaning page 1). Like all of our other "inboxes" of items, we prefer the newest item, request, at the top.

Heather_Kulbacki · 7/22/25

I can't imagine why they think a toggle to sort in the user's preferred order isn't needed, that's an option on most every other widget. If they're going to insist that it show oldest first then there should be an easy (one click) way for the project owner to indicate that approval is no longer needed on that object to remove it from everyone's approval widget. There is no reason for users to have to sort through potentially pages of old approvals that no longer need approval in order to get to the newer, more relevant approvals.

mlemberger · 8/7/25

Because it's much safer to assume that the newer approvals more urgently require or deserve attention. Approvals that have sat for a while are likely in that state because something is holding them there—in our case, often a primary stakeholder that has yet to make a decision.

Why should new approvals be potentially hidden somewhere down the list? Shouldn't stakeholders who have their act together not be offered the opportunity to have their projects move forward in a timely fashion?

MoniqueEvans · 7/21/25

The perfect use case as to why someone would want that is the same one I provided when I asked Jen & Ewan for the Fusion template (see attached) that cleans up approvals. Unfortunately the reality of the situation is that there are a lot of times where someone does not make a decision on an approval and the team moves on with the process, or cancels the project. Seeing a widget with hundreds or maybe thousands of approvals from years ago, results in users thinking something is broken and worse not wanting to adopt the tool.
I have this issue all the time and what's why I requested the Fusion template (still working through cleaning up approvals) this is a quick win for anyone that doesn't have Fusion since there's no auto-remove or filtering option for projects that are complete or dead

DeniseMoore · 7/21/25

I love the idea of being able to toggle...but if not, I would definitely like it set back to the way it was in order for the most current request for approval be on page 1...not page 6. Like other notifications, the most recent is defaulted to be at the top and being on page 1 would be the top of the My Approvals. The pages default back to page 1 and I'm having to move to other pages to get to more recent approvals. There are task approvals (via the approval loop) that I'm a part of, but we all know we (the team) are awaiting on federal or state approval and that sometimes takes time. We can't adjust the duration of the task while it's within the approval loop and now we we have to see those flagging at what I call "the top" of My Approval widget because they are on page 1.
Boo hiss.

Just want the most recent to be like other notifications and default to being "at the top" aka page 1 on the My Approvals widget.

: )

jbarron · 7/22/25

Great discussion - and glad to see some familiar faces in here! I have a fundamental question... why are approvals sticking around for so long without having a decision made on them by the stakeholder? I'd love to help solve that problem as well (getting to the root cause of pages and pages of outstanding approvals) so anything showing up in that list gets actioned quickly. Thoughts?

KierstenKollins · 7/22/25

Hi @jbarron,

Thanks for joining the conversation.

Here's our situation.

We use a 3 stage automated workflow, with reviewers on the 1st stage. We do not allow reviewers to add comments after they deadline has passed - our work moves quickly so we have proof windows of 4 - 8 hrs. When the deadline has already passed and the reviewer missed their chance to review, we have to move on. Which in turn the reviewers have no way to clear their widget and I have to step in and do some locking and archiving to get them to go away. Sometimes after a project is fully completed, they are still stuck on the widget. It has been a huge pain point since we move to the new home not being able to have a filter to take out the late proofs.

For additional context, we set everyone to reviewer and approvers on purpose. Our Traffic team sets up the proofs and will add default groups of users based on what the PM has provided. Different parties are responsible for different pieces of the asset and it's not always clear who is the final approver. This allows us to keep the work moving without deciphering the final approver.

My hope it that Workfront could find a way for these proof to fully drop off the widget once the deadline has passed. Or add a filter to be able to hide Late items. It would make my life a lot easier too as the admin. It's a clunky experience current state.

I have brought this up with Support in the past and threw this out on a recent ask me anything event trying to find a solve. https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/workfront-events/workfront-ama-ask-me-anything-abou...

jbarron · 7/22/25

Great context, thank you Kiersten!

For others, is your use case similar to Kiersten above? So more specific to multi-stage approvals with deadlines passing?

DeniseMoore · 7/23/25

Our situation is mostly related to task approvals and doesn't necessarily involve super old tasks, but lots of them and it is our preference to see the most recent approval need on page one. We don't have super old document approvals or approvals that have moved on without the approval.

I originated this discussion and am glad others are agreeing, but all in all I'm just not following why there was a need for this to change in the first place and why it can't be switched back to the way it was OR have a toggle.

We are wanting to see the most recent at the "top" meaning page one. Just like the notifications are right now. It's the same thing. We don't want to have to scroll to to the last page (even if that's just page 2) to get to the newest one.

That's it, plain and simple.

jbarron · 7/25/25

@DeniseMoore Thank you for clarifying the need for you as far as Task approvals. That is helpful. There are customers that want the oldest first (and obviously many who want newest first), so it sounds like a toggle is going to be the best approach to give both options.

MoniqueEvans · 7/23/25

For me it's very much still the case with single stage approvals. Walk with me as I paint a picture of the chaos...

It's the perfect storm of a high volume of assets + a large number of approvers (not reviewers) on each asset + a short timeline. So there are often times when the decision to move forward has to be made without all 5 individuals approval. Unfortunately this is not a hard and fast rule so setting a "only need X approvers" would not help in this usecase.

We also have the pleasure of being a very meeting heavy business so there are times where approvers will say their feedback in a meeting and not go back to push the button.

Last scenario is we re-org often so there are cases where one person may be the appropriate approver at the start of the project but now has a different role/focus and has moved on.

Ideally in all of these scenarios we would have dedicated project managers who would be maintaining this all behind the scenes but we are not staffed in a way for our project managers to be as hands on.

So the result is literal hundreds of approvals pending in the system that were real and wanted and one time and gone unchecked for one of the many reasons above.

There's also the system limitation of not being able to bulk edit approvals. So as an admin I cannot create a report to select all and delete.

The only fix I've been able to think of is to utilize Fusion to clean this up. Which is how the "Workfront Proof - Change Proof user Role to Read Only and lock Proof upon project closure" template came about.

Being able to clean up the existing mess will help foster better behavior but even with all the best practices in place there are still going to be active projects and proofs that are days, weeks, maybe even months old that approvers will still need to sift through.

Also in a completely different use case, if you are working on a top priority project you want to be able to sort by the newest first so that its at the top of your list and not on page 2 (or more) and you see instantly when it becomes available. Extremely helpful for those who aren't using email notifications.

jbarron · 7/25/25

@MoniqueEvans A perfect storm indeed! Super helpful context as always.

Two thoughts:

Would adding teams possibly help here? (I know Proof doesn't support Teams but Unified Approvals does - just thinking future here). Adding a team to an approval, and whoever the first person is that picks it up makes the decision for the team so it wouldn't display for the team anymore
Could the project manager/coordinator remove folks that are hold ups or hadn't made a decision before the deadline?

I am super interested in solving this, as stakeholders will quickly ignore that approvals widget (or anything that is a little older) because they don't think it's relevant. I'd love to find a solve that only those things showing in their widget are relevant to them and encourage their action

MoniqueEvans · 7/28/25

Love where your head is going with these solutions.

Team approvals might help some other usecases but for what I describe it doesn't. It's part of a larger internal problem where we are simply adding too many cooks in the kitchen. Ideally all 5 people should and would review and make a decision. But eventually we will move forward without Person number 3's input because the other 4 have given enough and the launch is happening with or without the asset. Doesn't mean Person number 3 wasn't needed, they just missed the boat. Similar to if you've ever tried to plan a group trip or a friend hang. If you have that one friend that can never commit, or another friend that sometimes disappear you plan around them instead of cancelling the whole thing because of them. It might not be the same friend every time.

Project Managers should be the ones cleaning this up. But most of our approvals are handled by the Creative themselves and that's not a skillset thats inherently in them. There's also too many active projects with even more assets to focus time away from their main job to have them doing this administrative work. If we were properly staffed (which is probably never truly happen) this wouldn't be as much of an issue.

Giving users the ability to bulk edit (multiple assets across multiple projects) would start to get us there because I could at least give everyone a report they could once a month visit and clean-up. Being able to create automations or even setting up a system-wide timeout rule would greatly help for maintenance; for example if the proof is archived so are all pending approvals. Another option is introducing a "no decision" button for the reviewer/approver so they can close them from their side without making a decision that affects the asset. The last thing that comes to mind won't help approvers but would help requestors is removing pending approvals for inactive users. As I run reports I find that there's thousands of approvals lingering for users that have been deactivated so that clutters the Creative and Project Manager's lists.

Honestly due to the nature of how we work we may always be a hot mess, but sorting by most recent at least gives the appearance that these approvals are all relevant.

I'm happy to meet and show examples and talk through your ideas if you think it will help

Daniel_Clarke · 7/23/25

We have seen this even without the multi-stage approvals. In cases where someone wants the ability to make a decision but its not required for them to their approvals stack up... in this case it aligns with the original request here to have a sort asc/desc so users can just jump into the newest ones they may want to review.

Ideally this aligns with the ability to do two similar asks:

ability to clear out older decisions at the individual approver level
something stronger within the proof / frame.io UI to prompt for a decision (thinking of the pop up on blogs that says "Wait, before you go....". Chasing users for their decision (when they mean to make one) is a frustrating part of this process too.

jbarron · 7/25/25

@Daniel_Clarke That is helpful and those are some great suggestions. I am thinking the toggle is a good path forward, but serves as a bandaid to a larger challenge we need to solve to ensure what is showing is truly relevant. I like your idea of more visibility or a prompt. This will be a good challenge for us to continue to explore.

DeniseMoore · 8/29/25

I really don't consider this resolved. In my case, I'm not talking about document/proof approvals. I'm talking about task approvals. I receive many task approvals a day and would prefer the most recent ones to be on page 1. It is a hassle to have to click to any other page every time I move away or refresh the page. Ugh.