Automation button on Custom Field stops working after manual change

Giorgio_at1qdf

Hi everyone,
I’m experiencing an issue with a Trello automation related to Custom Fields.

I created a card button that changes a Custom Field value, for example setting it to “In gestione”.

The first time it works correctly: I click the button and the field is updated.

The issue happens after I manually change the field value:

- I click the button and the Custom Field is correctly set to “In gestione”.
- I manually change the value from “In gestione” to “Da gestire”.
- I click the same automation button again to set that Custom Field back to “In gestione”.
- The field is not updated.

So it seems the button only works the first time. After the Custom Field value is changed manually, the automation can no longer change it.

Has anyone experienced this behavior before?
Could this be a Custom Fields automation limitation, a configuration issue, or a bug?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Oleksandr

Hi!

This is a common Butler quirk with dropdown (list-type) custom fields, and there are a few things worth separating out, because "works once then never again" usually points to one of two causes.

The most likely culprit is how Butler overwrites an existing dropdown value. When the field is empty, "set custom field to 'In gestione'" works cleanly. But once the field already holds a value (your manual change to "Da gestire"), Butler's set action on a list-type field can silently fail to overwrite it. The reliable workaround is to make the button clear the field first, then set it:

clear custom field "X", and set custom field "X" to "In gestione"

Adding the clear step before the set resolves this in most cases where overwriting an existing dropdown value doesn't take.

Before assuming it's that, rule out a couple of things:

The second common cause is a UI refresh issue — the value actually does change on the server, but the card front doesn't visually update. Click the button, then reload the board (or close and reopen the card) and check whether "In gestione" is in fact set. If it is, the automation is working and you just have a display lag, not a logic problem.

It's also worth checking the Butler command logs (Butler → Logs, or the activity/usage view) right after you click the button. If the command fired but errored, the log will say so, which tells you whether the button is even running.

Finally, confirm the dropdown option itself wasn't edited or recreated since you built the button. Butler references list options by an internal ID, not by the visible text, so if the "In gestione" option was deleted and re-added (even with the identical name), the button can be pointing at a stale option that no longer matches. If in doubt, open the button config and re-select "In gestione" from the dropdown to re-bind it.

My first bet is the clear-then-set fix — try that and see if the button starts working repeatedly.