Why is my Trello creating lists that I haven’t made?is this a virus?

[Kate Presnell]

My trello keeps adding new lists which I haven’t created. I just deleted one and then it added another one straight away. They’re always animal names. This one says “comfy koala”. Is this a virus in the system? 

[Phil Comelio · Accepted solution]

Both my wife and I are seeing the same behaviour in our separate Trello accounts. Strangely all of the animals appear to be Australian.

[Gabriel Denton · Accepted solution]

The only thing I’ve figured out is that the spontaneously generated animal list “hops” in  when I double click on the title of an existing list. There may be other actions that create this problem, but I’m not sure yet. 

[MadStick]

Ah, you’re right, so it does! So strange.. 🤔😬

[Sam]

Hi. 

In my case, those lists with animal names are triggered whenever I double tap either on the existing list names, blank spaces on the board, add card button, or any of the words you type in your card name field when you create a card. 

[Jane · Accepted solution]

I’m getting it too and never collaborate with anyone on my Trello account. It is freaking me out as you feel it is no longer private. I will move all my lists to a platform that feels more secure if a fix isn’t identified.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Welcome to the atlassian community!

No, what you are seeing is down to another user or script, it is not you, or Trello. It could be a virus on someone's machine but the most likely explation is a script. 

[MadStick]

I’m guessing it’s more likely to be a staff member’s script somewhere, if it’s not a virus/hack from the outside. In Australia by the sounds of it. Ring any bells? Annoyed/mistreated any staff lately? 🤔😬

[Phil Comelio]

@MadStick My suspicion is that it’s some test code that hasn’t been disabled in production.

[MadStick]

That kind of makes sense, except the cycling through different animal names thing is weird isn’t it. Why so many? 🤔

[Phil Comelio]

Maybe they wanted to test scaling multiple columns and want to uniquely identify each column, and I’d guess the developer is Australian. All guesses though, I could be miles out.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I've unaccepted my answer because we've now discovered that Atlassian have added this to some trello clients.

It's not Trello doing it (probably - I can't get any of my trello installs to do it in any of the browsers I use - chrome or firefox based), but it is the client.

[Sam]

Try double tapping on list names/blanks in the recent version of Trello iOS app. 

[Jane]

Unfortunately it is a new feature. I have asked if it can be disabled but got this reply 

“I know it's not the best news, but there isn't a way to disable this feature currently. We've raised this with the development team though, since there has been a bit of confusion about it, and they're planning on either disabling it or revamping it to make it a bit more clear what's happening when that new list is created.

For now, double-tapping on the screen in iOS will create a new list. I don't have an exact timeline, but there should be some changes coming in this regard in the near future!”

[MadStick]

They're fibbing, no way is that an intentional new feature implemented correctly! The way this is being handled is really putting me off them. Take ownership! Anything else is a really bad look.  

[Sam]

That "new feature" reply is a blatant hand-waving, and the double tap bug itself obviously couldn't have been intentional. 

[Jane]

Suggest you contact them directly as I have done. I am only passing on their response.

[Sam]

Submitted a bug report. Got the similar kind of answer, although they did say they might have it fixed very soon.