What happened?

Benchling identified an issue where dropdown field conversions were not correctly mapping values from an old dropdown list to a new one. This led to entities retaining values from the old dropdown list, even after the schema configured updated to the new dropdown. This could lead to unexpected behavior—particularly during searches.

Example Scenario for this Issue 

This unexpected behavior could have arose in scenarios like the following:

1. A schema field dropdown is updated via UI to point to a new dropdown (i.e. metadata field switches from using dropdown A to dropdown B)
2. Some values from dropdown A could not be mapped to dropdown B and entities with those values to persist values from Dropdown A

Any updates to an impacted entities dropdown metadata field would resolve the unexpected behavior after the dropdown conversion occured 

How do I know if I am Impacted?

Not all customer tenants were affected by this issue. If you would like to know if you and specific objects in Benchling were affected, please reach out to Benchling support by emailing support@benchling.com with the subject: ‘Failed Dropdown Field Conversions'. 

Benchling’s engineering team resolved the root cause of this issue as of mid-August 2024. Moving forward, any dropdown-to-dropdown conversions should function as expected. 

What are the options to resolve this issue?

For existing dropdowns that were impacted, the Benchling Support team can help re-map these values accurately to the new dropdown via a script. If Benchling does not hear back from impacted customer's by December 6th, 2024 we will assume we have your consent and automatically run a script to resolve the unexpected behavior.

What are the next steps?

If you would like a list of impacted dropdowns or assistance with remapping them, please reach out to support@benchling.com. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact us for assistance by emailing support@benchling.com and including in the subject: ‘Failed Dropdown Field Conversions’.