Move a Row to Another Sheet

"Delete" is usually the wrong word. Archive the row to another tab (or workbook tab), then remove it from the working sheet — so audits, undo-ish recovery, and "what happened to order 1842?" stay possible.

What you'll need

  • A source Sheet and a 1-based rowNumber (must be ≥ 2 — headers stay put)
  • A target Sheet that already has compatible columns (same header order is ideal)

Copy then delete

Apps Script has no atomic "move row." The safe pattern is: read values → appendRow on the target → deleteRow on the source. If you delete first and the append fails, the row is gone. Order matters.

How to use this snippet

function moveRowToSheet(sourceSheet, rowNumber, targetSheet) { if (rowNumber < 2) { throw new Error('moveRowToSheet: refuse to move header row'); } var lastCol = sourceSheet.getLastColumn(); if (lastCol < 1) { throw new Error('moveRowToSheet: source sheet has no columns'); } var values = sourceSheet.getRange(rowNumber, 1, 1, lastCol).getValues()[0]; targetSheet.appendRow(values); sourceSheet.deleteRow(rowNumber); return targetSheet.getLastRow(); }

Tips:

  • When moving many rows from the bottom up, delete from the highest row number first so earlier indexes don't shift under you.
  • This copies values only — not notes, formatting, or data-validation. If you need formatting, use copyTo on the range before delete.
  • Wrap multi-row archive jobs in withDocumentLock so two editors don't race the same deletes.

Example

function archiveDoneRow(rowNumber) { var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet(); var live = ss.getSheetByName('Tasks'); var archive = ss.getSheetByName('Archive') || ss.insertSheet('Archive'); // Optional: ensure Archive has the same headers once if (archive.getLastRow() < 1) { var headers = live.getRange(1, 1, 1, live.getLastColumn()).getValues()[0]; archive.appendRow(headers); archive.setFrozenRows(1); } return moveRowToSheet(live, rowNumber, archive); }

Happy Coding!

Tags

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