Updating an attribute in Data Extension while journey is active affects the journey decisions?

Question

I have this journey thats sends an Email; This Email changes an image in the content with an attribute called "concierge" in the Data Extension. The journey is active, and I realize one of this fields(concierge) has a wrong [name]. I made a test with a copy of the journey with the same data extension, then I updated the data extension to the correct one, but the sent Email(after the changes) still has the wrong name.

Is it not supposed to update the attribute? Or am I wrong in understanding the update function?

Answer 1

Journey data is cached by Journey Builder and is hence separate from the DE used in the entry source. Hence the journey data should always be seen as a snapshot of the contact at the time of entering the journey. You will not be able to have the update to the data extension record reflect in e.g. decision splits.

Answer 2

Two ways around this issue depending on your use case: 1.) To render the custom content reference a DE in your email content that isn't the DE Entry Source. Utilize the Lookup/Lookuprows to pull in that field in the non-entry DE. 2.) Create a custom Attribute DE in Data Designer in Contact Builder. This will allow you to utilize non-stale data in Journey Builder for those decision splits.