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Google calendar update creating duplicate event instead

  • 8 June 2020
  • 4 replies
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Userlevel 1

Hi!

 

I have a Zap to update a google calendar from my Outlook calendar.  It creates new meetings just fine.  For my update event Zap, it *finds* the event just fine, but then instead of updating that event with a new date and time, it just creates a brand new event.

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Best answer by Danvers 11 June 2020, 12:30

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Userlevel 7
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Hi @shubhabala!

 

There isn’t a Google Calendar action that will either create or update an event; there’s Create Detailed Event and Update event, and you would use them in different circumstances. 

It sounds like you’ll need to add a filter step into the Zap. ​When a filter is added to a Zap, it looks at the information coming into the filter and only allows the actions to continue if the information meets specific criteria. In this case you would have the Find Event step, and then add the filter. 

 

In find steps, the output of the step includes a field called ‘Zap data was found’, which says ‘true’ if an item was found and ‘false’ if it wasn’t. So in this case, you’d need two Zaps:

Zap 1

  1. Outlook trigger
  2. Google Calendar: Find Event
  3. Filter - Zap data was found = true
  4. Google Calendar: Update Event

 

Zap 2

  1. Outlook trigger
  2. Google Calendar: Find Event
  3. Filter - Zap data was found = false
  4. Google Calendar: Create Detailed event

If your Zapier account is on a Professional Plan or higher, you can do the same thing using one Zap and 2 paths. 

 

If you’ve not used a filter before, here’s a guide explaining them: Add conditions to Zaps using Filters

 

 

I do believe there is a fix to this without needing a filter. There does happen to be an option for “Find or Creare Event in Google Calendar”. This will ask for the search term, then use that to see if an event exits. There is a check box below that says “create google calender detailed event if it does’nt exist yet”.

 

No need for filters.

I just spent the morning battling with this issue.

I was trying to get my AirBase table to create and also update relevant Google Calendar Events based on the records in the AirBase table - and was following a similar two zap approach as already mentioned: 

Zap 1 - create an event in Google Calendar based on AirTable record.

Zap 2  - update an event in Google Calendar based on AirTable record update.

For some reason it was creating events perfectly with Zap 1, but then making a duplicate event with Zap 2 if the record changed in the database.

Turns out that my mistake was in the initial stages of Zap 1 (creating an event in Calendar) as I was selecting ‘New or Update Record’ as the Trigger Event, rather than just ‘New Record’.

This meant that Zap 1 was creating a new (duplicate event) when an update occurred in the AirTable record - and preventing the update from the Zap 2 (updating an event in Calendar) working.

 

Userlevel 1

Hi!

I am kind of new to Zapier, I am trying to update an event (only the starting and ending date) in Google Calendar, triggered by a change in the closing date of my Deals in Hubspot. 

I´ve accomplished to build the Zap 1 you mentioned, like this:

  1. Hubspot trigger > works
  2. Google Calendar: Find Event > works
  3. Filter - Zap data was found = true > works
  4. Google Calendar: Update Event > I keep receiving the error “Te App Returned not Found”.

I´ve read all related posts I found and could not see anything clarifying. Any suggestions?

Pleas help! Many thanks!

Erik

 

 

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