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Question

Google Drive Copy File creates shortcut link instead of a copy of doc

  • 30 August 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 533 views
A

Hello!

I’m using the Zapier Schedule + Send Copy File to Google Drive. When I test it, instead of creating a copy, its creating a shortcut link to the template instead of creating a new document.

I also tried a similar zap with Create a Presentation from a Template and it also did the same action of creating a shortcut link instead. 

The automation I am creating is to copy the file once per week and then email it to a team member to complete the Google Slides for the upcoming week.

Any ideas?

 

This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

5 replies

christina.d
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hiya @adriannemeldrum! Thanks for sharing this - we definitely want to help.

Hmm, interesting. Do you mind outlining your entire zap for us? That might help us get a better idea here. 🙂  For example:

  1. App - Trigger “Description”
  2. Zapier Schedule 
  3. Google Drive - “Copy File”

Would you mind also sharing screenshots of your trigger and action setup with any personal details obscured? Thanks so much for this and looking forward to digging into this with you! 🤗

A
  1. Trigger Schedule by Zapier
  2. Copy File in Google Drive (Also tried Create a Presentation from a Template)
  3. **Couldn’t get the above to work, so I didn’t proceed to figuring out the below step**
  4. Email copied file from Google Drive

 

It doesn’t matter if I select True or False on the “Convert the Document”. The result is the same. 

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @adriannemeldrum!

It looks like the Copy file step is copying the file as a template (because the original is a template) so, instead of having a new Slides file based on the template each week, you’re getting a new template. 

I think that you’ll have better luck using the Google Slides Create Presentation from template action. That will create a new presentation based on the template rather than copying the template. You can also add placeholder fields into the presentation that you can pre-fill using the Zap. For example, I can see that there’s a ‘date’ field on the first page of the presentation. If you format that as a placeholder in the original template, you’ll be able to use the Zap to add the date to save time!

You can learn more about using placeholders in Google Slides templates in this help guide. 

 

Let us know if that does the trick for you, it would be great to get you all set up and good to go :)

A

I’ve tried the same zap with “create from a template” and had the exact same result which is why I switched to the other and then reached out. 

christina.d
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Oh no, @adriannemeldrum! Thanks for clarifying that and sorry to hear you’re still running into this issue. 

At this point, I might recommend opening a ticket with my teammates in support to help dig into this a bit more with you! Feel free to link them directly to this topic to show some of what you’ve worked through so far. 

Keep us posted on how this works out for you!

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