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Best answer

Google Sheet triggers when no one has touched it

  • 29 April 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 70 views
I

Hello all,

I have several Google Sheets sending data to Little Green Light. In the past few days I have noticed that they are being triggered in the middle of the night and sending duplicate data, even though no one in touching the files or updating anything. 

E.g. 

Facebook Upload Zap, Trigger: New or Updated Spreadhseet Row in Google Sheets.

I paste Facebook transaction data into the spreadsheet, it sends new gift information to Little Green Light.

But last night it triggered at 4:28 am, the night before it triggered at 4:01 am. Because the previously pasted data is still in there, it sent it all again. 

This is happening on another Google Sheet with the same format; ironicaly, it is NOT happening on a different Google Sheet with the same format, one that I created just a few weeks ago. 

Is there a way to prevent ghost triggers in Google Sheets?

Thanks!

Mollie

icon

Best answer by jesse 17 May 2022, 01:09

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

3 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @It Takes a Village 

Good question.

Might be best to open a ticket with Zapier Support so they can troubleshoot this issue deeper: https://zapier.com/app/get-help

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
rachael.silvano
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

Coming in as well @It Takes a Village , Support can certainly help you dive a bit deeper, but two additional suggestions that may help illuminate what is going on: 

 

1.) Take a look at the “versions” history in your sheets. Google has a habit of sometimes saving new versions if a sheet is left open, which may be causing that trigger to happen. 

2.) I would wonder if there are any other automations or services touching that sheet? Sometimes in my experience, if a sheet has another rule that affects it, it can hiccup and trigger a second time.

Hopefully one of these helps you get to the bottom of what is going on, and please let us know if Support was able to help figure it out!

 

Best,

Rachael

jesse
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hey @It Takes a Village!

Just following up here as I noticed support is still waiting on a reply from you asking to share a link to the sheet so they can take a closer look. Continuing the conversation on that thread is going to be your best bet!

In the meantime, I am going to post a response from my colleague Marina as well as my colleague Rachael, who both offered some great troubleshooting steps, for anyone following along on this thread:



With the any_column trigger you have selected, any edits to any column would trigger the Zap - this would include if an included formula was calculated when you opened the sheet for example.
 
We do recommend using a trigger_column where possible, for example a Send to Zapier column, or a datestamp column that would always receive a unique date value when the row was updated. 
 
The following changes to a sheet while a Zap is active can cause errors or unexpected triggers as well:
 
- Deleting existing rows or columns
- Adding rows anywhere other than to the bottom of your sheet
- Resorting the sheet
- Renaming/adding/rearranging new columns
 
If you need to make any of those changes to your Google Sheet, you will want to turn your Zap off while you make the change, and then turn it back on again after.
 
Rearranging the rows would cause multiple triggers as each unique value to a cell would be seen as an "update" when the any_column is selected as the update to watch for. 
 
Another thing that can cause trouble on your sheet is any blank rows. You will need to make sure your sheet has no blank rows in the middle, only after your last row of content.
 
To test this out, please can you try the following for me:
 
1. Turn your Zap off from the Dashboard.
2. Carefully check your Sheet for any blank rows and delete them.
3. Turn your Zap back on.
4. Test by adding a brand new row to the bottom of the sheet.
 
Even if you don’t have any blank rows, please be sure to toggle the Zap off and on again from the dashboard as this will give things a reset if any structural changes were made.
 
Tip: Here is a link that shows how to format a Google Sheet to work with a Zap: https://zapier.com/help/create/format/work-with-google-sheets-in-zaps 

 

Coming in as well @It Takes a Village , Support can certainly help you dive a bit deeper, but two additional suggestions that may help illuminate what is going on: 

 

1.) Take a look at the “versions” history in your sheets. Google has a habit of sometimes saving new versions if a sheet is left open, which may be causing that trigger to happen. 

2.) I would wonder if there are any other automations or services touching that sheet? Sometimes in my experience, if a sheet has another rule that affects it, it can hiccup and trigger a second time.

Hopefully one of these helps you get to the bottom of what is going on, and please let us know if Support was able to help figure it out!

 

Best,

Rachael

 

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