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How to update Google Sheets with changes to recurring Google Calendar events?

  • 20 May 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 54 views

Hello

I want to have a Google sheet showing existing recurring events in Google calendar. There should be one row per occurence, and the columns should be:

  • name of the event
  • original date of the event
  • current date of the event 

I successfully created a Zap which retrieves all the newly created recurring event and creates one row per occurence, with the needed information.

where I am blocked is to update the google sheet document when one occurence’s date change

Eg: let’s say there is an event called “reception” every Monday from 2 to 3PM in my Google Calendar

With the first Zap that I created, it triggers the creation in the Google sheet:

reception --- June 3rd 2024 2:00PM --- June 3rd 2024 2:00PM

reception --- June 10th 2024 2:00PM --- June 10th 2024 2:00PM

reception --- June 17th 2024 2:00PM --- June 17th 2024 2:00PM

However, if the second occurence (on June 10th) is modified in the Google Calendar to June 11th, 2PM, and only this occurence, the Zap doesn’t see it as a new event and therefore does nothing.

what I would like is to find a way to 

  • either update the existing row (2nd row in my example), 3rd column (showing the current date of the event) with the new date (ie June 11th 2:00PM)
  • or if the above is not possible, add any sort of mark (could be a change in format, could be an “updated” mention in another column) so that I know right away this event has been changed,  AND create a new row (which would be a fourth row) showing
    • reception --- June 10th 2024 2:00PM --- June 11th 2024 2:00PM
  • or, at the minimum, create a new row (which would be a fourth row) showing
    • reception --- June 10th 2024 2:00PM --- June 11th 2024 2:00PM

 

Would someone be a savior and help me with this? If this is not possible, is there any workaround you could suggest?

Note: the format of the date/time is not really important, whether it is “pretty” like in my example, or something like MM-DD-YYYY HH:MM AM/PM

Thank you very much

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3 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @aurelie 

You should add another column to the GSheet for GCal Event ID, which is a unique value.

Then you can search by the column to find the matching row, then update the row.

 

Try these Zap steps.

  1. Trigger: GCal - New/Updated Event
  2. Action: GSheets - Lookup Row
    1. Else create row
  3. Action: Filter
    1. Only continue if found = true
  4. Action: GSheets - Update Row
    1. Map the Row/ID from the previous step

 

 

Hi @Troy Tessalone 

Thanks, your suggestion works. However, it returns too many instances, causing the zap to be held (with reason! it returns every occurence within something like 10 years 😵)

Is it possible to add a filter so that it returns only the instances within the next 6 weeks?

Thanks for your help

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@aurelie 

A Filter can be added as Step 2: https://zapier.com/apps/filter/help