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  • New or Updated Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets only works when a new row is added?

I'm using the 'New or Updated Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets' as the entry point to one of my Zaps.

When a new row is added to the spreadsheet, the Zap triggers as expected.

I have a filter as the send step in my Zap. This filter stops the following steps if a particular cell is empty in the row.

For a new row to the spreadsheet, as I said this Zap is working correctly. The new row is added, the cell in question is empty, and the filter stops the Zap right there. Perfect.

The problem is that when I go in later and update the cell to a value that will pass the filter, the Zap isn't triggering.

It's as if the 'New or Updated Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets' is only triggering for a new row, not an updated row.

Is anyone else having this issue? Where you able to figure out what the problem was?

Ideally, the Zap should trigger with the changed cell and it should pass the filter and perform the remaining steps in the Zap.

I feel like I'm doing something wrong, but I can't see it.


Thanks!


@JeffB

Welcome!

It should work - so let's try and rule some things out. Can you send us a screenshot of how you have the trigger configured?



New or Updated Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets - Step 1.pngNew or Updated Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets - Step 2.pngThere are more steps that follow the Filter, but they're not relevant because they never get executed. I'm trying to figure out why Step 1 doesn't fire on a changed spreadsheet row.


Thanks @JeffB

Could you also screengrab the “Customize Spreadsheet Row” panel - are you restricting the trigger to a specific column here?



Customise Spreadsheet Row.pngYes, the trigger cell is one in which I'll put a 'Y' when I'm ready for this Zap to continue past this filter. From my perspective, putting a 'Y' in this cell will cause the row to be changed and should be recognized as changed, and therefore refire this Zap.


@JeffB

Yep, from what I can tell you’ve got it set up correctly and it should be triggering.

Ive gone ahead and flagged this for someone on the Zapier Community Team to look at. They’ll get back to you and if needed, get the support team involved as well.


Man, I hope they can figure out what the issue is. I need to get thing working like, yesterday!


@JeffB can I double check something with you? Has there ever been a 'Y' in those Send email column in the rows that are being updated? If there has, then when the Zap checks the current rows against its 'memory' then it wont see the 'Y' as updated (because it's seen that before).

If you're not sure, turn the Zap off and on again and then try adding a Y in the Send email column. If the still Zap doesn't trigger, let us know!


The rows are written to the spreadsheet with that column empty, so no there has never been a Y in those columns.


That said, I'll take your suggestion. I'll turn the Zap off and then on again and give it a go.


Turning the Zap off then on made no difference. The Zap still isn’t firing.

For that matter, at the start of this process, the cell was Y, shouldn’t me changing it to blank (deleting the Y from the cell) trigger another update which should trigger the Zap? The Zap should then evaluate the send email cell, see that it’s blank and the filter should stop the next steps from processing. Right?

In theory, when I then change the cell to Y it should trigger another update to the row that should trigger the Zap to fire and this time the filter should pass and the remaining steps in the Zap should process. Right?

Any ideas why this isn’t happening?


at the start of this process, the cell was Y, shouldn’t me changing it to blank (deleting the Y from the cell) trigger another update which should trigger the Zap? The Zap should then evaluate the send email cell, see that it’s blank and the filter should stop the next steps from processing. Right?

That's not how the Updated row trigger works, unfortunately. If you have a Y in the cell, then delete it, and then add the Y back in, the Zap wont trigger. I know that this is counterintuitive, and I'm sorry about that!

The way that the Zap checks for updates isn't all that sophisticated - it 'remembers' the cell and the value in it, it will only trigger if changes are made that it hasn't 'seen' before.

Could I trouble you to try one more thing, please? Delete the Y from a cell, turn the Zap off and on again, and then put a Y in the cell. If that triggers the Zap, then we'll know that that was the cause of the problem. If it doesn't then something else is afoot.

 

Something else is afoot.

I did as you asked without success.

I also did something else. My thought was what if I change the Zap filter to allow a Y or Z in the cell? This would force the Zap to be ‘recreated’ and would also allow me to put something in that cell that the Zap has never seen before.

so I added the OR condition to the Zap, updated the cell to a Z, and...crickets!

I appreciate your help and suggestions, but are you a Zapier support person? If not, how do I get them involved? I’ve already sent them an email about this and still haven’t heard anything from them. I’m starting to take this personally.


I'm not a Customer Champion and it sounds like we'll need to pass you to the Support Team so that they can dig into the logs of your Zap. I checked our system and can't find an email from you (is this perhaps happening in a different Zapier account to the one that you use for the Community?). I'm going to convert this post into a Support ticket, to make sure that, either way, someone gets back to you via email.


Thanks! Here's how scatterbrained I've been about this: I sent the email, describing the issue I'm having -- to a different SaaS vendor! Sheeesh. Calm down, Jeff!

Hopefully I'll hear back from someone soon.

Thanks again!


I wanted to add an update for this for any folks that are following along - our support team dug into this and found that it was a bug, which we’re looking into. 

Hey friends! Just wanted to summarize and provide clarity on some of the issues here:

If you have a Y in the cell, then delete it, and then add the Y back in, the Zap won't trigger. The way that the Zap checks for updates isn't all that sophisticated - it 'remembers' the cell and the value in it, it will only trigger if changes are made that it hasn't 'seen' before.

Upon further investigation, the fact that sometimes the Zap isn’t triggering even when the update is new, appears to be a bug that our support team is currently investigating. We’ll update this thread once we know more. 

ran into same issue and brought to this thread via search, is this bug resolved already ?

Hey friends, very much a belated update but wanted to clarify this bug is indeed closed! 

Apologies for the late update! 🙈

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