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Question

New Spreadsheet Row not triggering

  • 7 March 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 1937 views
M

I have two zaps set up -- one to add a row to a Google Sheet (which works), and another Zap to send an SMS when a new row has ben added.

They’re set up separately to avoid race conditions, where the row hasn’t yet been added, but an SMS is sent saying it has been.

I haven’t been able to get the second Zap to work. It’s not recognizing a new row being added. I’ve tried both the “Instant” and “Team Drive” options with no changes.

I’ve:

  1. rebuilt the Zaps from scratch.
  2. turned them off and on.
  3. tried all variations of new/new+updated/new (instant)/new+updated(instant)
  4. created brand new sheets, cleared sheet.

Nothing seems to work. The Zaps just won’t trigger. What gives?

UPDATE: I _can_ get it to trigger if I manually create the spreadsheet row (i.e. Zapier isn’t the one to create the row!) But that’s not very helpful. I need Zapier to create the row AND note when the row has been added.

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

4 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @mvkle 

The Google Sheets trigger is marked "instant" but it still takes a few minutes to trigger

The triggers for Google Sheets are unique among Zapier triggers. When there is a trigger event in the spreadsheet, Zapier gets a notification webhook from Google about this. After that, Zapier sends Google Sheets a request for new data, so it uses both the polling and instant trigger methods. This process takes about 3 minutes overall.

While not being "instant", these triggers are faster than regular polling ones, as they don't depend on the polling interval of the plan your account uses.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
M

Thanks for the update. The issue isn’t necessarily the “instant” piece -- these things never get triggered. I have all four set up to see if _any_ of them work, and none of them fire. But if I manually add a row, they _all_ work.

The issue seems to be:

If a row is created via a Zap, it doesn’t trigger the new row is added Zap, if that makes sense. 

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@mvkle 

Have you reviewed the available help articles for using GSheets in Zaps?

https://zapier.com/apps/google-sheets/help

 

After reviewing, if you still need help, then it’s probably best to open a ticket with Zapier Support: https://zapier.com/app/get-help

 

The Google Sheets trigger on my Zap stopped working

If your Google Sheets trigger stops working suddenly, first check if you’ve accidentally inserted a blank row anywhere in the spreadsheet. Zapier interprets a blank row as the end of the spreadsheet and may have trouble finding any new rows below it.

In addition to this, making the following changes to your spreadsheet while the Zap is turned on can cause errors:

  • Deleting existing rows or columns.
  • Adding rows anywhere other than to the bottom of your sheet.
  • Resorting the sheet.
  • Renaming/adding/rearranging columns.
  • Renaming the sheet.
  • Filtering the sheet.

If you need to make any of those changes to your Google Sheet, turn your Zap off while you work on the spreadsheet, and then turn it back on again.

 

Triggering on new/updated rows in a sheet on another Team Drive

Zapier relies on Google Drive's notification system to identify when there are changes in a spreadsheet. This currently works well for Google Sheets in your own Google Drive, but can be a problem for spreadsheets within a Team Drive.

In order to help Google prioritize that issue, please visit Google’s issue tracker, and click on the "star" at the top, to indicate that you would like the problem to be fixed.

In the meantime, Zapier has created separate triggers that work with Team Drives. These are marked with (Team Drive) in the Trigger Event dropdown menu, in the Choose App & Event part of your trigger step.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@mvkle 

Saw another issue with a client using GSheets that may be related and impacting your Zaps.

 

Zapier has been having recent issues with Google Zap app integrations and API quota limits being hit.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
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