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Zap failed to trigger for first few updated records in Airtable

  • 26 February 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 179 views

I set up a Zap as follows:

  • Trigger: New/updated record in Airtable filtered view (based on a Last Modified column that only reflects changes to a checkbox column that sends the record into a filtered view)
  • Tasks: Create Google Doc from Template + Delay 45 minutes (so I could manually check them all for this first round) + Create Draft in Gmail with PDF of Google Doc attached.

This Zap worked marvelously for 99/105 records that I sent into this filtered view. It, however, did not “catch” the first 4 triggers, so I was left with 4 Google Docs and Gmail drafts that were not created at all.

I’m trying to understand why this was the case. I checked the 105 boxes sequentially one after another, and they all show the same Last Modified time in Airtable. What can I do to make sure that it doesn’t miss the first few records? I didn’t do anything differently for those, and I really don’t want to have to manually check each time.

Image of the checkbox and Last Modified column for the first several records of my filtered view. The first 4 rows did not go through the Zap, the remainder did.

 
 
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Best answer by Troy Tessalone 26 February 2022, 20:26

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4 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hi @user138 

Were those records already in the View before the Zap was turned ON?

 

Zaps and apps have rate limits and throttling to be aware of: https://zapier.com/help/troubleshoot/behavior/rate-limits-and-throttling-in-zapier

 

Check your Zap Runs for clues: https://zapier.com/app/history

Did the Zap trigger, but error on a step?

 

Check the Status page for possible incidents for the apps involved during that time.

Zapier: https://status.zapier.com/#incidents-list

Airtable: https://status.airtable.com/

@Troy Tessalone

  1. They were not in the view before the Zap was turned on. All records were added to the view simultaneously about 5 minutes after I turned the Zap on.
  2. If it was throttling/rate limits, wouldn’t it have happened to later records and not the first 4?
  3. There are no Zap triggers in the history for those records.
  4. There are no reported incidents during that time.

It seems there is no logical reason why the first 4 failed.

 
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@user138 

You may want to open a ticket with Zapier Support for further help:

https://zapier.com/app/get-help

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@user138 

A row was added to my Airtable view but it's not triggering my Zap

Airtable only sends Zapier 200 rows from a view at a time (or 100 if it's the New Record in View trigger). The row order is based on the created_date, so the newest created rows are at the top.
If something was created months ago but now qualifies for the view, it may never be seen and thus not trigger the Zap. Here's an example:

  • Let’s say you created 1 row on 2020-12-01 (we'll call this Row A).
    You then created 200 rows on 2020-12-02 (well call these Rows B).
    You then created 1 row on 2020-12-03 (we'll call this Row C).
  • Then, on 2020-12-04, you updated all the Rows B to meet the criteria of the view.
    All of those would trigger the zap.
    Next, you updated Row A to meet the criteria of the view.
    This row wouldn't ever trigger the zap because it would be at the bottom of the list (since it was created before Rows B) and so it would be the 201st row.
    We'd never be notified about it.
  • Finally you updated Row C to qualify for the view.
    This one would trigger because it would be the first row of the 200 that we'd see.

One workaround here is that you can add an additional step to the end of your Zap to update something on the row, so that it's moved out of the view.
That way the view will never grow above 200.