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Question

Zap notification not working every time

A
Userlevel 1

Hi there,

I’ve created a zap that sends an email notification through Gmail every time a new record appears in a view in my Airtable. I’ve done a couple of test to make sure it works and I’ve noticed that I do not always receive a notification for all the new records added in a specific view.

I’ve set the record to appear in a specific view for a few minutes only and then it disappears (this is just for the test). Could it be the reason why the notifications does not always work? In order to send out the notification, does Zapier need enough time to process the new information before it disappears from the view in Airtable?

Any insight would be extremely helpful!

 

Thanks,

Arisa

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

10 replies

AndrewJDavison_Luhhu
Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Hi @Arisa 

Yep, with Airtable zaps, Zapier polls Airtable’s API at set intervals looking for new data. Depending on which Zapier plan you’re on, that will be once every 1 - 15 mins.

We're Zapier Certified Experts - we help businesses do cool stuff with automation | www.luhhu.com
A
Userlevel 1

Hi Andrew,

 

Thanks for your prompt reply! I’m under the company’s plan and was assuming that the notification would go out in the next few minutes after the triggered update.

FYI, I didn’t receive a notification for an update I made yesterday. Today I tried again with another record and I did receive the notification but an hour after I’ve made the update. 

These notifications are crucial for my team so if there is anything I’ve done wrong in my setup I hope I can fix it with the help of your guidance!

 

Thanks,

Arisa

AndrewJDavison_Luhhu
Userlevel 7
Badge +10

@Arisa  I'm going to flag this post for the Zapier Community Team. They should have more insight on this and can escalate to the support team if needed.

Sit tight, and someone will contact you soon.

We're Zapier Certified Experts - we help businesses do cool stuff with automation | www.luhhu.com
Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @Arisa, I’m sorry that you’re having some trouble with your Airtable Zap, let’s see if we can get to the bottom of things. 

 

The first thing to mention is that with the New record in view trigger, the Zap will only trigger the first time that a record enters the view. If a record enters the view, is removed from the view and then is back in the view, the Zap wont trigger that second time. That’s because, from the Zap’s perspective, the record isn’t ‘new’, it’s seen it in the view before. 

 

As you’re on the Companies plan, I would expect the Zap to trigger within a minute of the record being added to the view. What we need to understand is:

  1. When was the Airtable record added to the view
  2. When did the Zap trigger
  3. When did the Gmail action send the email
  4. When did you receive the email.

 

To check this, head to your task history (here: https://zapier.com/app/history/usage) and look at the tasks for your Zap. First of all, you will be able to see the times that your Zap triggered. This will tell you if it’s triggering each time that a new record is added to the view.  Secondly, if you click on a task, you’ll be able to see the time that the Gmail was sent, which will tell you if there was a delay between the  Airtable trigger and the Gmail action. 

 

If there is a long gap between 1 and 2 above (the record being moved and the Zap triggering) or if the Zap wasn’t triggered at all then the best thing to do here is to contact the Support Team. 

 

Similarly, if there is a gap between steps 2 and 3 above (between Zap trigger and Zap action), then the Support Team is in the best position to dig into that for you. 

 

If the task history shows that the Zap was triggered after a new Record entered the view, and that the email was sent immediately after, but you didn’t receive the email until much later (ie there’s a gap between 3 and 4 above), then you’ll likely want to check your email settings to see if the emails are being held up or sent to Spam by your systems. 

 

The best way to contact the Support Team is using the Get help form:https://zapier.com/app/get-help

 

I hope that’s all clear!

A
Userlevel 1

Hi Danvers,

 

Apologies for my late reply.

I have looked at the task history and I’m a bit confused.

If the task history shows that the Zap was triggered after a new Record entered the view, and that the email was sent immediately after, but you didn’t receive the email until much later (ie there’s a gap between 3 and 4 above), then you’ll likely want to check your email settings to see if the emails are being held up or sent to Spam by your systems. 

It seems that, that’s what is happening. I’ve created a Google Groups for those notifications so this might be the reason why there is this 3-4 days delay. I hope it’s something that can be fix by changing the settings.

The first thing to mention is that with the New record in view trigger, the Zap will only trigger the first time that a record enters the view. If a record enters the view, is removed from the view and then is back in the view, the Zap wont trigger that second time. That’s because, from the Zap’s perspective, the record isn’t ‘new’, it’s seen it in the view before. 

I have been able to trigger notifications for the same record (i.e. I’ve waited for the record to disappear from the view, then make the update on the same record to make it appear again in the view and the notification email was sent again successfully). So it seems that it’s working…?

If not, is there a way to “cheat” the system to have those notification emails sent even though it’s not technically a “new” record? 

In my Airtable, I’m updating a specific field on a regular basis and need to send out a notifications every time that it happens. Do you have a solution/suggestion for that?

 

Best,

Arisa

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @Arisa!

Hmm, as far as I know the Airtable New record in view trigger should only work the first time that a record enters the view. There isn’t really a good way to trigger Zaps from updates to an Airtable record, sorry about that. You could perhaps use different Views connected to different Zaps, but I know that’s not a great solution!

A
Userlevel 1

Hi Danvers,

I’ve checked if there was something in the email settings that I could change to avoid the time lag between the the time the email is sent, and the time the email is received but could not find anything relevant. However, yesterday I updated a record (which triggered a new record in view) and received the notification right away so I’m wondering why this time lag is occurring some times, and not some other times.

 

You could perhaps use different Views connected to different Zaps, but I know that’s not a great solution

Thank you for this suggestion. I guess this could work as an alternative solution. Is there a formula that counts the number of times the record has been updated? If updated once, it shows “1”, if updated twice it shows “2” etc. so that I can add that number as a condition for that record to appear in a view. Hope that makes sense..

Best,

Arisa

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

For the time lag, if the lag is up to 15 minutes then it may be related to the way that Zapier will check for information in some Zaps. You can learn more about there here: Why is there a delay before my Zap is triggered? 

If it’s longer than that and the Zap’s task history doesn’t give you a hint, then the Support Team will be in the best position to help you with that one. 

 

Is there a formula that counts the number of times the record has been updated?

 

I’m not aware of one, and I couldn’t find one with a quick Google search, but you may have better luck?

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @Arisa, were you able to get to the bottom of this one? Did you find a formula that counts the number of times a record has been updated?

A
Userlevel 1

Hi Danvers,

 

Unfortunately no… but I ended up using the new automation system within Airtable to send my notifications and it works great. Thanks for your help!

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