Hey team. I want to implement Zapier for my new company and I'm having troubles with using Zapier at all. I went under my personal account just to test some zaps and see if they could show Zapier’s value to my CEO.
I couldn't even make the first Zap as it keeps switching off. I'll put here what happened so far. Hope you can help me out.
Step 1 - New spreadsheet row in Google Sheets
Step 2 - Create spreadsheet row in Google Sheets
The point of it is so that when a row is added to one Sheet, it adds the same information to another spreadsheet and avoids double the work. But I get the error:
Step 1 - New Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets
The app returned "Failed to create channel".
I rebuilt the zap from scratch, I tried to create it as a whole new zap and it just keeps turning it off. Can someone help me?
Best answer by SamB
Hi @Filipef! 👋
Thanks for sharing that screenshot of the error. Can you confirm whether the selected spreadsheet in the New Spreadsheet Row trigger, is on a team drive or on your own personal drive? I know you mentioned that you were using a shared file previously so just wanted to check whether the new one you created was on your own drive or not.
My thinking here is that it needs to be on your personal drive in order for the Zap to be able to access it when the Zap is switched on. If it’s on a team drive can you move it to your personal drive and then reselect it in the Zap and try turning the Zap on to see if it then stays on?
If it does stay on then that would confirm that it’s the team drive that’s the issue, in which case you’ll want to change the Zap to use the New Spreadsheet Row (Team Drive) trigger if you’re going to be using one that’s on a team drive.
I’m having the same problem. I just started with Zapier again to try and bring it to the new company I work for.
Thought I’d start with a simple zap of Google sheets only:
Step 1 - New spreadsheet row in Google Sheets
Step 2 - Create spreadsheet row in Google Sheets
The point of it is so that when a row is added to one Sheet, it adds the same information to another spreadsheet and avoids double the work. But I get the error:
Step 1 - New Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets
The app returned "Failed to create channel".
I rebuilt the zap from scratch, I tried to create it as a whole new zap and it just keeps turning it off. Can someone help me?
First, welcome to Zapier Community and I’m so excited you’ve decided to give us a try! Funny enough, I was going to provide some threads of users experiencing similar issues and found you over there as well, so I’ll refrain as you’ve certainly done your due diligence, kudos! 👏
Now by chance, have you had a moment to check out our Common Problems with Google Sheets article? That may provide some insight on an underlying issue within the set up.
Additionally, may I ask if this is a shared Google Docs file, as in, you are not the owner? It’s only been within recent days that I’ve seen that error notice pop up, so I’m interested in seeing what may be the root cause here.
If you’d like, providing any screenshots of your Zap set up, similar to this, can be extremely helpful in troubleshooting.
Thank you for your reply. I didn’t look previously at the article you sent but checked it now, nothing seems to relate to the problem itself.
It was indeed a shared Google Sheets file, but so for testing purposes I created my own file and the problem remains the same.
The problem according to the email I receive, is exclusive to the first step so sending you here a screenshot of my step 1, let me know if you need anything else from me.
Also, if it helps, running the Zapier manually before publishing works fine. It does exactly what I wanted it to do. But then when it goes to publishing it I get the aforementioned error and can’t turn the zap on. I have no other zaps on so shouldn’t be a limits problem as well.
Hi, @Filipef, @Liz_Roberts and @Troy Tessalone. I met with the same issue here with the “new or updated spreadsheet trigger”. My zap keeps turning off right after publishing, and I receive the “failed to create channel” email. However everything runs fine during the test and during the manual data transfer.
Would it possible to share a full screenshot of the error, as Troy requested above?
If you use a different action in your Zap (I’d recommend copying the one you have, then modifying the copy) do you still get that error? I’m wondering if there’s something about the combo of those Google Sheets steps that’s causing the problem.
Hey @Troy Tessalone and @nicksimard . Leaving here the error I get -
Trying a different action brings the same error. Trying a different app for the 2nd step still brings the same error. As long as I use Google sheets - New Spreadsheet Row - as the trigger of the Zap it seems to always return the same error.
Thanks for sharing that screenshot of the error. Can you confirm whether the selected spreadsheet in the New Spreadsheet Row trigger, is on a team drive or on your own personal drive? I know you mentioned that you were using a shared file previously so just wanted to check whether the new one you created was on your own drive or not.
My thinking here is that it needs to be on your personal drive in order for the Zap to be able to access it when the Zap is switched on. If it’s on a team drive can you move it to your personal drive and then reselect it in the Zap and try turning the Zap on to see if it then stays on?
If it does stay on then that would confirm that it’s the team drive that’s the issue, in which case you’ll want to change the Zap to use the New Spreadsheet Row (Team Drive) trigger if you’re going to be using one that’s on a team drive.
Hey @SamB you are a star! That solved the issue and now I feel pretty silly about it. I don’t remember it being like this a couple of years back but maybe it was and I just suffer from memory issues.
Thank you so much! After changing to team drive trigger option, the zap stays on and working :)
Please don’t feel silly @Filipef. I’m not sure whether the trigger used to work for team drives in the past. But the error certainly didn’t give a clear indication that it was the cause of the issue. So it totally wasn’t obvious, and was easy to miss!
I’m so pleased that changing the trigger to the team drive version fixed it. Seems like you should be all set for now, but please do reach out again in the Community if you run into any further trouble. We’re always happy to help! 😁
