Shopify Customer Update Zap endlessly updates the same customers over and over.

Hi @iRestInstitute 

Good question.

Did you do a bulk update in Shopify around that time?

Hi, Troy. Nope, we didn’t do an updates. The records that are repeating all simply made a purchase which now shows up as an Order on their Shopify Customer. No reason I can see for it to be looping everyone like this.

@iRestInstitute 

Zapier Support will be able to best advise since they can see the underlying data logs.

You may want to add a Filter as Step 2 in the Zap to only continue if certain conditions are met.

QUESTIONS

1. Did you by accidently create an infinite loop thus causing the Zaps to repeatedly run? https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496232045453-Zap-is-stuck-in-a-loop
2. Do all the Zap Runs have the same timestamp? (if yes, then this would likely point to a bulk update of some sort)
3. Is this issue still occurring for recently updated Shopify Customers?

3 possible root causes:

1. Your side made some sort of bulk update. (e.g. Tag)
   1. This would be on your side to note as a learning experience for future reference
2. Some issue with Shopify caused Customers to be updated and thus triggered the Zap
   1. This would likely be on Shopify to address
3. Shopify Zap app integration had an incident that cause the Zap to trigger
   1. This would likely be on Zapier to address

I really appreciate you working through this with me Troy. Thanks for the great questions.

ANSWERS

1. Did you by accidently create an infinite loop thus causing the Zaps to repeatedly run? https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496232045453-Zap-is-stuck-in-a-loop. No, the Zap has been running fine for about 5 months. You can see from my previous screenshot there are no loops in this Zap. It only started acting odd yesterday.  
2. Do all the Zap Runs have the same timestamp? (if yes, then this would likely point to a bulk update of some sort). No, they have different timestamps and seem to be random. Example: 07:08:18am, then 07:09:13am, then 08:43:42am. 
3. Is this issue still occurring for recently updated Shopify Customers? Yes, here’s a screen shot of 3 Zaps that just ran for the same person. She purchased a product 3 minutes ago, and it’s already running multiples of this Zap. (Support gave me a one time bump of my Tasks to get things moving again.)

I think my next step will be to try turning the Zap off and back on again. Maybe it will help.

@iRestInstitute 

What might be happening is that on the Shopify side of things when an order is submitted, there are behind the scenes process that run to update different data points on a Customer.

To you as the end user this may seem like 1 update to the Customer, but behind the scenes these are actually separate updates to the Customer, and thus why Shopify triggers the Zap multiple times in a short period for 1 Customer.

To clarify an infinite loop is different from using the Looping app in Zaps.

Example

Zap 1: When a new contact is added to Salesforce, create a new contact in Google Contacts.

Zap 2: When a new contact is added to Google Contacts, create a new contact in Salesforce.

This causes a Zap loop as the first Zap triggers the second Zap, which then triggers the first Zap, and so on.

That makes sense, Troy. Infinite Loop doesn’t seem to be the case here, as it’s the same Zap running over and over at random times. 

Your note about Shopify doing multiple changes to the customer could be the case, but I’d expect that to be complete the same day (Orders are automatically Fulfilled). So it’s odd that some of these are still trucking the day after. Turning the Zaps off and on didn’t stop the issue, so I’ve now adjusted the Trigger of the offending Zap from Updated Customer to New Customer. It’s not ideal, but if it works, it’s better than burning through all our tasks.

Hi there @iRestInstitute,

It looks like you have reached out to our Support Team regarding this issue, and it turned out to be a bug with the “Updated Customer in Shopify” trigger where its triggering multiple times.

If you’ve got any questions regarding their investigation it would be best to continue the conversation with them over email.

Thank you for your understanding.

I would be happy to continue speaking with support, but yesterday the person I was chatting with told me they’d escalate my request and I should wait for an email that would be coming within 2 hours… that hasn’t come. 

Hi @iRestInstitute,

I apologize for the delay in our Support Team’s response. Our Support Team might be experiencing a high volume of requests. Rest assured, they are working diligently to address each one, and you will receive a response from them via email as soon as possible.

I appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.