Airtable Zap Not Triggering Consistently

Hi ​@sustainablestrategycompany 

The Airtable Zap triggers are scheduled as indicated by the 2 min check time interval on Zap step 1. (screenshot)

The Zap will only trigger when there are new records in the Base > in the Table > in the View.

If a record previous triggered this Zap it will not trigger the Zap to run again.

You would need to use a different Airtable Zap trigger for that case.

Hi ​@Troy Tessalone, Thank you for your response! 

Can you clarify “If a record previous triggered this Zap it will not trigger the Zap to run again.”
Are you saying that the zap won’t trigger for the same record twice?

Essentially the zap works correctly if I open up the Airtable base that day, but on a day where I am not in the associated Airtable base (like on the weekends) the zap doesn’t trigger at all.

It was all working great a couple of months ago, and I haven’t changed anything to the base or the zap, so it is a new issue.

​@sustainablestrategycompany 

Are you saying that the zap won’t trigger for the same record twice?

Correct, only trigger once per record for that Zap trigger: Airtable - New Record (in specified View)

Help links for using Airtable in Zaps: https://zapier.com/apps/airtable/integrations#help

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. 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.

Hi ​@sustainablestrategycompany 👋

Essentially the zap works correctly if I open up the Airtable base that day, but on a day where I am not in the associated Airtable base (like on the weekends) the zap doesn’t trigger at all.

It was all working great a couple of months ago, and I haven’t changed anything to the base or the zap, so it is a new issue.

That’s very strange, you viewing an Airtable shouldn’t have any affect on whether it’s able to trigger for new records or not—I’ve not experienced that sort of behaviour with any of my own Airtable bases for sure! 

Like Troy mentioned, the Zap would only be able to trigger once per record and it’s only able to ‘see’ 200 records in a view so perhaps that was why they weren’t appearing? Do you think that was indeed the case? Or, were there less than 200 records in the view and had the records the Zap failed to trigger for, never been triggered on previously by the Zap? 

Looking forward to hearing from you!