Hi @blueguy 

Appears the error indicates there are too many requests being made on the GSheet.

Try adding a Delay step to your Zap to combat this: https://zapier.com/help/create/customize/add-delays-to-zaps#delay-after-queue

Troy: 

This is a zap that triggers about 40 times over an 8 hour period; it is a check in ZAP in a medical office.  So I cannot imagine that there are too many requests being made on the Google Sheet.

I will see how it performs with the delays…

I will keep you posted.

@blueguy 

Probably best to open a ticket with Zapier Support for them to troubleshoot further for you: https://zapier.com/app/get-help

I opened the ticket and this was the analysis:

Thank you for your follow-up, happy to clarify further.
 
I dug into the internal detailed logs of your example https://zapier.com/app/editor/146997153?context=10592680 Zap and retrieved the error logs coming from Google Sheets. I've attached it here: https://cdn.zapier.com/storage/files/95f13ec73123b6ca6a178c768c38faee_3.txt
 

 
The "per project" referenced here indicates that your Zaps are not encountering user account specific limits but rather platform wide limits on our Google Sheets integration. 
 
I dug into the internal logs for the recurrence of the 429 error code across all users (who have Zaps with Google Sheets) and the spikes approximately correspond to the times that they happened in your Zap. Meaning that the error wasn't caused by the traffic in your Zap (specific to your user account) but rather an accumulation of requests coming from all user accounts from Zapier.
 
Unfortunately, this must be resolved at a platform level by our team responsible for the Google Sheets integration, as we may require an increase of rate-limits allowed.
 
I'm so sorry that I don't have better news for you here! Please reach out if you have more questions, I'm happy to help out.

MY Comments: BASICALLY THIS SHOULD BE HAPPENING TO ANYONE WHO IS USING ZAPIER AND GOOGLE SHEETS; IT IS SOMETHING UNIQUE TO THEIR PLATFORM.  WHY HAVEN’T OTHERS EXPERIENCED THIS OR IF THEY HAVE, WHERE IS THE CONCERN?

I AM SOMEWHAT CONCERNED ABOUT THIS BECAUSE IT IS HAPPENING WITH DEGREE OF FREQUENCY 

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DELAYS THAT I PUT INTO MY ZAPS!

GML

I am experiencing the exact same issue, FWIW. Had someone working on it all last night and I’ve been on it for a couple of hours this morning. Have you gotten any update on the ticket?

Read the notes carefully above from Zapier; this is not a ZAP issue but a Google and Zapier issue.  There is little that can be done is how I read it.  This is not good in the sense that it appears to be idiosyncratic in that you never know when it will happen to your ZAPS

Understood, have our folks just checking stuff manually for the time being. May just have to look at a different solution long-term.

Long term solution?  What would you be thinking?

gml

Ours is a google form that populates a google sheet, and then Zap takes and transfers it into an import template for a different application. So we could theoretically just use a different form provider so that our zaps aren’t hitting google at all. Something like Typeform, Airtable, MS Forms etc. If we come up with something I’ll post it here.

acknowledged!

Hey there @blueguy and @rpmats! 

I’m so sorry about these rate limit errors, that’s not want we want for you at all! Looking at the conversation @blueguy had with our Support team it appears that they’ve been added to a bug report for this issue. 

@rpmats, I’ve added you to the list of affected users on that bug report as well. I can’t make any promises as to when it will be fixed but we’ll be sure to email you both and post an update here once it is. In the meantime, using an alternative app should indeed help to get around these rate limit errors we’re seeing with Google Sheets!  

Thanks @SamB

Our folks don’t work on Sundays, and as of this morning everything is working again as expected. Don’t know if that’s because something changed on someone’s end, but we’re monitoring.

Sam B you stated: using an alternative app should indeed help to get around these rate limit errors we’re seeing with Google Sheets!  

This is what was in my email in box this morning:

Every single one of these ZAPs has the same trigger -- it’s Google sheets!; it isn’t so simple just to use another ZAP plus Google Sheets is the trigger ZAP in this instance and that is a big problem….

I am just pointing this out!  This is not so simple.

GML

Update: there are so many ZAPs that I have where this is occurring.  The reliability of this has gone from excellent to very unreliable.  You cannot automate things that work some of the time!!

I hope that makes sense.

gml

FWIW, I ended up basically doing a total “refresh” on my Google Sheets to Zap integration over the weekend. Copied over the Google Form we use, re-mapped the Zap to the new responses page, and created an archive of previous Google Sheet info. None of that by itself helped though, mine just magically started working this morning. I know that’s not helpful, and my re-doing the Zap may have had nothing to do with it, but felt like it was worth mentioning.

I redid some of the Google Sheets but that did not help matters!!

Sam B:   Several questions for you to ponder:

1. How long should I wait for Zapier to fix this problem? 3 days? 3 months?
2. How many errors should I endure before switching over to something like AirTable or Microsoft Excel?  And spending hours of our time re-working our processes?
3. Can we do better at giving your customers who rely on this product with the guidance?  Saying this is a priority for tech support provides little assurance.

Out business relies on your product and your simplistic answer was not so re-assuring. 

GML

More error messages:

This is getting annoying

gml

We’re experiencing the same issue. Any update on when this may be solved?

I have not heard anything....i I'm not trying to be hypercritical here either. I would just rather have my things work because we depend upon them. Hopefully this is a big enough concern for them to get moving on this

Thank you for letting us know,@e.dgr. I’ve got you added to the list of affected users!

I definitely appreciate you sharing your candid feedback,@blueguy. While I can’t provide you with an ETA, I do want to reassure your thoughts aren’t falling on deaf ears. The team is actively digging into this and hopefully, we’ll have more news for you soon. 

For anyone who may be following along I also wanted to share some of what was discussed in the support ticket in case it adds any clarity:

...the error wasn't caused by the traffic in your Zap (specific to your user account) but rather an accumulation of requests coming from all user accounts from Zapier.

Unfortunately, this must be resolved at a platform level by our team responsible for the Google Sheets integration, as we may require an increase of rate-limits allowed.

We too are experiencing the same issue. Any update?

Running into this issue as well - appreciate Zapier looking into a fix! Have many workflows running on Sheets. The chance of them working as intended has been sort of 50/50 since this issue started appearing ~a week ago

Please add me to the list of users affected by this, @christina.d. I’d appreciate any updates as they become available.

We are experiencing the same issues. And for us the issue is VERY serious. Errors have meant that we have failed to provide the service that the customers have paid for and it has really negatively impacted our business and customer satisfaction. :/

So please add me to the list of users affected by this, @christina.d.