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Motion doesn't add tasks correctly


Hi there,

I’ve tried two different Zaps to automate task creation in Motion from Google Tasks and from Notion. 

  • Motion does add a task in the “My Tasks” list
  • Motion does not recognize the Start Date field from either Google Tasks (using the Due Date data as a starting date) nor Notion (using the Start Date data)
  • Motion does not add any of the tasks synchronized this way into the calendar

Any ideas what’s happening and how to solve this issue ? 

Thanks :)

Best answer by RevCoincidence

Further to my comment above, I think it is all now working, with Start Dates transferring properly - certainly in new Zaps.  I would need to explore older ones to be sure, but today’s new one worked beautifully.  (Just need to make sure you don’t use the world standard DD/MM/YYYY date form, because Motion seems to translate this as if it were American!)

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13 replies

Troy Tessalone
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Hi @dgWild 

To help us have full context, post screenshots with how your steps are outlined and configured.


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 5 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Looking at the steps, there’s no field for Start Date at all, even though it’s available in the creation of the Zap (Actions) 


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 5 replies
  • March 19, 2024

 

Hi Troy, and thanks for your message ! 

Here are more screenshots of the settings, is it enough? 

Thanks :)


Troy Tessalone
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@dgWild 

For Start Date, you have 2 variables mapped which creates an invalid date value.

 


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 5 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Thanks Troy, 

I’ve only tried editing the date format after it didn’t work initially with only one variable mapped

I’ll screenshot the results without the formatting


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 5 replies
  • March 19, 2024

That’s the variables setting I’ve tried which also doesn’t give Motion a start date


Troy Tessalone
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@dgWild

Is there a field description for the Start Date field that may provide guidance?

Did you try mapping just this variable for the Start Date field?

 


  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 5 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Thanks for this idea, I just tried, still no luck. 

Isn’t it strange that when I launch the step test, there’s no field actually called Start Date that appears in the list ? Only Scheduled Start, but I’m wondering if that corresponds to the actual Start Date item in Motion.. 


Troy Tessalone
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@dgWild 

Try turning the Zap ON and testing live, then check the Zap Runs history to see the DATA IN/OUT for each step to help troubleshoot: https://zapier.com/app/history/

 

You may need to try reaching out to Motion Support for help.


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Please excuse me jumping into this thread, but I’m having the same issue and it doesn’t seem to have been resolved.

I have read the Zap Runs history on my successful Zaps.

On DATA IN, there is clearly a startDate field, correctly populated from mapped data from my trigger app.  The format of the date is the same as in the dueDate field - a field which works perfectly. 

On DATA OUT, startDate does not exist.  There are a few fields with no data.  One of these is scheduledStart.  Another is scheduledEnd.  There is no way in the Zap editor of entering data in these two fields.  I don’t even know whether scheduledStart is the one that is necessary.  I would have thought it would be startDate.

Does this help you help me and @dgWild or are we going to need to talk to Motion Support (their first response will, of course, be to talk to Zapier Support!).

I hope you may have some good news…

Thank you.


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For the assistance of anyone else who bumps into this issue…  I’ve just had this from Zapier support:

This is a known limitation we're looking to fix - users should be allowed to set start date for tasks that are not auto-scheduled. The issue has actually been around for several months and is unrelated to the updates a few weeks ago. This will be part of a larger revamp of our external API which unfortunately won't be released for a few months. We'll reach out once this is fixed in the API and exposed in our Zap!

This makes perfect sense to me.  My guess is that this is likely to have been generated by Motion stopping “Auto-Scheduled” being a “Status” (several months ago).

So it sounds like it will be fixed soon...(whatever “a few months” from early July 2024 means).  I hope that’s helpful.


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Further to my comment above, I think it is all now working, with Start Dates transferring properly - certainly in new Zaps.  I would need to explore older ones to be sure, but today’s new one worked beautifully.  (Just need to make sure you don’t use the world standard DD/MM/YYYY date form, because Motion seems to translate this as if it were American!)


JammerS
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 2207 replies
  • January 24, 2025

Wow! Thank you for confirming that your resolution got the Zap running. This will significantly help our Community members to have as a reference for the same issue.