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Question

“Replay Zap Run” is misleading

  • 11 March 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 1313 views
SVBC
Userlevel 1

Now that I’m getting a lot more familiar with Zapier, I’m finding the “Replay Zap Run” to be pretty lame and misleading. Since it only replays from the step that encountered the error, it totally misses the opportunity to get corrected data further upstream from a step that “succeeded” but got the wrong data due to an issue outside of Zapier. When manually replaying a zap run, I really want the ability to restart the zap at a step I choose, not the same failed step.

I know the failed step failed because of bad data. Rerunning it is pointless because it will just fail again because of bad data.  “Replay” also gives you the impression that the Zap is actually going to run again.

 

The “Replay Zap Run” should be renamed “Retry failed step with same data again”

What do others think?

This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

5 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @SVBC 

Here’s a help article about Replaying Zap Runs: https://zapier.com/help/manage/history/replay-failed-zap-runs

 

Feedback and feature requests can be submitted via a ticket to Zapier Support to be logged: https://zapier.com/app/get-help

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
SVBC
Userlevel 1

Thanks @Troy Tessalone  for including the link to the documentation. I should have included it in my original post as it documents what I stated in my post -- that replay restarts at just the failed step and does not allow replay of any earlier steps that actually caused the error to occur in the first place thus “Replay” is a misnomer, it should be run failed step again. Running a failed step again may get over an issue if the problem is a transient one outside of Zapier, but rerunning many (or most) programs with the same incorrect input is a well known: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” - Einstein.

SVBC
Userlevel 1

Another Zap step I could use to solve this problem is a loop back on a failure to a specific step to try again. The error I hit seems to be because Zapier is running the same step on 2 different records (or more) in parallel and one thread just lucks out on completing faster than the other and causing the other to fail. If the zap task runs happened serially the error would have been avoided -- situation is query to find record, not found so create, if found then update. However a parallel thread is running the same zap and in between the query and creation in thread A, the record is being created in thread B resulting in the thread A zap run failing because a duplicate record cannot be created. 

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@SVBC 

To clarify, the replay options serves a few purposes:

If Zaps get Held due to hitting throttling limits, then Zaps need to manually replayed.

If Zaps have an error in a step (e.g. mismapped value), then you can correct the Zap step variable mapping configurating, and replay.

 

Agreed, there is a limitation about rerunning the entire Zap again, or indicating previously run Zap steps that were successful to rerun again.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@SVBC 

Perhaps you can outline your Zaps steps and apps being used for us to have more context and perhaps evaluate and advise about possible solutions, thanks.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
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