I have a Zap that triggers on a cell update in excel.
Today I noticed I had over 300 task on hold. I only updated around 16 cells. It appears that the Zap attempted to run on every subscriber in my Aweber List.
Anyone have any ideas why?
Answer
Zap triggered on every subscriber in AWeber list instead of 16 cells
- Beginner
Best answer by Troy Tessalone
The timestamps show the Zap Runs were triggered at the same time.
Usually that is a result of some sort of bulk update made to the trigger app.
That is why those Zap Runs are held as Zapier detected unusual activity.
You can delete those Held Runs or you can replay those Held Runs.
Held
Zap runs can have a status of Held for one of four reasons:
- Too much data: too many steps (100+) would have been triggered when Zapier checked for new data. This "flood protection" prevents a significant number of tasks from being automated by mistake. This helps keep your task usage down and prevents unintended tasks.
- Disconnected app: the connection to one of the app accounts used in the Zap is no longer active. Reconnect the app account, then replay the held Zap run.
- Task limit reached: the account has exceeded its plan limit for tasks or Zaps, or uses a premium app that is not supported by the plan. To replay the held Zap run, upgrade your Zapier plan.
- Payment issue: the payment information on the account has expired. To replay the held Zap run, update your payment method.
- Restricted app: your Zapier account owner or admin has limited the use of the app and you do not have permission to use it.
Learn how to replay Zap runs that failed or were not successful.
The Zap runs page will not show activity if your Zap checks for new data and does not find any.
You can filter your Zap runs by status, date range, owner, folder, apps, or Zap name. You can also search your entire Zap history with the search bar in the upper right, which will search all the data that was sent to and received by each step in your Zaps.
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+14- Zapier Orchestrator & Solution Partner
Hi
Good question.
Please post screenshots with how your Zap steps are configured to help give us context.
- Beginner
See (Step 1) details below
See (Step 2) details below. NOTE The next 2 photos show how I have it set up. Everything below what is shown are just Custom Fields and should have no impact on the reaction of the app.
See (Step 3) details below
+14- Zapier Orchestrator & Solution Partner
- Answer
The timestamps show the Zap Runs were triggered at the same time.
Usually that is a result of some sort of bulk update made to the trigger app.
That is why those Zap Runs are held as Zapier detected unusual activity.
You can delete those Held Runs or you can replay those Held Runs.
Held
Zap runs can have a status of Held for one of four reasons:
- Too much data: too many steps (100+) would have been triggered when Zapier checked for new data. This "flood protection" prevents a significant number of tasks from being automated by mistake. This helps keep your task usage down and prevents unintended tasks.
- Disconnected app: the connection to one of the app accounts used in the Zap is no longer active. Reconnect the app account, then replay the held Zap run.
- Task limit reached: the account has exceeded its plan limit for tasks or Zaps, or uses a premium app that is not supported by the plan. To replay the held Zap run, upgrade your Zapier plan.
- Payment issue: the payment information on the account has expired. To replay the held Zap run, update your payment method.
- Restricted app: your Zapier account owner or admin has limited the use of the app and you do not have permission to use it.
Learn how to replay Zap runs that failed or were not successful.
The Zap runs page will not show activity if your Zap checks for new data and does not find any.
You can filter your Zap runs by status, date range, owner, folder, apps, or Zap name. You can also search your entire Zap history with the search bar in the upper right, which will search all the data that was sent to and received by each step in your Zaps.
- Beginner
Is there a way to prevent the bulk update and just update the records that are associated with rows that were changed?
Bulk update realy isn’t costing me anything but, I’m sure it puts Aweber’s servers under quite a load to cycle through each subscriber.
+14- Zapier Orchestrator & Solution Partner
The Zap is triggered from Excel.
The Zap Runs show 0 Tasks used.
That means the AWeber Zap steps were not run yet for these triggered Zap Runs.
- Beginner
So, is that normal and something I don't need to worry about or is there something that I am missing and need to correct.
I have the trigger set for whenever a row is updated. Are you saying that having it set up in this manner that whenever I update 1 row the zap will ckeck every row for changes?
+14- Zapier Orchestrator & Solution Partner
I generally advise users to use Airtable instead of Excel/GSheets as it’s better suited in many use cases for integrations and automations.
The Zap trigger you are using triggers when there is a NEW ROW added or when a ROW is UPDATED in the worksheet. (see screenshot)
So you may need to add a Filter as Step 2 to make sure only Rows that are updated in the Exp trigger column pass the filter conditions. (e.g. value exists)
That would make sure NEW rows don’t pass the Filter step.
Also, the issue may be a result of how your have your Excel file formatted. (we would need to see screenshots)
Help articles about using Excel in Zaps: https://zapier.com/apps/excel/help
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