We use Airtable to manage trailer rentals and insurance compliance. Customers periodically upload updated Certificates of Insurance (COIs), and we need to retain all past COIs for audit and compliance purposes. The issue is that Airtable automations overwrite attachment fields when updating records. When a new COI is uploaded, it replaces the previous file, which causes us to lose historical documents.
What we want is for a “Misc Attachments” field to act as an archive, where:
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Any new file added to the COI field is copied into Misc Attachments
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Existing files in Misc Attachments are preserved
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No previously uploaded documents are deleted
Requirements:
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Both fields are attachment fields in the same table
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The process should be automatic (triggered when a COI is added)
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The archive must be append-only (no overwriting)
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Preferably no third-party tools
We are currently exploring a scripting automation that:
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Pulls existing attachments from the archive field
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Appends new COI files
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Writes the combined list back to the record
Is there a best practice or native Airtable-supported method to append attachments without overwriting, or is a scripting action the recommended approach for this use case?