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Hello -
I recently created a Custom form using the ‘Encode URL’ component to prefill fields on a feedback form for our members. We email the custom URL to customers but when they complete it, it’s creating a duplicate entry on the grid view in Airtable vs updating the record with the URL we sent. Anyone else experience this? Is there some way to prevent it?

​@kuovonne created the Prefilled Forms extension for Airtable, which makes it very easy to create a prefill link in Airtable.

However, instead of creating prefilled links, I would recommend using Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, because no prefilled links are required.

Fillout lets your members update their own records by giving them a unique & unchanging URL that is unique to them. No prefill links necessary,

The reason it is not recommend to use prefilled links with Airtable’s forms is because Airtable’s prefilled links come with serious downsides — some of which you have already discovered:

  1. You will have to continually send out updated prefilled links to your users that always contain the newest data. If the user accidentally clicks on an outdated link, they will be taken to old data in the form. So they would never be able to re-use a link or bookmark a link as an “Update My Account Profile” link.
  2. Airtable’s prefilled links do not work with all field types… particularly attachment fields or lengthy long text fields that exceed URL limits.
  3. If you need the data to remain private or secure, Airtable’s prefilled links reveal all the data within the link. With Fillout’s links, you get one simple, non-changing link per user that doesn’t reveal any data, and you can even add multiple different layers of security to the form if necessary, including SSO login or email login.
  4. Airtable’s prefilled links still won’t update old records… they always create new records, and then you will need to write an automation that handles the overwriting of the old data.
  5. You lose all the advanced features of Fillout’s forms.

Fillout is 100% free, and it offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records using a form, create custom PDF files from a form submission, accept payments on forms, display Airtable lookup fields on forms, create new linked records on a form, control access to a form via SSO or email domains or a list of email addresses stored in Airtable, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, collect signatures on a form, create multi-page forms with conditional paths, connect a single form to dozens of external apps simultaneously, add CAPTCHAs to your form, and much more.

I show how to use a few of the advanced features of Fillout on these 2 Airtable podcast episodes:

Hope this helps!

If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

Great, thanks for your help!

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