Mix synced records and manually created records

Question

Hey there! I’m syncing some records from Base 1 to Base 2, and that’s working just fine. In Base 2 I need to be able to add additional records alongside the synced ones. I set up an automaiton to copy these new records over to another Table in Base 2, which works perfectly. I was then trying to use an Update Record automation to copy changes, which tests fine but fails in practice with an error. Is that possible, or is there a better way to accomplish this?
I was using Find Records with a condition of my manual unique ID (not the Airtable Record ID), which it seems to do, and then try to apply the updates to the Record ID from that step (Step 2). It all says it’s good, and can even update it from “Run As Configured” - but it fails when I test it by updating Base 1 and syncing Base 2. Updates fine in the sync but fails to update the record in that second Table. Thanks!.

ScottWorld · Accepted Answer

Thanks Scott!So I was actually looking to auto-update another Table in the second Base, rather than loop back up to the first Base. However! It looks like a workaround might be to have a second copy of each field (so, Status is synced and Status 2 is updated automatically to match Status) and then copy then to the new Table. It didn’t seem to like me copying over the synced value to a new table but it doesn’t mind copying it to a new field in the same table.Update: and now I seem to have been able to get it to work without that extra field. Only thing I did different was include the update in the same step as find records.Yes, that’s a clever trick that I didn’t think about — natively syncing in a circle:Table A in Base 1 syncs to Table B in Base 2.In Base 2: Airtable’s native automations can communicate natively between Table B in Base 2 and Table C in Base 2.Then, Table C in Base 2 syncs to Table D in Base 1.In Base 1: Table D in Base 1 can be natively automated with Airtable’s Automations to communicate with Table A in Base 1.Of course, you’ll end up with 4 tables (A, B, C, D) instead of 2 tables (A & B), but it works! :)Although my favorite way of doing this is still what I think is the easiest way:Creating a form that updates records inthe source base by usingFillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, which lets youupdate records with a form.Fillout gives you an Airtable formula that generates a unique link for each record in your source base, which is based on the Record ID of the source record.So as long as you bring in the record ID of the source record into your destination base, you can generate the URL formula for the source record in the destination base.I think this is the easiest, cleanest, quickest, and most user-friendly way to handle this! :)Hope this helps!If you’d like to hire thebest Airtable consultantto help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website:Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

ScottWorld · Answer

Airtable doesn’t yet allow two-way syncing, so there’s no native built-in way of updating or adding records back in the source table. You can always add a button field in your destination table that opens up an existing record in the source table, so that’s a quick way of jumping to the source table to update a record. And you can create a new record while you’re there.

(Note that you can add your own additional fields in the destination table that live in the destination table, but you can’t add new records.)

Airtable’s native automations only allow you access to the current base, not any other bases, so you would need to come up with some other way to update/add records back in the source table.

Some popular methods involve:

Creating a form that updates records in the source base by using Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, which lets you update records with a form. (See my notes in my post below for how to set this up.)
Writing your own custom Javascript that communicates across both bases. You could also write your own REST API calls to the source base by using the Data Fetcher extension.
Using an external automation tool like Make.com that communicates across both bases. If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one of the ways that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

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

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