I’m reopening this topic, I’ve seen there was an old one and this issue seems to keep being not solved after 5 years, which is kinda ridiculous.
Out of the blue, without any reasonable explanation, the record IDs of one of my main tables have changed.
We use the Record IDs as the primary key to run reporting outside of Airtable. It fully broke our scheduling system. From the 31st of March to today, all the IDs of my records have changed.
This happens in a synced table, which might be the reason, although not logic at all. No record has been deleted an re-created.
How come this happens? A unique ID must be immutable, what’s the point of having IDs that change in time?
Question
RECORD IDs CHANGE
+2
+35
Are you referring to the Record ID’s changing in the DESTINATION of the sync? If so, that is expected behavior. Airtable’s “official” Record ID will become a new Record ID in the destination table.
However, you can sync the original Record ID from the source into the destination table as its own field, so you can still see the original Record ID in a new field in your destination.
Hope this helps!
- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant
+2
Are you referring to the Record ID’s changing in the DESTINATION of the sync? If so, that is expected behavior. Airtable’s “official” Record ID will become a new Record ID in the destination table.
However, you can sync the original Record ID from the source into the destination table as its own field, so you can still see the original Record ID in a new field in your destination.
Hope this helps!
- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant
Hi
Yes, I’m referring to the record in the destination table.
I understand the ID changes between the parent and the child table, but it should not change in the child table from a date A to a date B, unless the record gets deleted. Right?
Table A in Base 1 syncs as table AA in Base 2. The Table AA has changed all record IDs from one week to another.
But my exports run on table AA, not table A
But no configuration has been changed, the sync was active long before, records haven’t been deleted. I’m not sure I’m understanding. What’s the point of having a Record ID in the destination table, if it changes?
+2use a separate unique field as a stable identifier instead
Well, that’s what I’d expect the record ID to do. No?
What would you suggest instead?
Thanks!
+35Record IDs are unique to the table that they are located in.
Since your table AA is a different table than table A, your records will get assigned a new record ID there.
However, like I mentioned earlier, you can just sync your original record IDs from table A to table AA, and then you will have access to your original record IDs in table AA as well.
You would just need to create a formula field in table A that surfaces the Record ID, using this formula: RECORD_ID()
Then, sync that formula field to table AA.
Hope this helps!
If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld
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