Attachment download inconsistant

Valerian_Leber1 · ‎Feb 26, 2020

Hi
We use a script to create airtable records through API.
Attachement (pictures) are stored on a public webserver. The URL is passed by API request and Airtable dowload the attachement on his own cloud to be available in the attachment field.
This solution worked properly for a year maybe.

Since december 2019 we get some “broken files”. It seems that Airtable fails at downloading the attachment ant the attachment appears whit a generic icon instead of a picture preview. The picture can’t be downloaded properly.

It is very inconsistant : we have records with for exemple 4 pictures in the attachment field and one of them appear broken. Deleting the record and recreating it the same way may fix the record. The picture is always available on our webserver.

As we have a long history I could determine that this problem began to occurr on last december.

I read some similar issues on the forum that have been fixed by “patching” the airtable with the support

Can I have any help on this issue?

Valerian_Leber1 · ‎Feb 28, 2020

I realised thar in some bases I have a different result : I don’t even have the “broken picture” symbol.
The symbol appear and then after a few seconds desapears… I really need help on this issue as it broke some application we have in production…

Bill_French · ‎Feb 28, 2020

This is a known bug in Airtable since mid-2019. Prior to 19-Dec-2019 it was quite reliable.

@Alex.Wolfe – FYI - testing this today, the issue still exists.

Bill_French · ‎Feb 28, 2020

Precisely what we see all the time.

Valerian_Leber1 · ‎Mar 01, 2020

Hi, Thanks for you answer.

So you don’t kown any workaround? I was thinking testing the records a few seconds after creation to delete/recreate if incomplete. However that this won’t always work. It looks like there is some cache because even on second try Airtable seems to dowload a corrupted file though the original one is correct.

Any info on the correction of this bug?

Valerian

Bill_French · ‎Mar 02, 2020

For one client in the UK I have developed a process that waits minutes and retries up to 6 times and even this has generally failed. Occasionally it works, but the effectiveness is simply not good enough.

Airtable has been quiet about this issue.

Valerian_Leber1 · ‎Jun 29, 2020

Hi,

This issue is still a problem today. Does airtable team have some info on the roadmap to fix this issue?

Valerian_Leber1 · ‎Oct 18, 2020

Well I am struggling with this issue since december 2019.
I had tens of mails with Airtable support and still no visibility on the roadmap to solve this issue. I even reproduces the error with Postman and share it with the support team.

It’s really breaking one of our Airtable application as it is impossible to reliably attach file through API.

Airtable is an excellent product to manually edit databases, but when you work on automation through API, maybe you should look for an other solution.

Valerian

Bill_French · ‎Oct 19, 2020

Yep - my findings as well. Here’s more detail on my tests…

Phil_Deschaine · ‎Jan 07, 2021

I was having an issue with this. If you give the API an invalid attachment url… rather than returning an error, the API accepts the request. Then when you look at the history of the record, it confusingly shows you uploading and deleting an attachment.