Merge two "Link to another record..." fields

[Nicolas_Lapierr]

Hello :slightly_smiling_face:

I am trying to update multiple records at the same time with a single automation.

Here is my setup:
In the same table, I have one PARENT product that has many CHILD products, all being separate records.
There is a “Link to another record” column in the PARENT, with a link to each of its childs.

When I update some fields in the PARENT record, I want them to be copied back to the CHILD same field.

Is it possible to setup an automation to use ALL the Records ID from the linked field?

I tried simply adding the field with the links to the needed “record ID” of the automation, but it gives an error, as it expects only one.

After trying many things, I have figured out that I might have to do the reverse and with the help of a lookup. I mean having each CHILD to check if the PARENT fields has been updated recently, then, if yes, copy it. This could probably work, but I would need to add a lookup for each field and worst, this would use a lot of automations and might kill my limit as many fields would trigger the automation.
I really wish the trigger could come from the PARENT instead. Anyone has an idea? I really hope that I am missing the obvious :upside_down_face: !

Sorry for my bad English, I am doing my best here :smiling_face_with_halo:

Thank you all!!

[Joel_Abrams]

You should be able to do this by having a LOOKUP field in the CHILD record. So instead of inputting or updating a field in the Child field, you have it lookup that field in the PARENT record.

[Nicolas_Lapierr]

Hi @Joel_Abrams!

This is right, but as I mention, the lookup is not a viable solution as it would consume too much of the automation limit. I already blew it up for this month testing things so this way would just make it worst sadly :frowning:

[Tim_M_GT]

@Nicolas_Lapierre does the data need to be copied to the child record?

Try inverting the link: if the child has the link to the parent, a lookup field on the child will always stay up to date when data changes on the parent, and it doesn’t use automations at all. :slightly_smiling_face:

See this page for more info: Designing linked records and dependencies – Airtable Support