Airtable to Google calendar automation

[Smrita]

This automation has brought me to my knees, please help.

I'm trying to create a google calendar event for a session booked from a start time to end time. The automation fails because it's unable to parse datetime: " "

This is my flow:

1. I enter the date and time in text format (Text date)- 3 April, 2024 at 17:00

2. Then convert the above to date format using Datetime parse formula - 4/3/2024 17:00

(formula - DATETIME_PARSE({Text date},'D MMM YYYY at HH:mm')

3. Then I convert this to ISO format using Datetime formula - 2024-04-03 17:00:00.000

(formula - DATETIME_FORMAT({parsed and formatted date},"YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss.SSS")

What i get in step 3 is what is entered as start time in the automation. Similarly the end time is calculated using three steps.

[TheTimeSavingCo]

DATETIME_FORMAT outputs a string I believe, which might be causing the issue here.  Try using the output of the DATETIME_PARSE instead, should work!  I use formula fields with DATEADD in my automations with Google Calendar and those work fine

[Smrita]

Thank you for your help Adam. I tried with datetime parse but I still got an error - Unable to parse datetime: "#ERROR!"

Could you tell me more about hoe DATEADD comes into play here please?

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hm, could you provide a screenshot of the error?  I just tested it and I'm able to create a Google Calendar event via a formula field that uses DATETIME_PARSE fine:

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re: Could you tell me more about hoe DATEADD comes into play here please?

Ah, that's just to give you a confirmation that using formula fields that output date values work fine with the automation actions that use Google Calendar

[Smrita]

Thanks again Adam, it was super helpful. However mine still didnt work and I have reported the bug. 

Cheers!

[MalachizzBots]

Hi @Smrita, I am with zzBots. It seems as though you might have this figured out already, but I'd just like to share another solution. Using zzBots 1-Way Sync, your data will stay up to date and in sync. zzBots has a custom date formatting step if you need your dates in different formats or need to add time.

1-Way Sync: https://www.zzbots.com/store/airtable-google-calendar-1-way-sync

[koob23]

I am having the same issue. it works when "testing" it but does not work in practice.