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Automation - Find record action does not bring fields with empty values

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Guillaume_Blan1
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Hi there,

I am trying to use an automation with the following setup :

  • Trigger : When a record is created (in Table 1)
  • Action 1 : Find record (in Table 2), where Name = Field 1 from Trigger
  • Action 2 : Update record (in Table 1), with Record ID = Airtable Record ID from Trigger

In this action 2, I am trying to update several fields using field values from Action 1.

However, I noticed that the automation is only working when ALL fields from Action 1 used in Action 2 are not empty. If at least one of these fields is empty, the automation will fail with the following error message : Failed to construct the value for “Fields”.

I suspect that the Find Record action only bring fields with non empty data and ignore the others.

Is it the expected behaviour ? Any workaround that doesn’t involve creating a formula field for each field that I am trying to get the value from in Action 2 (because I really have a lot of them) ?

Thanks.

1 Reply 1

Yeah, Airtable hasn’t really fully implemented the find records action yet, which is very disappointing. It aborts with an error if it finds zero records (even though it’s not an error situation).

Similarly, if it finds more than one record, it also returns an error if you try to update records, because the update records action doesn’t know how to handle more than one record.

Your only solutions are to write your own custom JavaScript or use an external automation platform like Integromat.

Also, be sure to email support@airtable.com to let them know how much you would like them to fix the find records action.