Automations broken?

[Gabi_Messina]

Yesterday I build a number of automations that I fully tested and worked fine but are now broken.

Trigger is new record in a view
Action is update record
What breaks is identifying the record. I want to update 1-2 records that are linked to the trigger record. Since you cannot use a link in the record ID column I have a look up of the record ID.

I now have 2 issues.

1. The links are showing as not valid (picture 1) where yesterday this was totally fine
2. I cannot click to add the values. There is a open symbol but when I click it, nothing opens.

Of course I publicly launched the process that relies on these automations today so it’s critical I get resolution to this ASAP.

[William_Muskus]

Hey Cedric,

I am pretty sure your automation is working, but the testing function of your “send email” is failing. Try to enable it even if it fails. Plus, be sure to have at least one record containing an email adress on the specific view you are using (if you are using when records enters view)

Hope this works,

William

[Cedric_NIEUTIN]

It did work!

You’re right, the test is failing, but the email is sent.

Thx William :slightly_smiling_face:

[William_Muskus]

You are very welcome !
Do not hesitate if you seek help, we cracked a lot of things around automations already :heart_eyes:

Télécharger Outlook pour Android

[ArielleEvans]

Gabi_Messina:

Jeremy’s solution is currently working for me though it is a bit clunky.

@Jeremy_Oglesby and @Gabi_Messina is this solution still working for you? I have replicated it exactly but I’m getting an error on runs: “The record does not exist.”

[Gabi_Messina]

Thankfully this is still working for me but I am pretty sure I ran into issues building a new automation using this method.

In my case I was able to find another workaround that worked well. Automations can pull a record ID if it is text in a single line field. In my case I was able to have the record ID pasted into a field as part of the automation and later pulled that field to use for another update action.

Hope that makes sense/ potentially helps.

Gabi

[ArielleEvans]

Ah, that’s brilliant! I just tried it and it’s working for me. Thank you so much for this update.

As an aside, I’ve realized that part of my trouble is that I was trying to do this using a synced table, and I made the mistake of assuming that Record IDs in a synced table would be identical to Record IDs in the original table it is syncing with with. That’s not the case, which is why I was getting the “The record does not exist.” error.

When I adjusted it to lookup the record IDs for the synced table instead, the automation was able to find the proper records! But now I’m running into a different error: “Updating the record failed due to insufficient permissions.” Which I’m thinking means that automations can’t (yet?) edit fields in synced tables.

I went back to the original base and set everything up there, and works perfectly.

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

@ArielleEvans

It’s not just Automations that can’t edit the fields in synced records, it’s anybody. A synced table is meant to be edited only from the originating side of the sync relationship. If you are trying to update the fields on the receiving end of a Synced table, the Automation won’t be able to do that.

However, you could use a Script action in your Automation, and in your script utilize Airtable’s standard API to find and update records in the originating base/table for the records you see synced into this base. If you update them in the originating base, when the sync is next updated, you’ll see those changes reflected in the receiving Synced table.

[ArielleEvans]

Thank you for this note @Jeremy_Oglesby! Really good to know this.

[Anthony]

Hi all, I am having a related but different issue with Airtable Automations, and would welcome any thoughts on whether user error or bug! Hopefully I am sufficiently on topic here and not too verbose…

I am using the “create record” automation to create a new record in a “timesheet” table, based on moving the status of a job in a “jobs” table. I also write the Record_ID of the new timesheet record in a field of the “jobs” table (single line text). So far so good!

The trouble starts when I want to then use an automation to “update record” (the one I just created).

The “action” of the “update record” automation connects to the timesheets table. It pulls through the Record_ID of the relevant timesheet record, the one that I have saved in the “jobs” table from the first automation (see above). The problem is that the Record_ID field appears to the automation to be blank even though I can see it in the table.

If I manually type the Record_ID text in the automation this works.

So it seems to be that the first automation creates a field Record_ID entry that is visible to the eye but not the automation.

I tried passing the Record_ID via a second formula field, and it didn’t work. I tried ignoring the test result and just running and it didn’t work.

Any thoughts / advice appreciated!

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If it helps the usecase is that I want to create a timesheet entry when dragging a “job” into a kanban category “timer”, and record the time at which this is done. Then when the job is dragged out of the “timer” category, the same timesheet record is updated with the end time. One minus the other = duration. As I am on the free version at the moment Apps are not available.

[ArielleEvans]

Hey @Anthony, I’m not nearly as experienced with Automations as others on this thread who might see a clear error, but I did have one idea. I’ve had a couple of automations on brand new records fire too quickly, before the data in my fields has been set. Could it be that the automation is triggering before your “Timesheet record ID passthru” has been filled in?