Changes to Automations? Failures and Switching off

[BespokeBecca]

I have two automations in question.  The last time they both ran successfully was September 26, 2023 at 4:43pm CDT, and now neither work as of today.

I'm not sure if its some strange permissions thing or an internal limit? Or was there some sort of update that may have nullified some function that I was using?

Both Automations concern making records, both revolve around the same main trigger (one actually waits to verify the first record is made before the second record is made).

The first record automation just does not want to run it seems. as per the screen shot, it was working 2 days ago with no issues.

When testing, first it said it lacked permissions, so I changed the receiving table's permissions to open.  Then it said it couldn't enter information into certain fields because it was a computed field (the table it would be making the record to, those fields aren't computer).  I found work arounds just in case, but now suddenly it seems to be working with both - the fields in question were the Client and Quote fields (the idea is its supposed to link back to the record that's triggering the new record creation).

Even after updating the automation and testing it until it worked, the automation is NOT staying on.  Upon switching it from off to on, a few seconds later it flips back to off, and there's a ⚠️on the list, but it doesn't say what the issue is (or if it does, its not somewhere i can easily find or see on the interface).

The second record is failing to make because of the following error message:

"Fields" could not be converted to a string.

This makes no sense, as again, 2 days before it was working fine. and there is no specific Field named Fields, so all I can think is whatever is going on is affecting all the fields.

My searches on this have turned up nothing, and again, these were working fine 2 days ago and now they have issues.  I'd welcome any ideas on what could be causing this trouble.

[amandapteodoro]

Hi, I'm having the same situation here!

We had a very important automation working fine, but now it's not working anymore.

Maybe it's a bug that is being fixed (I hope) while we try to understand the alert symbol.

It's just sad to see the automation suddenly failing and not have an explanation - like an error message - demonstrating the reasons.

Please, if you find out why, let us know.

[BespokeBecca]

It's not very helpful, but in my stubbornness, I sat down and just recreated the automation from scratch, saving and testing at every major point in the flow.  And now... it works.  And as far as I can tell, the new automation is exactly as the old one that's wigging out and turning itself off. 

Still don't know why its doing it, but at least if you recreate it it may at least get your operations back up and working.

The only other thing I can even possibly think this might be, is if there's a limit on how many times an automation can run.  We use a pro account, and I would think those numbers would apply to the automations as a whole, not individually.  🤔 And again, as there is a second automation that runs immediately after the first, I would expect both automations to have the error then, but they don't. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[dilipborad]

Hello @BespokeBecca, and @amandapteodoro 

I'm sure that this error is happening due to different types of data passed to the Quote 2.0 field.

In the last image, the top 5 fields are relationship fields and the last one is currency.

Just see that in all other fields, you passed the proper reference fields but on the Quote 2.0 field, there is a formula field. I know there is specific instruction "Choose record(s) to link to, by entering record IDs or names".

Now let's assume 2 scenarios.

In the working scenario, the field Quote 2.0 gets the proper recordId or name then it's working.

But In the Error scenario, the field Quote 2.0 gets some other response like "error, 0, null" etc. At that time it always generates an error. But this happens sometimes. Because your field is based on some formula there are also other fields are which has lack data or the format of data does not fit with the formula you created.

First of all, you've to go and check every minor level value is passed to the next steps when you get an error.

To prevent these types of errors we can always use Script block and check data with programming way and it always gives you better results.

I hope this helps. 👍🤞