Delaying the Automated Conditional Email of Multiple Attachments

[Julie_Qiu]

I am having trouble figuring out how to adjust my automation so that Airtable emails all of the attachments in a field versus just the first attachment it sees upon a condition being fulfilled.

Sometimes there’s only one file to attach, whereas other times there are multiple files to attach. It takes time to upload all attachments, but my email is triggered faster than the uploads finish.

Is there any way to ensure that the automation is triggered after a certain delay after files are uploaded? It needs to happen as needed (it cannot be scheduled for a specific time of day).

[Russell_Findlay · Accepted solution]

One work around to this issue (quite common) is that you have a check box field which you get manually checked after the final attachment is added and then trigger automations from that field rather than the attachment field.

If you want to avoid checking an additional field then you may need to spoof a delay by using time field last modified, now, a time calculation field and then a view when that field gets to a certain time and then trigger from the new view

Spoiler / the first is easier.

Final option is to use Zapier which can build in a delay which may give time for all the attachments to be added.

[Russell_Findlay]

I am not the first to discover this Try reading this

[Bill_French]

Julie_Qiu:

Is there any way to ensure that the automation is triggered after a certain delay after files are uploaded?

I’m no expert in matters like this, but maybe create a view that the record enters only after a time delta between something like created time and now is > 1 minute. Then have the email process act upon only records in that view.