Many records on "Create Record" Action from "When a Record is Updated" Trigger

[Adriano_Gomes_C]

Hi, I think it´s is a basic issue but I´ll be grateful for any help.

When using the “When a Record is Updated” trigger for create a new record, several records are been created when a start to type the changes

In this exemple above 4 records were created but I need just 1 new records with all changes made.

How can I solve that?

Thanks in advance!

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

Yeah, unfortunately, this is one of the biggest problems & limitations with Airtable’s handling of records. It can certainly be frustrating.

Unlike other database systems, Airtable has no concept of when a user is “finished editing a field” or when a user is “finished editing a record”.

Airtable never waits for the user to finish editing a field (or finish editing a record) before it starts taking immediate actions on that field or record.

So Airtable believes that a record is continually “updated” with every keystroke that you type on your keyboard. (There is a slight delay of a few seconds, which is why you only see the unexpected behavior after every few keystrokes.)

So, your 2 best options would be to:

1. Use a checkbox field to trigger your automation.
2. Use a single-select field to trigger your automation.

Since you can only take a single action in a checkbox field or a single-select field, there won’t be any premature interference from Airtable.

Note that you can use these 2 options with either the “when a record is updated” trigger or the “when a record matches conditions” trigger. If you choose the “when a record is updated” trigger, be sure to have it monitor only the checkbox field or the single-select field — instead of monitoring the entire record.