Troubleshoot bizarre automation error: Record doesn't exist

[oreocereus]

This one is puzzling me. I have an automation that watches for a field to be updated, which then updates another field on the same record. It mostly seems to work as I need it to.

However, I keep getting errors that the automation has failed as it "does not exist". It will successfully be triggered, but unable to update itself.

Indeed, these records don't seem to exist. I expect they are deleted. However, I can't get the automation to fire by deleting a record.

What could possibly be happening to the record between being the trigger and the update step?

I haven't been able to "catch" this failing in action, as it doesn't have a noticable effect in use - I only see it when airtable emails me a notification.

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Try restoring the deleted record from trash and checking out its revision history?

[oreocereus]

Thank you, didn't realise you could restore.

It took a fair bit of trial and error, but eventually figured it out!