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Issue Updating MultipleSelects Options via API

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Mikołaj
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to update the list of select options in the column Categories_test in an Airtable table using the API. My request seems to be correctly formatted, but I keep getting an error response from the server. I would appreciate any guidance on what might be wrong.

Here are the details:

PATCH Request:

Endpoint:

 

 

PATCH https://api.airtable.com/v0/meta/bases/{baseId}/tables/{tableId}/fields/{fieldId}

 

 

Request Body:

 

 

{
    "type": "multipleSelects",
    "options": {
        "choices": [
            {
                "name": "test"
            },
            {
                "name": "blabla"
            }
        ]
    }
}

 

 

Headers:

 

 

{
    "Authorization": "Bearer [ANONYMIZED_API_TOKEN]",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

 

 

Server Response:

 

 

{
    "error": {
        "type": "INVALID_REQUEST_UNKNOWN",
        "message": "Invalid request: parameter validation failed. Check your request data."
    }
}

 

 

What I’ve Tried:

  1. Verified that baseId, tableId, and fieldId are correct (confirmed via API).
  2. Confirmed that the Categories_test field is of type multipleSelects (checked via API).
  3. Tested the request in both Insomnia and make.com.

 

Has anyone encountered a similar issue? Are there additional requirements when updating multipleSelects fields that I might be missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

4 Replies 4

You can only update the name and description via that endpoint I'm afraid: https://airtable.com/developers/web/api/update-field

To add new options to an existing multiple select field, try creating a new record or editing an existing record and adding those options in with 'typecast' true.  Here's an example of editing a single existing record via a PATCH that'll add those two options in:

{
    "fields": {
        "Select": [
            "test",
            "blabla"
        ]
    },
    "typecast": true
}

https://airtable.com/developers/web/api/update-record

Thank you for your response, and I appreciate the clarification!

I’m aware that I can use typecast: true to add new options to a multiple select field by editing or creating a record. However, in my case, I specifically need to remove certain options from the multiple select field's list of choices.

If API doesn’t support directly modifying or removing options from a multipleSelects field, is there any other recommended approach to achieve this? For example, is there a way to remove unused or unwanted options via API or another workaround?

Thanks again for your help! 😊

Hmm for deleting options I think you'd have to use the scripting extension: https://airtable.com/developers/scripting/api/field#update-options-async

You’re absolutely correct that the scripting extension can be used with the updateOptionsAsync method to modify or remove options from a multipleSelects field. However, I’m specifically looking for a solution that can be triggered automatically. Unfortunately, the scripting extension requires manual execution, which doesn’t align with my use case.