Interface Page Limit

[JakeD]

Making this note incase anyone else runs into this issue.

As is listed on the Airtable website, there is a limit of 50 interfaces per base and 50 pages per interface. 

However, what is not made clear is what constitutes a "page". One might be mistaken to believe (understandably as I did) that "page" would be a "page" as is listed when you go to EDIT > "add page". (*sarcasm intended here)

However, when in one interface I had 22 pages, my "add page" option suddenly greyed out. (see attached screenshot for reference). 

I tried to work with Airtable support on why this was happening, but they didn't seem to understand the issue and kept giving advice about record limits (which I am only using 3% of my 50,000 record limit and repetively explained to them that was not the issue I was asking about). But I won't comment on the unhelpful support beyond that.

To help all of you who may be facing this same frustratingly bizarre problem, I'll explain what I discovered on my own. 

WHAT IS A "PAGE" Really: What counts as a page in the interface is not simply the list of pages when you go to "add page". Instead, any page that also uses multiple ways to view that page, counts as a page (see image).

Example: You have a Page for viewing contacts. Your default view might be "List View". Great that is one page. However, you may (inside that page) include different ways to view that same data. You perhaps select, Calendar view, and Grid as well.  

Well, now you are apparently using 3 pages according to Airtable. 

Be aware of this everyone, as it isn't explained anywhere and Airtable support, unfortunately, couldn't seem to understand when I explained it to them and I had to figure it out on my own through troubleshooting.

Peace 🙂 

[ScottWorld]

Wow. That is completely & totally messed up. That is completely misleading. Sadly, this is also incredibly typical for Airtable.

[kuovonne]

I’d also hazard a guess that each sidesheet design and each new record form are also pages. 

[ScottWorld]

I've started a conversation on this topic here as well.

[Karlstens]

Always helps to reference the official manual link;

https://support.airtable.com/docs/interface-designer-overview

Unfortunately, the manual doesn't clearly detail what constitutes as a page, and how this limitation that you've reach could be encountered.

I haven't personally reached this limit with my production interfaces - but am now a little worried and might have to check how close we are.

[JakeD]

@Karl_L  Yes the Official Manual link was the first place I referenced and that's actually what lead me to more uncertainty. 

I'm still waiting for support to provide clarification, but I think that @kuovonne is correct in her suspicion that the "page counts" are not only the pages themselves and the Data Visualization inside those pages, but ALSO the unique "side sheet design".

I think this is the case because I did a manual count of all my PAGE + Data Visualizations (inside the pages) and even then it only equalled 32. So now I'm going to add up the unique side-sheet designs and see where those numbers add to. 

The more I investigate this the more misleading the "50 pages" description is in the Airtable manual. 

[JakeD · Accepted solution]

So I've finished my count and it's pretty clear now.

My conclusion is that the following all count towards the "50 Interface Page Limit"
1) Interface Pages 

2) "Add Records" Views (which is center pop-up activated from a button on a page)

3) Any unique "Open record details" pages (the ones that can be full screen or a right-side slide-out. 

I did a count of all of these in mine, and low and behold = 50. 

If this is in-fact intentional, Airtable needs to update and clarify its official manual description of what an "Interface Page" actually is.  https://support.airtable.com/docs/interface-designer-overview

Or if this is NOT the intention of Airtable, then they need to fix this ASAP so that only true PAGES count toward the 50-page limit.

@Karlstens @ScottWorld @kuovonne 

[kuovonne]

Thank you for reporting back. This is a useful list. However, none of the people you tagged work for Airtable and this have no say.

I recommend you contact support with your findings. In my experience, getting documentation updated can happen faster than product changes. 

[JakeD]

@kuovonne  Thanks, I actually just tagged you all because I knew you'd likely be interested as fellow users.

I've already been in contact with the Airtable official support, but they seem to be really struggling so far to understand what I'm talking about haha. I've responded back and forth a few times with them trying to explain it, attached screenshots etc., but so far haven't gotten to a point yet where they seem to understand the issue I'm asking about.

(You all understood pretty quickly on the other hand haha!)

I'm sure someone from Airtable will eventually respond as I'm sure the first handful of emails via their support system has possibly been just Ai Support Bots' algorithmic responses (even the direct email ones). Usually, that's fine and can answer more general questions, but I think I need an actual human to address this specific issue. Hopefully soon 🙂

[ScottWorld]

@JakeD Yeah, it’s sad that Airtable Support takes such a long time to respond to customer support emails — if they ever respond at all. And if/when they do respond, the replies are largely unhelpful.

The expert Airtable consultants (such as myself and @kuovonne) typically know significantly more about Airtable than the people who work at Airtable themselves. This is one of the many reasons why I created TableForums: The Airtable Discussion Community. It’s a place where people can get extremely quick support & highly accurate answers from true Airtable experts who care about Airtable — and it’s also designed to be the place where real conversations & real connections can thrive. In fact, it’s the only web-based forum that I know of where many of the Airtable consultants & Airtable experts spend their time. And all of us are volunteering our time, too.

Of course, for Airtable's interfaces, Airtable would need to update their documentation and/or remove these limitations. I would recommend going to this support page on interfaces, scrolling down to the very bottom, clicking on the “No / thumbs down” button, and submit feedback about changing the article to reflect the reality of this situation. Airtable used to have employees who updated those support articles based on feedback through the thumbs down button, but nobody has updated the support articles based on user feedback in nearly 2 years.

To workaround Airtable's interface limitations, I would highly recommend using an external portal/interface tool for Airtable, such as Noloco.

The CEO of Noloco gave a demonstration of his product on this Airtable podcast episode: https://youtu.be/yyJSHijFD7g?si=7CJzR935EJps9Vl6

I also give a brief tutorial of Noloco on this Airtable podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jwb0CFJ2qY&list=PLqssva4liHRwHhQIpTXekG8WObEoyC2F1

And I also presented a full one-hour webinar on Noloco called Building a Client Portal on Noloco powered by Airtable.

You can also get a lot of this same functionality from Fillout's advanced forms for Airtable, which lets you update Airtable records from a form.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld