Notion error: Nothing could be found for the search

Symptoms

When using the Notion Find Database Item action in your Zaps, you may see the error message "Nothing could be found for the search". This error occurs when setting up a Zap or in the details of a Zap run in your Zap history.

Causes

This happens when:

• The mapped field from the previous step in the property field is blank. 
• The data item does not exist in Notion.
  • In some cases, the creation of an item depends on another Zap that has not run at the time the search was carried out.
• The mapped field data does not match the corresponding data in the Notion database.
  • The search is exact match, which means it’s affected by case sensitivity, spelling, punctuation, spacing, special characters, and word order.

Considerations for searching date fields

• Notion uses ISO 8601 for dates and times (Year, Month, Date, optional: Time, Timezone offset).
• If you do not have a timezone set in your Zapier account or within your Zap, Zapier automatically sets the timezone to UTC.
• Zapier attempts to convert dates to the ISO 8601 format when used in Notion date fields.

How to fix it

To fix this issue:

• Ensure the data from the previous step is consistently sent to the Notion step, or replace the current mapped field with one that consistently provides a value.
• Use Formatter to remove unnecessary formatting such as spacing and special characters.
• If you are searching for a date time in Notion:
  • Use the ISO 8601 format or use Formatter to convert it.
  • If you do not want to search date fields by UTC timezone, set a timezone in your Zapier account or within your Zap.
• If you cannot change the current mapped field, you can either:
  • Add a step to set a default value as a fallback whenever your mapped field does not have any data.
  • Add conditional logic using a filter or branching logic with paths to your Zap. This will allow you to define what the Zap should do if the mapped field to identify the database item receives no data from the previous step.
• Add a delay to your Zap to add in some time before the Zap searches for the database item.