Common Problems with SQL Server (MSSQL) on Zapier

Some new rows didn't trigger my Zap

When using the following triggers:

  • New Row
  • New or Updated Row
  • New Row (Custom Query)

Each poll captures the 50 most recent rows. That means if more than 50 rows are added in a polling interval (depending on your plan), some data will be lost.

If you need to capture more than 50 rows at a time, you'll want to add them to your database in batches according to your plan's update time—no more than 50 records at a time per update period.

Can't connect to my database

Zapier only supports the newest version of SQL Server, and even then, minor driver problems can cause incompatibilities. Zapier has tested SQL Server app against Amazon AWS SQL Server 2008 R2 and 2010 RDS instances.

If you are using the latest version and still having difficulties connecting, refer to our can't connect to my database help article.

I'm getting errors about DateTime conversions

If you're using a DateTime column type and receiving errors about converting text into DateTimes, you should try using the date type or the datetimeoffset type.

Unknown connection timeouts

One known issue that has been reported by a number of our users occurs if you set up SQL Server and install a non-default instance (for example, a named instance). When this is done, the communication port is actually changed but SQL Server uses SQL Server Browser to relay messages to and from port 1433. For one reason or another, our app doesn't work well in this situation. Zapier recommends using the default instance for "the path of least resistance," but if that is not doable, you will need to make sure that TCP communication is enabled and that you have a static port set for the service.

Login failed for user

When attempting to connect to SQL Server, you may see the error message (ProgrammingError) ('42000', "[42000] [unixODBC][FreeTDS][SQL Server]Login failed for user 'username'. (18456) (SQLDriverConnect)") None None. This means there has been an issue with the encryption of the password connection string. To fix this issue, switch to a long alphanumeric password. Zapier recommends this tool for generating strong passwords.

Garbled or otherwise incorrectly converted data coming from the trigger

Currently, only UTF-8 encoding is supported. You will need to ensure your database uses UTF-8 encoding.

My trigger of New or Updated Row isn't picking up any of my updates

You'll need to specify ORDER BY by a date/time field such as date_updated or last_modified.

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