Common Problems with Airtable on Zapier

Instead of the values shown in a cell, we're getting a referenced cell's ID

If instead of this:

You get this:

That means that these are linked records — in other words, they're being pulled from another table. We get IDs for those because the data being shown isn't actually in those cells. As a workaround, you can create a formula column and select the lookup column name as the formula. This pulls in the lookup values as text so they can come across to the Zap the way you would expect.

I want to add multiple different values to my "Multiple Select" Airtable field but they're all merged

If you're trying to add multiple options to fields like this:

Separate the values with commas when mapping them in the Zap editor, either like this:

Or by placing commas between fields you insert from a previous Trigger or Action, like this:

My calendar views are not listed in the trigger's dropdown menu

Zapier can only display the normal Grid view from Airtable when setting up the triggers. We do not currently support the Form, Calendar, Gallery, or Kanban fields.

That said, when you create these views, you typically get to specify a new group or field to be created in the Main Grid view, and you can then use a Filter by Zapier step to check for that specific group or field you created for that view. The Zap will only continue if that group or field is coming from the trigger.

My Airtable "New Record" or "New Record in View" trigger is only returning "created_at" and "id" fields, even though I have more data than that!

Empty records in Airtable still count as trigger records to Zapier. So, if you have empty records at the bottom of your table, Zapier will pick those up in testing. Likewise, if you create new empty records (which Airtable may do automatically if you hit the 'enter' key while editing a record), those will trigger your Zap without any additional data. Then, if you update that empty record later to add data to it, it will not trigger your Zap.

To fix this, make sure that you delete any empty records from your tables.

A row was added to my Airtable view but it's not triggering my Zap

Airtable only sends Zapier 200 rows from a view at a time. The row order is based on the created_date, so the newest created rows are at the top. If something was created months ago but now qualifies for the view, it may never be seen and thus not trigger the Zap. Here's an example:

• Let’s say you created 1 row on 2020-12-01 (we'll call this Row A). You then created 200 rows on 2020-12-02 (well call these Rows B). You then created 1 row on 2020-12-03 (we'll call this Row C).
• Then, on 2020-12-04, you updated all the Rows B to meet the criteria of the view. All of those would trigger the zap. Next, you updated Row A to meet the criteria of the view. This row wouldn't ever trigger the zap because it would be at the bottom of the list (since it was created before Rows B) and so it would be the 201st row. We'd never be notified about it.
• Finally you updated Row C to qualify for the view. This one would trigger because it would be the first row of the 200 that we'd see.

One workaround here is that you can add an additional step to the end of your Zap to update something on the row, so that it's moved out of the view. That way the view will never grow above 200.

Airtable is ignoring my date field

If you are using Create Record or Update Record actions to update a record with a Date field, Airtable requires that the date/time be in "ISO" format. Any other format will be ignored. To update the record with the current time, you can use the Zap Meta Human Now timestamp to send the current time in UTC timezone, in ISO format, to Airtable.

(Advanced) Searching for a table by name via Webhook fails

If a webhook makes a request to https://api.airtable.com/v0/{appId}/{table name} it does not work with the User-Agent: Zapier header, which we automatically add. It returns a 404 (table not found) error. However, if you use the table ID, or if you remove the User-Agent: Zapier header, it will work.

The preferred solution is probably to use the table ID. However, you can also make it work by adding a User-Agent header in the webhook fields, with any value that is not blank, and not Zapier.

Summary: If you pass the table name, and if the User-Agent header is Zapier, it will return 404. If either of those two things is false, it works.

• Table ID & Zapier as User-Agent: 200.
• Table ID & not Zapier as User-Agent: 200.
• Table name & not Zapier as User-Agent: 200.
• Table name & Zapier as User-Agent: 404.