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Automations not triggering consistently

matthew.pinney

Hiya!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

In one of our sheets, we have automations that should trigger when field 1 changes or when field 2 changes. Field 1 is changed by a Data Mesh, and field 2 is changed by an Update Request form.

Our issue is we are seeing some instances where the automations work when Field 1 changes as it should ( best case scenario). We are also seeing some instances where the automations work when Field 2 changes (not the best case, but we will take it). Our biggest problem is that sometimes the automations will not trigger when Field 1 changes, or when Field 2 changes. This causes issues with phantom notifications going out that should not. I should note that when this happens, manually running the automations corrects the issue.

What could cause these automations to miss triggers multiple times?

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Automations

Accepted answers

Paul Newcome

I would suggest reaching out to Support then. There have been a number of issues with Automations these past few months, and this may be tied to them.

matthew.pinney

Another similar post also suggested turning off all automations, refreshing the sheet, then turning them back on could temporarily help. I did as suggested and for now the automations are working.

All comments

Ankesh

Hi @matthew.pinney

A few quick questions:

Is your Data Mesh workflow set to Cell Link or Copy / Copy and Add Data?
What action do the missed automations use (Change Cell Value, Record a Date, Copy/Move Row, Alert, etc.)?
When it misses on Field 2, did the person actually change the value in the update request, or submit it unchanged?
Which workflow sends the phantom notifications? and does it rely on a value the missed automation should have set first?

A screenshot of the workflow would help too.

Thanks

Ankesh

Paul Newcome

Are you able to provide a screenshot of your trigger(s) in your automation?

matthew.pinney

Thanks in advance!

Data Mesh Copies data, but doesn't overwrite
Missed action is Change Cell Value.
Field 2 is changed in an update request form typically
The workflow that is not triggering makes certain approvals not required for the record. The phantom notifications are emails telling them that their approval is required. I say phantom because the automation does not trigger sometimes on Field 1, but does on Field 2. There are other automations that also trigger when Field 2 changes. Hence a notification is sent as (or just before) the other automation changes the field that tells it not to.

Field 1 should fire this off with the Data Mesh. It looks like Field 2 was added later to catch times when Field 1 failed to trigger.

matthew.pinney

Thanks in advance! Field 1 should fire this off with the Data Mesh. It looks like Field 2 was added later to catch times when Field 1 failed to trigger.

Paul Newcome

You say there is a missed Change Cell action and sometimes there is an approval workflow that needs to happen.

Are these two separate workflows that could be competing with each other? There is no way to tell separate automations to run in a specific order if they are triggered from the same action.

matthew.pinney

I have noticed that as well. However, the best case scenario would be the automation firing off when Field1 changes. This would be optimal and prevent any race case scenarios. But, we are noticing records where both triggers are getting ignored as well.

matthew.pinney

Another similar post also suggested turning off all automations, refreshing the sheet, then turning them back on could temporarily help. I did as suggested and for now the automations are working.

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