Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable
Share
Explore
Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable
Triggering automations

Triggering automations on existing records

⁠
⁠
Tip Jar
⁠
Thank Kuovonne for creating this content!
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
Automations with triggers like “when record meets conditions” or “when record enters view” only run if the record did not meet the conditions when the automation was turned on, but then meet the conditions after the automation is turned on.
However when setting up a new automation, you may want to run the automation on existing records, as well as future records that meet the conditions.

Testing the automation

If you only have a few records to process, testing the automation is the easiest method to run the automation on existing records. For each record to be processed, select the record as the test record and test the automation.
If your automation is designed so that records no longer meet the condition after the automation is run, you will know that you have processed all records when there are no more available test records.
If your records will still meet the conditions after the automation is run, you will need to manually track which records need processing.

Duplicating the automation with a simpler trigger

If you have many records to process, you can change the trigger to one that is easier to trigger. For example,
Create a temporary checkbox field.
Duplicate the automation and change the of the duplicate to be when the checkbox field is selected.
Turn on the duplicate automation.
Set the checkbox field for all the records you want to process.
Wait for the automations to all run.
Delete both the temporary checkbox field and the duplicate automation.
⁠
⁠
⁠
Thank Kuovonne for creating this content!
⁠
Give Kuovonne a sandwich
⁠
Signup for Coda w/ referral link
⁠
⁠
⁠
Buy from my Gumroad Store
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
Gallery
Share
 
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.