Airtable Sync FAQs

When you configure a table sync, you can choose to manually or automatically sync changes to your base. Automatic syncing occurs approximately once every 5 minutes and is only available on paid plans.

We currently only support syncing from grid views.

Sync integrations can be managed from the workspace settings page as outlined in this support article.

In the Sync Activity log, if you have access to the destination base, you'll see the name of the base and the user who configured the sync. If instead you see "an anonymous base" or "unknown user", this is due to one of the reasons below:

• You do not have access to the base
• The destination base has been deleted

If you're concerned about who might have access to the shared view link to set up a synced table, you can:

• Regenerate your shared view link: when you do so, the sync will pause on all destination bases until it is re-authenticated. The users on the destination bases will see an error icon, along with the time the table last synced. To re-authenticate, they'll need the new syncable view share link. To provide that link, click the dropdown next to the destination table, select Update sync configuration, and provide the new link.
• Enable a password and/or email domain restrictions on the shared view link. If the view share link is restricted to example.com, an example.com Airtable account will be required to sync that view to any base. You can learn more about sync permissions here.

We respect password and email domain restrictions. For example, if the view share link is restricted to dundermifflin.com, a dundermifflin.com Airtable account will be required to sync that view to any base. Learn more about sync permissions here.

The sync will pause until it is re-authenticated. You’ll see an error icon ⚠️, along with the time the table last synced.

To re-authenticate, you’ll need a new syncable view share link. Then, click the dropdown next to the destination table, select Update sync configuration, and provide the new link.

It’s likely the case that someone is adjusting the filtering conditions (or hiding records) in the source view. If a record is filtered out of the source view, then, depending on your particular sync's settings, that record will in turn be removed from the destination table. If a record is removed from the destination table, that record will unlink from any linked record fields to that table.

You can address this issue is by locking the source view 🔐 (premium plans only), to prevent other collaborators from inadvertently changing the filtering conditions. You can also consider renaming the source view to warn people to not change the view’s filtering conditions.

If the shared view is domain restricted and the user that set up the sync loses access to the source base, the sync will pause. It may be worthwhile for an admin user to set up important syncs so that they are not interrupted.

By design, changing field names in a sync destination is meant to be difficult to change since formula fields, scripting, API calls, automations, and more may depend upon the current name of a field in the destination. For that reason, field names in the source and destination may not match if the name has been updated in the source. Use caution when using the workaround described and consider using the field manager to understand the dependencies in your base. 

To update a destination table to match the name of the field in the sync source, first, navigate to the synced destination table and click the dropdown next to its name. Then, click Update sync configuration. This will open the sync configuration window. From here, click on the three-dot icon next to the source you would like the field's name to match and select Edit synced fields. If the Specific fields in the source option has not already been selected, choose that option. Then, toggle off the field that you'd like the name to match and hit Save. Next, you'll follow the same steps, this time toggling the option to sync that same field back on and then click Save once more. Optionally, you can repeat the process one more time by choosing the All fields in the source and fields added in the future option to return the sync configuration back to that functionality as well. 

You can add a button field with the ‘Open Source Record’ action. If the button is grayed out, the record has been deleted or hidden in the source view.

Yes. For example, if you sync a view with 1,000 records from a source base (where the records originate from), the destination base (where you want to sync the records) will count the 1,000 synced records towards that base's total record limit.

Yes. Similar to the question above, attachments in a synced table will count against the attachment limit in that synced table's base.

Yes.

Yes. If you choose to keep records in the destination base when they are deleted in the source base, then you can add a sync source record button field. If the button is not clickable, then the record was deleted, hidden, or filtered out of view in the source base.

No. Record comments are scoped only to the base where the record resides. The records that reside in the destination table have a different record ID than the records in the source table, which means that even though there is a connection via the sync that you've set up, the records in each table are technically unique.