Multi-source syncing overview

For the purpose of syncing in Airtable, a source is the origin where the synced data is coming from. Within Airtable, a source is a shared view with syncing enabled. We plan to continue adding external sources over time as well. So a source can be any place where the data is coming from.

The main difference between single and multi-source syncs is that multi-source syncs require field mapping. Since data in a destination table’s fields can be provided by multiple sources, your choices during the sync setup process will determine how the source fields map to the destination’s synced fields. For example, if a field in one source is formatted differently than a field in another source, then the field mapping setup allows you to determine both where the data will be populated in the multi-source destination synced table as well as how it is formatted.

From the image above you can see that some fields were automatically mapped, while others were mapped manually. In particular, notice that the “Completion date” (single line text) field’s information has been mapped to the “Due date” (Date field), thus converting the field type to match the date field format of the primary source.

Note

When adding a new source, we will try and match column names to existing column names. For columns that could not be matched, the default option will be to sync that data to a new field on the table instead. You can change any mappings or opt to sync any source field to a new synced field.

The primary source for a field is what will determine:

1. The field type and configuration

2. Whether the field is removed when the source field is hidden or destroyed.

For a sync with a single source, you can consider the single source to be the primary source for all fields. Whichever source first maps to a field, either when setting up the first source or by choosing the "Sync to a new field" option, becomes the primary source for that field. For every synced field you can change the primary source from the sync configuration window:

In this image, you can see that changing the “Due date” field’s primary source changes the field type from a date field to a single line text field or vice versa.

First, make sure to check that the “Data in this view is allowed to be synced to other bases” option is toggled on in every view source that you intend to aggregate.

Choose a base whose configuration makes the most sense for your workflow. You can always change this later, but remember that the first source you sync will default to be your primary source as well as determine the initial naming structure for the fields.

Next, you will need to sync each base to the destination base. There are multiple flows to choose from when looking to sync. For this example, we will set up our syncs from the “Management” destination base. As you can see below, the name of this newly created synced table will take on the name of the view that it has been sourced from. Feel free to rename the table and any synced fields after this initial setup.

This process will need to be repeated for the other sources you want to sync. Notice that some fields will automatically map, while others will show the option to “Sync to a new field type.” This means that a new field would be created. For our example, we choose to manually map the fields from the Product base to fields already created from the initial sync setup.

Now, to add a third source from the engineering team’s base.

Now that we have the three sources syncing to the Management base we can always go back and tweak the setup if changes are needed down the road.

Change the destination synced field for the source field of your choice. The type of the destination synced field will also change based on the primary source field.

This option will stop syncing data from this source to the mapped field. If this source was the primary source the synced field will also be destroyed.

If the field was previously mapped to a destination:

• If the source was primary - the synced field will be destroyed, and the data will be mapped to a new field instead.

• If the source was not primary, the data from this source will be mapped to a new field instead.

If this field was previously unmapped - the data in the source field will be mapped to a new synced field.

You will have different limits for your synced tables according to the plan of the workspace your base belongs to. See our pricing page for more details on the sync limits for your workspace's plan.

To visualize which source a record is syncing from, you'll want to enable the Sync source option in the Advanced field options menu. To navigate to a specific record from a source, you can use the Open Source Record button action to open the record in a new tab.

The primary source determines the field type.

Navigate to the sync configuration window and select the change button next to the “Advanced field options” row.