When building an automation, you may choose a trigger that will start the automation. The "When record updated" trigger allows you to select an entire record, or individual fields in a record, to monitor for updates. Anytime the selected fields are updated the automation will trigger the action(s) you configured.

Setting up an automation to trigger when a record is updated

To create an automation to trigger when a record is updated:

1. Open your Airtable home screen.

2. Click Automations.

3. Click + Create new.

4. Click + Create automation.

5. Click + Add trigger.

   1. Once clicked, the available triggers will be displayed for you to choose from. Choose the When record updated option.

6. Under the “Table” section, select the table where updated records will trigger this automation to run.

   1. You can optionally select a view to only watch updates in that view. This can be helpful in preventing accidental automation runs since a view can contain additional filters or hide certain fields from the view. Note that if you update a field's value that is shown in your chosen view from anywhere, even in another view, this automation will be triggered. Anytime a watched field in your view changes this automation would be triggered.

   2. Furthermore, click Select fields. Any activity in records of fields being watched will trigger the subsequent automation that you build out to run. Watched fields detect that a field changed—they don't check what it changed to. If you want the automation to run only when a field reaches a particular value, see "Choosing a trigger for a specific field value" below. This option allows you to have the automation:

      1. Watch all - This option will watch all of the fields in the table/view. This is also a good option to use when you want to watch most of the fields and then you can toggle one or more fields off from being watched by the trigger.

      2. Unwatch all - This is a good option when you need to clear the watched fields and only select certain fields.

      3. You can also pick and choose one or more fields for the automation trigger to watch.

7. Next, test the trigger step. It’s important to test the trigger at this point so that you can utilize dynamic tokens in the automation action steps. Dynamic tokens allows you to pull in information from the updated record that triggered this automation such as record ID or time of creation. You can click Use suggested record to allow our system to choose a random record that aligns with the trigger type you selected or you can click Choose record to be able to select a specific record of your choice that may fit your needs when testing other steps of the automation. You will see a green “Step successful” message under the “Results” section after the trigger step has successfully tested.

8. Then, you want to add one or more automation actions. Check out our help center’s Automation actions section to learn more about each action Airtable offers.

9. Finally, test and turn on the automation. Be sure to test all of the steps in the automation that you are building. Once every part of the automation has tested successfully, you’ll be ready to turn the automation on. Find the red colored “OFF” toggle and click it so the automation now appears as “ON” in green.

Why automations with When record updated triggers can run more than once

A "When record updated" automation can run several times for what looks like a single change. In almost every case the trigger is working as designed and something updated a watched field more than once. Check these causes in order.

• The trigger is watching every field. If you left the trigger set to Watch all, it watches every field in the table or view — including fields you never edit by hand. A formula or rollup that recalculates, a synced table refresh, or another automation's Update record step all count as updates and all start the automation.

• An edit was committed more than once. Typing into a long text or single line text field can register as more than one update while you work, so the automation can start again before you finish. Fields that commit one discrete value when you change them — single select, checkbox, date — behave more predictably, as do updates made through the API.

• An action step writes back into a watched field. If the automation's own Update record step writes to a field the trigger watches, that write re-arms the trigger and the automation starts again.

• Two automations are updating each other's watched fields. When two automations run on the same table and each one writes a field the other watches, they loop. Neither automation looks wrong on its own, so check every automation on the table, not just this one.

• A paste, import, or sync changed many records at once. The trigger runs once per record, so pasting into 40 rows produces 40 runs. The run history shows them arriving together.

Reducing duplicate runs

Work down this list and stop at the first fix that suits your workflow.

1. Narrow the watched fields. Open the trigger, click Select fields, click Unwatch all, then select only the fields that should start the automation. This resolves most duplicate runs on its own.

2. Switch to the "When record matches conditions" trigger. That trigger runs when a record starts matching your conditions and does not run again until the record stops matching and matches again, which makes repeat runs much less likely.

3. Drive the automation from a field that changes once. Have people check a checkbox or set a single select value when the record is ready, and watch only that field.

4. Add a condition inside the automation. Use a conditional action group so the automation stops when the work has already been done — for example, when the field it would write already holds the intended value.

Choosing a trigger for a specific field value

The "When record updated" trigger watches for change, not for a result. It runs whenever one of the fields you selected is edited, whatever the new value is—so an automation watching a Status field runs every time someone edits Status, not only when Status becomes "Approved".

To run an automation only when a field reaches a specific value, you have two options:

• Use the "When record matches conditions" trigger. It runs when a record changes into the state you define, and records that already match the conditions don't cause it to run.

• Keep the "When record updated" trigger and put your actions in a conditional group of actions. The automation still runs on every watched-field edit, but the actions inside the group are skipped unless the condition is met.

Use this table to match what you want to happen to the trigger that fits: