Duplicate entries appearing when sending data to Airtable via API

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m having trouble with my script that adds new students to Airtable. It works, but it’s creating duplicate entries. I’ve checked the data I’m sending and it looks fine. Here’s what I’m doing:

  1. I loop through a list of students
  2. If a student is ‘enrolled’ or ‘admitted’, I check if they’re already in Airtable
  3. If they’re not, I add them to a new list of students to be added
  4. Then, I send this list to Airtable

Here’s a simplified version of my code:

function findNewStudents(students, existingStudents) {
  let newStudents = [];
  for (let student of students) {
    if (['enrolled', 'admitted'].includes(student.status)) {
      if (!existingStudents.some(e => e.id === student.id)) {
        newStudents.push({ fields: student });
      }
    }
  }
  return { records: newStudents };
}

function sendToAirtable(data) {
  const response = fetch('https://api.airtable.com/v0/myBaseId/Students', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': 'Bearer myToken',
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify(data)
  });
  return response.json();
}

Any ideas why this is happening?

2

I’ve encountered a similar issue before, and it might be related to how you’re handling asynchronous operations. The fetch function returns a Promise, which could lead to race conditions if not properly managed. Try using async/await to ensure your API calls complete before moving on to the next operation.

Also, consider implementing a more robust deduplication process. Instead of relying solely on the student ID, you could create a unique identifier combining multiple fields (e.g., ID + name + email). This approach can help prevent duplicates caused by slight variations in data.

Lastly, double-check your Airtable base settings. Sometimes, duplicate prevention settings in Airtable itself can interfere with API-based operations. Reviewing and adjusting these settings might resolve the issue without requiring changes to your code.

3

I’ve dealt with this exact problem before and found that it’s usually caused by race conditions when sending multiple API requests simultaneously. The Airtable API might not process them in the expected order, which leads to duplicates.

In my experience, introducing a delay between API calls—perhaps using setTimeout—and batching requests into fewer, larger groups helped manage this issue. I also implemented a unique constraint in Airtable by combining fields like student ID and email to prevent duplicate entries at the database level.

Handling API rate limits correctly is crucial too, as hitting those limits can cause some requests to fail quietly and later be retried, leading to duplicates. Switching to a library like Airtable.js instead of raw fetch calls also provided a more robust solution.

4

hey, prob try using a combined unique id (like name+email) to deter duplicates, and make sure not hitting rate limits. break your data up and add minor delays so they dont overload airtable’s api.