I have an Airtable form that has collected over 50 responses. I set up an automation to automatically send an email after a form submission and to create a record for each entry. However, there is a problem: the new records are being added in different rows instead of aligning with the corresponding entries from the form. This disrupts my data layout. Has anyone else had this problem? How can I adjust the automation so that entries are organized properly?
your automation’s broken from the start. form submissions already create records automatically - you don’t need to tell it to make more. just delete the whole ‘create record’ action and keep the email trigger. i dealt with this exact mess last month and spent forever cleaning up duplicate rows.
Your automation’s treating each form submission like a fresh start instead of recognizing the record already exists.
Hit this exact nightmare when we launched a product feedback form. Forms created records fine, but automation kept spawning extras everywhere.
Your automation logic’s backwards - the form creates records, automation should just handle emails.
Check what table your automation writes to. If it’s the same table as form responses, there’s your problem. The automation should reference the existing record from the form submission.
Also check - you using the right record ID? Sometimes automations grab wrong record context and create new ones instead of using the triggered record.
Quick test: disable automation, submit test form, see if record appears. If yes, automation’s your culprit.
We fixed ours by restructuring automation to only send emails using existing form record data. No more duplicates.
Had this exact same issue when managing client intake forms. Your automation’s running two separate actions when you only need one. Form submissions already create records automatically - your automation should just handle emails. Remove the “create record” action completely and keep only the email trigger. What’s happening: your form creates the record, then your automation creates another one. That’s why they show up in different rows. I made this mistake and ended up with 200+ duplicates before figuring it out. Once I removed the redundant record creation, everything lined up perfectly with form submissions.
Been dealing with Airtable automations for years - this sounds like a field mapping issue where your automation’s creating duplicate records instead of working with existing ones. Check if your automation should even be creating new records. Usually form submissions automatically generate records and you just need the email automation to reference those existing ones. Go into your automation settings and make sure the action’s set to update fields in the record that triggered it, not create entirely new records. Also check if you’ve got multiple automations running that might be conflicting. I once had three different automations all trying to handle the same form submission - created a mess just like what you’re describing.
Classic Airtable automation timing issue. I’ve hit this exact problem before.
Your automation’s firing before the form submission finishes creating its record. So instead of updating the form’s record, it creates a new one.
Here’s the fix:
Set your trigger to “When a record is created” not “When a form is submitted”. Let the form create the record first, then your automation kicks in.
For emails, just trigger on record creation and send the email. Don’t create another record in the same automation.
Double-check your base setup too. Form submissions should auto-create records in your main table. If they’re not, your form settings might be pointing to the wrong table.
I had this happen with 80 responses once - had to manually merge all the duplicates. But this fix stopped it from happening again.