I set up an automation where customers fill out a product request form through Typeform. My Airtable setup has a “Product Line” table in the “Orders” base that connects to records from a “Stock” table located in the “Warehouse” base. This connection field is named “Stock ID”. There’s also a link to my “Purchase” table within the “Orders” base.
I’m using Make.com with an “Add Record” module for Airtable. When I manually enter the Purchase ID, everything works fine and the new product line record gets created. However, when I try to manually input the Stock ID record, I get an error saying the record doesn’t exist. I’ve tested this with both the direct API call and the Add Record module.
The Stock table is synced from another base, so I’m wondering if that’s causing the issue. Has anyone run into this problem before? Could this be related to how the API handles linked records across different bases?
Cross-base linking through Make.com gets tricky when synced tables are involved. The API doesn’t recognize synced records the same way it handles native records, which explains why your Purchase ID works but Stock ID fails. I dealt with something similar when connecting inventory across multiple bases. The workaround that saved me hours of troubleshooting was using a lookup field instead of direct linking. Create a text field in your Product Line table that captures the Stock ID as a string value rather than trying to establish the actual link relationship through the automation. Another option is to handle the linking on the Airtable side using automations rather than forcing it through Make.com. Set up your Make scenario to create the Product Line record with just the basic data, then let an Airtable automation trigger to establish the cross-base link based on matching criteria. The root issue is that Airtable’s API has limited support for cross-base operations, and synced tables add another layer of complexity that automation platforms struggle with.
Yeah, you’re hitting a classic Airtable API limitation. Cross base linked records don’t work the same way as regular linked fields when you’re pushing data through automation tools.
I ran into this exact issue last year when building a procurement system. The synced table was the culprit. Even though you can see the records in your interface, the API treats synced records differently.
Here’s what worked for me:
Instead of trying to link directly to the synced Stock table, create a regular table in your Orders base and sync the essential stock data there. Then link to that local table instead.
Or if you need to keep the current setup, use a two step process. First, create the Product Line record without the Stock ID. Then use an Update Record module to add the Stock ID after the record exists.
The Purchase ID works because both tables live in the same base. Cross base linking through automation is just wonky, especially with synced tables.
Tried this approach on three different projects and it solved the problem every time.