I’ve been wrestling with this automation workflow for several days now and I’m completely stuck. What seemed like a straightforward task has turned into a major headache.
I’m building an automated process that creates a television program guide using multiple API calls. The workflow involves around 10-12 steps where it cycles through different search queries, sends them to an external TV database API, and saves the results to storage. After processing all the queries and results, it’s supposed to send me a summary email.
The main issue I’m facing is with the looping mechanism. When I create a separate workflow to verify what data has been stored, I discover that the shows I actually need aren’t being saved properly. Instead, random entries that shouldn’t be included in the final output are getting stored. The storage keys appear to be matching correctly, so I can’t figure out what’s going wrong.
The iteration logic in these automation tools is really confusing me. Has anyone dealt with similar storage issues in multi-step workflows? Any suggestions would be really helpful.
omg i feel u! zapier can b super tricky, especially with loops. Seems like ur filter might be too broad. maybe try adding some more specific conditions? also looking at the logs can show what data is being processed! good luck!
Classic data race issue with async API calls. Had the same problem building a content aggregation system - my storage was getting overwritten because API responses finished out of order. Fixed it by ditching parallel execution and making each API call wait for the previous one to complete. Also check your variable scoping in loops - data from earlier iterations can bleed through. I’d add unique IDs to each stored result and validate right after each storage operation. That’ll help you track which API call created what data and find where those unwanted entries are coming from.
I’ve hit this exact issue when building automated workflows with multiple API calls. Those random entries usually mean your filters are running at the wrong time - they should happen after you parse the API response, not before you store the data. Also check if your loop counter is getting reset somewhere unexpected during execution. I found that adding a small delay between API calls prevents data from getting mixed up when the system processes multiple requests quickly. Try running just one iteration manually to pinpoint where the unwanted data is sneaking in.