Airtable trigger: ERROR: The Field "[field name]" does not exist

Created an Airtable trigger that fires when a certain field updates. It can’t find the field.

Requires base id, table name, and field name.

I know the base id and table name are correct by testing an airtable node that appends a new record, so I know it’s finding the base and table.

I have no idea how to make it find the record.

This is a self-hosted instance deployed through Docker Desktop (ubuntu WSL 2) on a Windows computer.


Welcome to the community @Jeff_Haskin

I wonder if the emoji is causing the issue. Can you remove it from the table in Airtable and test it again?

I wish that was the problem, haha. I tried it with other fields as well like “Notes” and other simple-named fields. It did the same thing.

The issue happens when you set the fields parameter and the trigger field is not included. So, to solve it, you can either not set it and return all fields or add the Updated Time Weight field to the fields parameter. In case you want to do the latter, It should look like this: Weight,Updated Time Weight - Make sure yo include the emoji.

Will tomorrow improve the error message and perhaps automatically include the trigger field to fields since it’s unclear whether it needs to be added there or not.

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+1 for automatically including the fields!

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Tried it again both ways:

  1. With the trigger field included in the “Fields” response parameter.
  2. With no “Fields” response parameter set up.

It failed both times.


It works for me just fine. Is it possible that you are using an incorrect Base ID? What version of n8n are you using?

I downloaded the new desktop app first, and it had all those errors. So then I did the self-deploy through Docker Desktop, and had the same problems.

Both were done yesterday, so they’re whatever the most recent version is.

Is there a de-bugging mode I can use to try it again and send the data here?

By any chance, did you figure it out?

Regarding the debug mode, yes, we have one; however, I do not think it will help much in this scenario.

No. I’ve uninstalled all the desktop app and all the things for the self-deploy version (node.js, WSL2, Docker Desktop, etc.) and I’m going to do a clean install of just the desktop app and try again.

Please keep me posted.

Hi there,

I know the thread is already quite some time but I am just wondering whether you managed to resolve the issue ?

I am encountering the same issue at the moment.

Need help here. Same issue.

@RicardoE105 @thaqiftaher @jakemorrison
Hi guys,
This problem keeps coming back and I several times managed to make it work but didn’t know why.
Today I probably discovered the issue (or at least one of them).
It looks like the airtable trigger pulls the FIRST record created as an example, no matter which field was last modified. And as long as the “last modified time” of this first record (the one we use in automation) is not populated - it throws an error that this field doesn’t exist.
Have a look at this gif. It seems like a bug to me as we don’t always to have this record filled.
airtable_n8n

So temporary solution is to find out which record was created first (by using “created time” option) and make sure this field has been populated. Obviously the field related to this “last modified time” field can be deleted, as the deletion is a registered event and mod time field will remain populated

Hope this helps!
btw I’m on n8n.cloud

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@Kris_Szostak thanks! You just saved me a few hours of banging my head against this :sweat_smile:

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It worked for me as well.

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