Google Sheets Append node showing metadata (spreadsheetId) instead of input data for newly created sheet

Questions
1

Hi Everyone I am a new with n8n , I like to thank you in advance for your answers. If you answer can you please try to make it specific?

Problem Description:

Hi everyone, I’m running into an issue where my Google Sheets Append Row node isn’t picking up the correct column headers from my data source.

My Setup:

  1. Node A: Flatten Hunter Results (Contains columns like company_name, website, phone, etc.).

  2. Node B: Create Google Sheet (Creates a brand new spreadsheet and outputs the spreadsheetId).

  3. Node C: Google Sheets Append Row (Using the ID from Node B to find the sheet).

The Issue: Because the spreadsheet was just created and is empty (no headers in Row 1), the Append Row node is defaulting its “Values to Send” to the metadata from the “Create” node (e.g., spreadsheetId, properties, sheets) instead of the lead data from my “Flatten” node.

What I’ve tried:

  • Setting the Input to the “Flatten” node.

  • Toggling “Map Each Column Manually.”

  • Refreshing the schema.

The Goal: I want the Append node to create the headers (company_name, website, etc.) in the new sheet and then map the data from my “Flatten” node into them. Since the sheet is empty, the node says “No columns found.”

How can I force n8n to use the columns from my “Flatten” node as the headers for the new spreadsheet?

Thanks a lot

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2

append row defaults to create node’s outputs when the sheet is empty — there’s no columns to map. try using set to write your headers from flatten as the first row, then append. or init the sheet with headers via api call upfront if you prefer that.

3

Hey Turbozurl!

I believe I understand the issue you are experiencing to be that you are trying to send the data to the new sheet but it says the new sheet has no columns so it can’t map properly.

One potential solution to this comes from the n8n documentation for the Google Sheets node where they say you can utilize this option in the “Append Leads to Sheet” node that you currently have:

”Handling extra fields in input: When using Mapping Column Mode > Map Automatically, use this option to decide how to handle fields in the input data that don’t match any existing columns in the sheet.

  • Insert in New Column(s) (default): Adds new columns for any extra data.”

Feel free to read the full article here: Google Sheets Sheet Within Document operations | n8n Docs

This solution is of course assuming that the sheet could have different columns on some runs, because there could potentially be a different solution if the columns would be the same on every run.

Please let me know if this works for you!

Thanks!

4

welcome to the n8n community @Turbozuri
From your screenshots, the input is fine. The issue is that the new sheet has no header row yet, so the Append node has no columns to map. I’d create the headers first, refresh the schema, then append the lead rows.