Troubleshooting guide
A useful place to start, with a route to the related result.
Troubleshooting guide
A Zap runs, but fields are missing: trace the value from trigger to destination
Inspect one synthetic record through each step and separate missing input, transformation, permissions and destination validation.
Troubleshooting guide
One Sheets row becomes one Xero invoice line: check the line-item shape
Distinguish missing spreadsheet headers from multiple products mapped into one invoice line, using a disposable two-product acceptance case.
Troubleshooting guide
An Airtable automation failed or did not run: read the history, then check five causes
Find the failing step in the run history, understand why records already matching never trigger, and check inputs, scripts, limits and who gets told.
Troubleshooting guide
Splitting a repetitive Airtable table into linked tables: how the matching works and where it goes wrong
Why exact text matching, commas and formula primary fields matter, and the order that keeps counts reconcilable when one table becomes two.
Troubleshooting guide
A scheduled job that asks for records since its last run: why it loses some and repeats others
Four small pieces make polling reliable: a checkpoint, an overlap, a key for every record and complete paging. See why each exists.
Troubleshooting guide
Who is told when an automation fails? What each tool really does, and how to test it
Zapier, Make, n8n and Airtable each alert in different ways, with delays, gaps and side effects. Find out where yours goes, then test it by breaking a copy.
Troubleshooting guide
Verify a webhook signature on the exact bytes you received, not the data you parsed
Why a correct secret can still fail, how to compare signatures safely, which identifier to trust against replays, and how to test a receiver with known inputs.
Troubleshooting guide
The sender says webhook delivery failed: timeouts, retries, deleted subscriptions and missed events
Answer quickly, expect repeats, and know how to find and replay events that arrived while your endpoint was down.
Troubleshooting guide
Duplicate HubSpot contacts or companies after a web form: which route created them
HubSpot matches contacts by email and companies by domain, but the route a lead takes decides what happens. Learn the four routes and the risks of merging.
Troubleshooting guide
New HubSpot leads with no owner: how rotation, away users and fallbacks really behave
Write the routing rules first, then learn what the rotate action counts for contact records, how HubSpot's Leads tool differs, and where a lead ends up when nobody is available.
Troubleshooting guide
A HubSpot field keeps changing back from Salesforce: sync rules, baselines and picklist errors
Read the sync rule on the field, understand the first-sync baseline, then check types, picklists and where HubSpot lists sync errors.
Troubleshooting guide
A Zap created the record twice: find which of five causes it was
Count the runs, then check for a second Zap on the same trigger, a self-trigger, a replay and a plain create step before you change anything.
Troubleshooting guide
A Zap stopped or shows Errored or Halted: what each status means and what to replay
Read the run status first, understand why a Zap turns itself off, and know what a replay repeats and why error emails can arrive hours late.
Troubleshooting guide
A Make scenario stopped on one record: error handlers and incomplete executions explained
What Make does by default when a module fails, what the five error handlers do, why a route that only sends a message skips the error, and why a stored incomplete execution can hold back the next run.
Troubleshooting guide
A scheduled report arrived at the wrong time or covered the wrong days
Find out which clock your automation tool uses, fix the reporting period in one place, and test across a clock change instead of assuming.
Troubleshooting guide
An n8n webhook works while you watch but not afterwards: test and production URLs
The Webhook node has two addresses with different rules. See which one your sender uses, how to read production runs, and how to be told when one fails.
Troubleshooting guide
Converting an ERP export for a store import: decimal commas, day-first dates, codes and rejects
Why hand-editing an ERP export produces different files on different days, and how explicit number, date and code rules, exact decimal arithmetic and a reject file make the conversion repeatable.
Troubleshooting guide
Excel shows #REF! or #NAME?: work out which kind of broken formula you have
Each Excel error value points to a different kind of break. Learn what they mean, how to trace a formula back to its inputs, and why hiding the error is not a repair.
Troubleshooting guide
Totals look wrong but Excel shows no error: stale calculation, text numbers and displayed versus stored values
When no error appears, three quiet causes explain most wrong totals: manual calculation, numbers stored as text and rounding that is displayed but not stored. Here is how to tell which.
Troubleshooting guide
Merged cells stop Excel sorting and pivoting: how to flatten a printed-style report safely
Merged group labels, spacer rows and subtotal lines make a report readable on paper and unusable as data. See what merging does, what a flat table needs and how to prove nothing was lost.
Troubleshooting guide
Dates sort wrongly or change between computers: serial numbers, text dates and day-month order
Excel stores dates as numbers and reads typed dates through regional settings. Learn how text dates, a four-year offset and day-first entries produce wrong sorting, and what to do with rows that cannot be settled.
Troubleshooting guide
Cleaning duplicates in a contact list: write the match rules before you delete anything
Removing duplicates is a set of decisions, not a button. Compare exact and near matches, avoid merging people who only share a field, and keep a log so every merge can be undone.
Troubleshooting guide
Old .doc and .xls files: what converting really changes and how to check a whole batch
Converting one old Office file is easy. Converting a folder needs an inventory, copies instead of overwrites, a decision about macros and a check that the new files match the old.
Troubleshooting guide
Renaming thousands of files: rules, collisions, path limits and a manifest that proves nothing changed
A bulk rename can overwrite files, break on reserved names or exceed path limits. A dry run, a rule check and a checksum manifest make it safe and reversible.
Troubleshooting guide
Mail merge and quotation templates: why numbers arrive wrong and how to test a batch
A merge copies cell values into a template. Currency symbols, percentages and codes come through differently from how they look, so calculations and formats must be settled before the merge.
Troubleshooting guide
Rebuilding the same report every week or month: how to make it repeatable and checkable
A recurring report drifts when it is rebuilt by hand. Fix the export contract, make refreshing change only the data, and add control totals so each period can be checked against its source.
Troubleshooting guide
Before you import a spreadsheet into another system: the checks that stop a failed load
Loads fail on blanks, types, dates, codes and keys. A column-by-column readiness sheet, the right CSV handling and a test on a copy catch most problems before they reach a live system.
Troubleshooting guide
Can this PDF be read as data? Check for a text layer before you plan an extraction
A PDF can hold selectable text or only a picture of each page. A two-minute test tells you which, and that decides the method, the checks and what anyone can honestly promise.
Troubleshooting guide
How to check a PDF extraction is right: count, compare, and list what could not be read
Extraction mistakes are silent. Counting rows page by page, comparing a pre-chosen sample and keeping an exceptions list shows where a spreadsheet differs from its document.
Troubleshooting guide
Filled-in PDF forms: where the answers live and when they are really gone
Answers typed into a fillable PDF are stored as named fields inside each file. Learn how to tell whether a returned form still has them, and how to decide what checkboxes and blanks become in a spreadsheet.
Troubleshooting guide
A scanned PDF cannot be searched: what text recognition can fix and how to test it
Scanning produces pictures of pages. Text recognition can add a hidden text layer, but quality depends on the scan. Test it with words you know are on known pages rather than trusting a percentage.
Troubleshooting guide
The same webhook arrives twice and runs twice? Acknowledge fast and make a repeat do nothing
Providers redeliver events that time out or fail. An endpoint that does the work before answering, with no memory of what it has seen, will run the action twice.
Troubleshooting guide
Slack events hit your endpoint twice, or not at all: signature, timestamp and the three-second rule
How Slack signs events, why the raw body and a five-minute window matter, and how to reply in time without running the work twice.
Troubleshooting guide
Website form to Pipedrive: store first, match by email, create a linked lead, respect the limits
The order of calls, the API versions, the matching rule, the rate limits and the outage design for pushing a form enquiry into Pipedrive without losing it, and the lookup that keeps a lost reply from creating a second lead.
Troubleshooting guide
Invoice values look right in Sheets but arrive as currency text or a date number
Separate a spreadsheet's displayed currency and date from the values a connector reads, then agree the destination types before repairing a mapping.
Troubleshooting guide
An invoice integration adds tax twice: agree whether each amount is net or gross
Name the tax basis of each mapped line and the approved tax treatment before mistaking a populated amount field for a correct invoice.
Troubleshooting guide
Invoice creation timed out: reconcile the unknown result before retrying
Distinguish a confirmed rejected creation from a lost response after a possible write, and define zero, one and conflicting-match dispositions before a replay.
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