Bug? FormulaMap Automation doesn't work when ran in background, but works on test

[Chase_Schwalbach]

Hi all,

I made a page to describe my problem. If the automation runs, it fails, as you can see in the audit history. If you hit the test button, it successfully completes.

[Saul_Garcia]

Hello @Chase_Schwalbach!
I checked the automation and it shouldn’t fail, I think it is indeed a bug.
Normally the an automation fails when this happens:

My automation test runs well, but fails when row is modified based on real date

I haven’t yet gotten to the bottom of it, but I believe that automation will fail when a) it tries to read a “volatile” value (a result of Now(), Today(), or User(), which is calculated in a browser but not on Coda backend) b) it tries to read a value that has pending edits to it (e.g. when you edit a cell and then try to use its value in the same automation run) At least that was my assumption for a while, because I remember I saw both scenarios working for me at least once. So there must be…

In your case it doesn’t apply so I think It should work. You should contact support through the “?” button at the bottom right corner of your doc.

As a workaround you can add a button column in your Audit Table that adds to the History and updates the row, you can disable the button if Diff is Blank and set the automation to press the buttons in the table.
I copied your doc and tried this approach and it worked as expected.

And the automation it set up like this:

[Alice_Ly]

This bug should be fixed! But let me know if you’re still seeing it.

Thanks so much for reporting!