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Archive an Airtable record when its Drive file is trashed

A record pointing to a deleted file is a small trap you will step in later. Notis catches the trash event in Drive and marks the Airtable record archived, so your tracker stops referencing files that no longer exist.

Trigger

File Deleted or Trashed

Triggers when a file is moved to trash or permanently deleted in Drive.

Action

Update record

Modifies specified fields of an existing record in an airtable base and table; the base, table, and record must exist.

Why this helps

Records live on after their files are deleted, leaving dead links and confusion about what still exists.

  • No more records pointing to files that are already gone
  • Archiving happens automatically the moment a file is trashed
  • Your tracker stays trustworthy without periodic cleanups

Setup

Build it in a few focused steps.

  • 1Connect Google Drive and Airtable to Notis once from the portal.
  • 2Open Automations in the portal and click New Automation.
  • 3Write the prompt: when a Google Drive file is trashed or deleted, update its matching Airtable record to archived.
  • 4Choose the File Deleted or Trashed trigger and set the run-report channel.
  • 5Trash a test file and confirm the linked record is marked archived.

Questions about this workflow

Does it delete the record too?

No. This automation marks the record as archived so you keep the history. A separate automation can delete records if you prefer.

Does it fire for both trash and permanent delete?

Yes. The trigger covers files moved to trash and files permanently deleted.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

Supported Triggers and Actions

Notis builds workflows that link Google Drive to Airtable. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.

Google Drive triggers

Airtable actions

Comment Added (Docs/Sheets/Slides)

Triggers when a new comment is added to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.

TriggerPolling

Create base

Creates a new airtable base with specified tables and fields within a workspace; ensure field options are valid for their type.

ActionInstant

File Created

Triggers when a new file is created in Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create Comment

Creates a new comment on a specific record within an airtable base and table.

ActionInstant

File Deleted or Trashed

Triggers when a file is moved to trash or permanently deleted in Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create Field

Creates a new field within a specified table in an airtable base.

ActionInstant

File Shared (Permissions Added)

Triggers when new sharing permissions are granted to a file or folder. Uses Drive's `changes.list` endpoint with inline `permissions` in the `fields` mask so each change carries the file's current permission set provider-atomically. We diff that against `seen_permission_keys` to identify newly added grants. Drive page tokens are the primary cursor; if Drive rejects a stored token, the trigger raises `PollingTriggerError` without clearing state rather than silently re-baselining and dropping events. Limitation: truly ephemeral permissions (added and revoked between two polls without any other file modification in between) are not detected. Drive Activity API would catch those but requires an additional OAuth scope and a different payload contract.

TriggerPolling

Create multiple records

Creates multiple new records in a specified airtable table.

ActionInstant

File Updated

Triggers when a file's metadata or content changes in Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create a record

Creates a new record in a specified airtable table; field values must conform to the table's column types.

ActionInstant

Google Drive Changes

Triggers when changes are detected in a Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create table

Creates a new table within a specified existing airtable base, allowing definition of its name, description, and field structure.

ActionInstant

New File Matching Query

Triggers when a new Google Drive file matches a provided query. This is the legacy query-centric trigger: it preserves Drive API query config such as ``corpora`` / ``driveId`` aliases and emits the historical ``file_matching_query`` event type. ``FileCreatedTrigger`` covers the broader "new file" case and emits ``file_created``.

TriggerPolling

Delete Comment

Deletes an existing comment from a specified record in an airtable table.

ActionInstant

Delete multiple records

Deletes up to 10 specified records from a table within an airtable base.

ActionInstant

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When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

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