How to Retrigger Automation - like File add to Foler - when it doesn't run.

[kurt]

hi, we have an automation which as mostly worked, trigger based on adding to a google drive folder, but we still have 300 files to process and some of the files have not triggered the automation. how do we rerun? lets assume we don't know which have and which haven't.

workflow - RedBall PDF Pitch Links to Sheet Automation

video of issue.

Screen Capture on 2025-05-21 at 14-51-40.mp4

Shared with Droplr

d.pr

like this file did not process as an example https://d.pr/i/evHpsj

also we have ad some errors in the history, but we understand what they are, this is not the issue, the issue is how to get the automation to trigger for files it seems to have missed.

 

[ArshilAhmad]

Hi @kurt,

You can re-execute the failed tasks as shown below.

google_screen_recording_2025-05-21T20-26_28.118Z.webm

drive.google.com

 

[kurt]

hi, my issue is not workflow tasks that failed when run. its workflows that never ran, even though the trigger action happened. so how do I get the workflow to 'look again' for any files it hasn't run, or any way at all to get it to rescan the folder and run? to be clear our workflow includes creating a unique URL, so I can't run it over and over as I get a failure once the URL is made, its done. but I have 280 files that should have triggered and didn't

I can't look though the workflow history, and identity files. they are not there, bc they were never triggered.

so I'm asking how to get the entire workflow to check a folder for any files added ? when they are already added.

 

[ArshilAhmad]

Pabbly

connect.pabbly.com

In that case, the only way to trigger your workflow is to add the files to your Google Drive folder again. Since you don't know which files have already been added and which haven't, you will need to take the following steps:

1. Remove all existing files from your Google Drive folder.
2. Re-add all the files to your Google Drive folder (including the ones that have already been added to Google Sheets).
3. We have added a 'Lookup Spreadsheet Rows' action step to your workflow along with a filter, which ensures that the next steps of the workflow are executed only for the files that are not present in your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
4. Any file that already exists in your Google Sheets spreadsheet will not be added again—only the missing files will be added.

 

[kurt]

thank you for this! look forward to testing it out, didn't realize we could filter like this. much appreciated!