Google Sheets to Airtable Sync with Linked Records

In this tutorial, we will synchronize data from Google Sheets to Airtable, focusing on creating and maintaining linked records.

You'll learn to map Google Sheets columns to Airtable fields, including how to handle linked records, and set up automatic updates to keep your Airtable base in sync with any changes in your Google Sheets document.

Prepare Your Google Sheets for Sync

You can skip this section if you already have a Google Sheet set up with multiple sheets of linked data!

We have multiple sheets (tabs) in a Google Sheets document, and want to map these to multiple tables in an Airtable base. In our example, we'll use a "Sneakers" sheet and a "Brands" sheet. Each row under the "Brand" column in the "Sneakers" sheet references a row in the "Brands" sheet. We are using formula references to do this, but this is not necessary for this tutorial - you might just have raw values that match the rows in another sheet.

Here is the "Brands" sheet:

In Airtable, create two tables: "Products" and "Brands". You do not need to create the linked fields in either table - Data Fetcher will do that for you when it syncs the linked records.

Install Data Fetcher

Add the free Data Fetcher extension to your base. You can do this from the Airtable extension marketplace. After you've added Data Fetcher to your base, you'll need to sign up for a free Data Fetcher account.

Sync Google Sheets to Airtable with Linked Records

In Data Fetcher, click Create your first request. Requests let you sync data from any third-party application or API without code.

Select Google Sheets under Application.

Under Authorization, select +New Google Sheets Connection.

You'll be prompted to sign in to the Google account where your Google Sheets data is.

Click 'Select all' to authorize Data Fetcher access to your Google Sheets data, and click Continue.

Rename the request with something more descriptive, e.g., "Sync Products". Then click Save & Continue in the bottom right.

On the next screen, click on the Spreadsheet input to open a new window where you can select the file in your Google drive.

In the new window, click 'Select Google Drive Spreadsheet'.

Choose the Google Sheet you want to sync into Airtable, and click 'Select'.

The window will close automatically, and you will be taken back to Data Fetcher with the spreadsheet selected.

Make sure the Output Table & View is set to the Airtable table where you want to import the records into.

Click Save & Run in the bottom right.

The Response Field Mapping window will open, where you can set up how the data from Google Sheets is mapped to your Airtable base. This is where we can set up our linked records mapping. For the "Brand" field, we will change the field type from "Single line text" to "Link" by clicking on the field type dropdown (A⌄).

Changing this field type to Link will automatically open the field settings, where we can change the Linked table to the "Brands" table. Then click Save.

When we run the request, Data Fetcher will use automatically create and updated the linked records in Airtable, based on the value in the Google Sheets "Brand" column.

The last thing we need to do is let Data Fetcher use the unique "Id" field to merge the records. Click the sidebar icon in the top-left to open the settings sidebar.

Click Advanced settings to open the advanced request settings. For the Update Based on Field(s), select the Id field.

We're all set! Click Save & Run in the bottom-right hand side of the Response Field Mapping.

Data Fetcher will now sync the data from Google Sheets to Airtable, including the linked records!

You will only need to set up the Response Field Mapping the first time you run the sync, or when you want to make changes to the mapping.

Automate Google Sheets to Airtable Sync with Linked Records

To automate our Google Sheets to Airtable syncs, we can use Data Fetcher's schedule feature. This will run the request automatically, updating the linked records even when you are not logged into Airtable or do not have Data Fetcher open.

You will need to upgrade to a paid Data Fetcher plan to use this feature.

Scroll to the Schedule tab on the request screen, and click Upgrade.

A new tab will open where you can select a payment and checkout. Then return to the Data Fetcher extension and click I've done this.

Under Schedule click + Authorize.

In the window that opens, select All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces. This will avoid the need to do this step again in the future when you use Data Fetcher in other bases.

Click Grant access.

Back in Data Fetcher, the Schedule will now be turned on. You can change the schedule to the exact one you want, e.g. every hour. Then click Save.

The Google Sheets to Airtable sync will now run automatically and update the linked records on the schedule you selected.