External tools like Zapier, Make, n8n and others are great to automate workflows — but when it comes to editing data in your synced Airtable base, there are some limitations.

Airtable does not trigger the kind of webhook we need when a change is made by an external app. That means SyncBase cannot detect or sync these changes to Shopify.

What’s possible (and what’s not)

You cannot

• Use external apps to update tabs and columns synced by SyncBase, and expect the change to be pushed to Shopify.
• Even if Zapier or Make successfully updates a value in Airtable, SyncBase won’t see the change, so nothing will be synced.

You can

• Use Airtable automations, scripts and AI (including Shopify synced data with SyncBase).
• Use these external apps to edit or create records in non-synced tabs or custom columns you’ve added manually to your synced base. This gives you flexibility to build advanced workflows — as long as they don’t modify the core synced data directly.
• You can use external apps to read and pull data from synced tabs — just not to push data into them.

Recommended workaround: use a staging tab

Here’s a good way to structure your workflow:

1. Create a new staging tab (not synced by SyncBase). See our complete guide on staging tab.
2. Use Zapier, Make or any external tool to edit or create records in this staging tab.
3. Once the data is ready, set up an Airtable automation to move or copy the values into your synced tab/columns.

This way, the final step (moving data into a synced tab) is done from within Airtable — which does trigger a proper webhook and lets SyncBase sync it to Shopify.

Updated on: 28/06/2025