Troubleshooting

Overview

This guide covers the most common issues you might encounter with CollabPortals and how to resolve them.

Airtable Connection Issues

I can't see my Airtable bases

Symptoms: The base selection dropdown is empty or missing bases you expected.

Solutions:

1. Reconnect your Airtable account - Go to your dashboard and reconnect via OAuth. During the authorization step, make sure you grant access to the bases you need.
2. Check Airtable permissions - Ensure you have at least Editor access to the bases in Airtable. Viewer or read-only access may not be sufficient.
3. Newly created bases - If you created a base after connecting CollabPortals, you'll need to reconnect to grant access to the new base.

My portal shows an error about Airtable connection

Symptoms: Portal users see an error message, or the admin dashboard shows a connection error.

Solutions:

1. Token expired or revoked - Reconnect your Airtable account from the dashboard. CollabPortals auto-refreshes tokens, but if you revoked access from Airtable's settings, you need to reconnect.
2. Airtable service issue - Check Airtable's status page for any ongoing issues.

Portal User Access Issues

Portal users can't log in

Symptoms: A user enters their email but gets an error, or never receives a verification code.

Solutions:

1. Email not in user table - Verify that the user's email exists as a record in the portal's user table in Airtable. The email must match exactly (case-insensitive).
2. Wrong email field - Check that your portal is configured to use the correct email field from the user table.
3. Check spam folder - The verification code email may have landed in the user's spam or junk folder.
4. Duplicate emails - If the user table has duplicate email entries, authentication may not work correctly. Ensure each email appears only once.

Portal users see no records

Symptoms: A user logs in successfully but sees empty tables.

Solutions:

1. Records not linked to user - Check that records in your data tables are linked to the user's record in the user table via a linked record field. Each table needs its own direct link to the user table.
2. Missing linked record field - Ensure your data tables have a multipleRecordLinks field that points to the user table.
3. Check table permissions - Verify that the View permission is enabled for the table in your portal settings.

Missing Fields and Data

Fields are missing from the portal

Symptoms: Some fields from your Airtable table don't appear in the portal.

Solutions:

1. Check field permissions - Fields may be set to Hidden in your field permissions settings. Change them to View Only, Editable, or Editable + Required.
2. New fields default to hidden - When you add new fields in Airtable, they automatically default to hidden in CollabPortals. Go to your portal's field permissions and update the new field's visibility.
3. Computed fields - Formula, rollup, count, and lookup fields can only be set to View Only or Hidden, they can't be editable.

Linked record dropdowns show all records

Symptoms: When creating or editing a record, the linked record dropdown shows records from all users instead of just the current user's records.

Solutions:

1. Enable linked record filtering - Go to your portal settings and enable linked record filtering for the relevant linked record field.
2. Check the linked record field - The linked table needs a direct linked record field pointing to the user table. Without this direct link, filtering can't work.

Records aren't showing for specific users

Symptoms: Some users see records, others don't.

Solutions:

1. Check record links - Verify in Airtable that the records are actually linked to the affected user's record in the user table.
2. Check roles - If using role-based access, verify the user's role has the correct table view permissions.
3. Check the email match - The user's login email must exactly match the email in the user table record.

Permission Issues

Users can see tables they shouldn't

Solutions:

1. Review table permissions - Disable View permission for tables that should be hidden.
2. Check role configuration - If using roles, verify that the user's role doesn't have unexpected permissions.
3. Check default role - The default role applies to users without a matching role value. Make sure it's set to the most restrictive permission set.

Users can't edit records even though edit is enabled

Solutions:

1. Check field permissions - Table-level edit permission is on, but individual fields may be set to View Only or Hidden. At least some fields need to be set to Editable.
2. Computed fields - Formula, rollup, and lookup fields are always read-only regardless of permissions.

General Issues

Portal loads slowly

Solutions:

1. Large datasets - If your Airtable tables have thousands of records, loading may be slower. Consider reducing the number of visible fields.
2. Many tables - Portals with many visible tables fetch more data on load. Hide tables that aren't needed.

Changes in Airtable aren't reflected in the portal

Solutions:

1. Caching - CollabPortals caches Airtable data briefly for performance. Changes typically appear within 60 seconds.
2. Refresh the page - Have portal users refresh their browser to get the latest data.

Getting Help

If you're experiencing an issue not covered here:

• Email support - Contact us at our support email for assistance
• Check your setup - Review the Getting Started guide to make sure your portal is configured correctly

Next Steps

• Getting Started - Review your portal setup
• Table Permissions - Fix table access issues
• Field Permissions - Fix field visibility issues
• Portal User Authentication - Understand the login flow