Airtable is a cloud-based platform that lets you have the best of both worlds: the flexibility of a database and the functionality of a spreadsheet. But there's a catch - you can't access your data offline.
No worries, though. You can export your Airtable data to Excel or Google Sheets to work on it anytime, anywhere. Plus, it's always good to have a backup plan just in case something goes wrong with Airtable's automated backups (which can be spotty on lower plans).
Excel and Google Sheets are also better when it comes to visualizing and manipulating data because, well, they're actual spreadsheets.
Let's learn how to export your data from Airtable like a real pro, step-by-step!
Note: You can automatically sync your Airtable with other apps like Google Sheets with Bardeen. Take a look at the workflows below:
Option 1 : Exporting a table from Airtable as a CSV
You can get any view from Airtable as a CSV - not the table. And doing so is pretty easy!
Step 1: Click on the view name and select Download CSV.
Step 2: Your view with the data from Airtable will be downloaded as a CSV file to your device. You can then open it in Excel, or upload it to Google Sheets.
Let’s say we want to upload it to Google Sheets and see how we can export the data into a spreadsheet.
Step 3: All you have to do is open up the Google Sheets spreadsheet you want to use, select File, and then Import.
Step 4: Click on the Upload tab in the window. You can either click Browse and find your CSV file in your folder, or just drag and drop it into the window.
All of the data in your CSV file will transfer to your Google Sheets spreadsheet. If you want to customize the data with different colors, fonts or reorganize the data, you will have to do so manually.
This option works well if you only have a few lines of data, but becomes inefficient if you are dealing with a large amount of data. If you have a lot of views, you need to download each view as a CSV file separately.
For these reasons, we may have to look at our other options for exporting data from Airtable.
Option 2 : Airtable’s Built-In Automations
Airtable lets you create automations to export your data from Airtable, without code.
Note: Airtable does't support automations to export to every app. For more flexible workflows from Airtable, check out Bardeen, an AI Automation platform that lets you create without code.
Let’s see how we can do it.
Step 1: Start off by clicking on Automations at the top to launch the automation trigger, then click Add Trigger.
You can choose any trigger for your purpose.
For this example, we want to automatically export data into Google Sheets. So we need to add a trigger that lets us add or update our Airtable data.
If we choose When a record is added as trigger, whenever we create a new record, it will automatically export the new record to the Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Step 2: Next step is configuring our trigger to make sure it works. In the drop-down menu under Configurations, choose the table that contains your data.
Click Add advanced logic or action. In the drop-down menu, select Google Sheets and click Append row.
We are using this to add a new row to our Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Step 3: Under Properties, link your Google Sheets account and choose a destination spreadsheet. You will need to select Connect new Google Sheets account in the menu.
Then just log in with your Google account and click Select from Google Drive.
In the window, you can search your spreadsheet by name or scroll down to find it. Click Select once you’ve found it.
Step 4: Our last step is to select our specific worksheet and the columns we want to populate with our Airtable data. When you click on Column 1, it will show you the first column’s name in your specified Airtable. Choose the column and enter the matching name, then click on the plus(+) sign. Click Choose field to add more columns. These are the data fields that will be added to our Google Sheets spreadsheet.
That’s it!
Your automation is ready to use! You may want to run tests to make sure it works. Then, just toggle on the Automation at the top. It will start exporting data from your Airtable to Google Sheets.
It is great that you can do this inside Airtable, but as you can see, it takes so much time and preparation. Again with large data sets, it becomes hard to maintain this pace. These also break easily, which may become a problem when they disrupt your team projects or general workflow.
What other option is there?
Option 3 : Export Airtable data with Bardeen
Bardeen is an AI workflow automation tool. You can create automations with a few lines of text. You can do both Option 1 and Option 2 using Bardeen’s pre-built playbooks in a much simpler way, as well as build your own automations specifically for your needs.
Let’s start by exporting an Airtable to Google Sheets with a few simple steps using the Copy an Airtable to Google Sheets playbook.
Step 1: When you click “Try it”, you will be redirected to install the Bardeen browser extension. Bardeen will ask you to integrate Airtable and Google Sheets.
Step 2: Then all you have to do is specify your Airtable, and the destination Google Sheets spreadsheet.
You can click on “Save Input” and checkmark Airtable and Google Sheets to save you time from input in the future. You can also edit “Inputs” later by hovering over the playbook and changing your choices.
When you run the playbook, it will copy all the columns and rows from your Airtable directly to your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
You will also be given the option to Download it as CSV on the screen.
And you’re done!
But what if you need the Google Sheet to be updated every day and this option is not the best for your needs? Then you can just use the Copy a table from Airtable to Google Sheets every day autobook to set up the schedule.
Step 1: If you already have the Bardeen extension, and you have integrated Airtable and Google Sheets, all you have to do is click on “Try it”.
Step 2: You will be asked to enter an Airtable, and a destination Google Sheets spreadsheet. Bardeen will also ask you to specify what time of the day you want the spreadsheet to be updated.
It is important to note that the automation will delete all the data from the spreadsheet and copy all the information from your Airtable, getting all the changes to previous columns and rows as well.
When you activate the autobook, it will copy the columns and rows from your Airtable to Google Sheets every day at the time you specified.
Using only a few clicks, you have set up a reliable automation that will save you tons of time you can use to focus on more important aspects of your work.
With Bardeen, you aren’t limited to connecting Airtable with Google Sheets either. You can export data to a number of other integrations. According to your needs, you can connect Airtable with Google Drive, Notion, HubSpot, Asana and more! Using Bardeen’s pre-built automations you can ease the burden of manual data export, or simply build your own using the Builder.
What is the best way to export data from Airtable for me?
Choosing the right option to export Airtable data is dependent on your needs. If you work with large data sets, you cannot afford to repeat the same steps every time you need to move information. Losing important data during the process could also affect your workflow negatively. You will need an efficient and reliable way to manage your data across platforms.
That’s where Bardeen comes in. Bardeen has a large number of pre-built automations that you can use to build a more efficient and collaborative workflow for yourself and your business without the hassle of coding. It provides you with the opportunity to simplify your manual tasks for you and your team. You can use Bardeen to export information from Airtable to the CRM you desire, as well as scrape data from any website to Airtable, unlocking Airtable’s full potential through effective data management. Bardeen is here to help you streamline your Airtable workflow in various ways.
So, try Bardeen now and welcome a more streamlined approach to data export!
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