Temporary errors in Pipelines

Pipelines sometimes displays temporary errors when it communicates with Quickbase services or APIs. These errors are also known as transient errors, which means the issue is short-lived and usually resolves automatically because Pipelines retries the operation.

This article explains when these errors appear and what they mean for users:

• Quickbase is experiencing technical difficulties

• Quickbase is temporarily unavailable

• Quickbase app is experiencing unusually heavy traffic

Quickbase is experiencing technical difficulties

The error message Quickbase is experiencing technical difficulties. We'll retry shortly. is displayed when Pipelines encounters temporary communication issues with Quickbase servers.

When this error appears

This message is shown when any of the following example conditions are detected during communication with Quickbase:

HTTP Server Errors (5xx Status Codes)

Resource locked (423 Status Code)

The 423 Locked status indicates the resource being accessed is currently locked. This can happen when:

• Quickbase is performing maintenance on a table/app

• A database operation is temporarily blocking access

• Concurrent operations conflict with each other

Unexpected response content types

This occurs when Quickbase returns a response that doesn’t match the expected format (JSON, XML, CSV, plain text, or binary download), such as:

• An HTML error page (often from CDN/proxy layers like Cloudflare)

• Unexpected Content-Type headers

• Malformed responses

Network/connectivity issues

• Connection timeouts

• DNS resolution failures

• SSL/TLS handshake failures

• Connection resets or interruptions

• Proxy connection failures

How to resolve the issue

1. Wait and monitor—In most cases, the automatic retries will succeed

2. Check Quickbase status—Visit Quickbase's status page to see if there are known issues

3. Retry manually—If the pipeline run ultimately fails, try running it again later

Automatic retry behavior

When this error occurs, Pipelines automatically retries the operation:

• Multiple retry attempts are made with exponential backoff

• The system waits progressively longer between retries

• The operation is only marked as failed after all retry attempts are exhausted

Quickbase is temporarily unavailable

The error message Quickbase is temporarily unavailable. We'll retry shortly.appears when Pipelines encounters temporary issues with machine-to-machine (M2M) authentication between Pipelines and Quickbase.

When this error appears

Quickbase API response (Error Code 22 - Sign-In Required)

• This error code indicates that Quickbase could not validate the authentication credentials provided in the request.

  For example, using App ID / Table ID in a step from a realm where the user is not-authenticated.

Tokenless account authentication issues

• A temporary ticket has expired and needs to be refreshed

• Session synchronization issues between Pipelines and Quickbase servers

• Authentication headers are not properly recognized due to timing issues

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) authentication failures

• Clock Desync - The timestamp in the M2M authentication headers doesn't match the server's expected time window

• Mismatch - Temporary issues with shared synchronization between services

Why this error occurs

This error typically indicates one of these scenarios:

1. Temporary session expiration—The authentication session between Pipelines and Quickbase servers has expired and needs renewal

2. Server-side timing issues—Brief synchronization problems between Quickbase's authentication systems

3. Maintenance windows—Quickbase authentication services may be temporarily unavailable during maintenance

How to resolve the issue

1. Wait and monitor—In most cases, the automatic retries will succeed

2. Re-run the pipeline—If the pipeline fails, simply re-running it often resolves the issue

3. Check account status—Ensure your Quickbase account is active and in good standing

Automatic retry behavior

When this error occurs, Pipelines will automatically retry the operation:

• This is classified as a transient error, meaning Pipelines will automatically retry the operation

• The system waits progressively longer between retries

• The operation is only marked as failed after all retry attempts are exhausted

Quickbase app is experiencing unusually heavy traffic

The error message, Quickbase app is experiencing unusually heavy traffic. We'll retry shortly. , appears when Pipelines encounters rate limiting from Quickbase. It indicates that too many requests are being made to the Quickbase API in a short period of time, and Quickbase is asking Pipelines to slow down.

What causes rate limiting

Quickbase-Side Rate Limits

Pipeline-Side Rate Limits

Why this error occurs

This error typically indicates:

• High API usage—Your pipelines are making many Quickbase API calls

• Shared realm limits—Other users or apps in your realm are consuming API quota

• Temporary Quickbase congestion—Platform-wide high traffic periods

• Aggressive pipeline schedules—Pipelines running too frequently

How to resolve the issue

1. Wait and monitor—In most cases, the automatic retries will succeed

2. Re-run the pipeline—If the pipeline fails, re-running it often resolves the issue

3. Review pipeline design—If the issue occurs repeatedly, adjust pipeline schedules or batch sizes

Automatic retry behavior

• Most rate limiting issues resolve automatically

• Pipeline execution continues once limits reset

Best practices to avoid rate limiting

Pipeline design

• Batch operations—Use bulk record steps instead of individual record operations

• Reduce frequency—Space out pipeline runs (e.g., every 5 minutes instead of every minute)

• Consolidate pipelines—Combine multiple small pipelines into fewer larger ones