How to Prevent Duplicate RSS Feed Triggers

If your RSS feed is triggering duplicate posts on IFTTT, start by checking your feed for errors using the W3C Feed Validator.

If your feed passes validation but duplicate posts continue, an existing feed item may have been assigned a new GUID (Globally Unique Identifier). When this happens, IFTTT may treat the item as new and trigger your Applet again.

You can use Google Sheets and a Filter to help identify and skip duplicate entries. Follow the steps below to set up this workaround.

Step 1: Edit your existing Applet

Open the Applet that's triggering duplicate posts and select Edit Applet to modify its configuration. You'll add a Google Sheets action, a Query, and a Filter to help identify duplicate feed items.

For more information, see our guide to editing an Applet.

Step 2: Add an RSS trigger

1. Select Add in the If section and search for the RSS Feed service.
2. Select New feed item as the Trigger.
3. Enter the URL of your RSS feed and save the Trigger.

Step 3: Add a Google Sheets action

1. Select Add in the Then That section.
2. Search for and select Google Sheets: Add row to spreadsheet.
3. In the Formatted row field, enter {{EntryTitle}}.
4. Complete any other required fields and select Create action.

This action logs the title of each RSS feed item in your spreadsheet.

Step 4: Add a Google Sheets Query

1. Select the + between the Trigger and Action.
2. Add the Google Sheets: History of rows added to spreadsheet Query.
3. Select the same spreadsheet you configured in Step 3.

Step 5: Add an initial spreadsheet row

Manually add a row of data to your Google spreadsheet. The content doesn't matter. This ensures the Query has a row to return when the Applet runs.

Step 6: Add a Filter

1. Select the + between the Trigger and Action again.
2. Add a Filter.
3. Enter the following code:

let title = Feed.newFeedItem.EntryTitle;
let lastTitle = GoogleSheets.recentRowsInSpreadsheet[0].ColumnA;

if (title === lastTitle) {
  // Skip the Action if the title matches.
}

This code compares the incoming feed item's title with the most recently logged title in Google Sheets. If the titles match, the Filter is intended to prevent the subsequent Action from running.

Important: Replace // Skip the Action if the title matches. with the appropriate Filter code method for the Action in your Applet. This ensures the Filter skips the intended Action when the feed item title matches the most recently logged title.

What to expect

This workaround compares feed item titles rather than GUIDs. It can help prevent consecutive duplicate entries with identical titles, but it won't catch every possible duplicate. For example, it may not detect an older item that reappears after newer entries have been logged, and it may treat two different posts with the same title as duplicates.

If duplicate posts continue, review your feed's GUIDs and confirm that the Filter is comparing the correct fields.