How to Quickly Sync Trello Cards Between Multiple Boards with 2-Way Updates

Published in Apps on 10/03/2022, last updated 11/09/2023.

This walkthrough details the steps required to link, or sync, cards between multiple Trello boards with automated 2-way updates through Unito. There are a variety of ways to automatically update Trello cards between lists or boards, depending on how you like to work. Unito’s Board Sync Power-Up and standalone app allow you to connect boards and set up rules to keep specific cards synced to and from different Trello lists continually in real-time, no maintenance required.

You can also try our Two-Way Card Mirroring app if you prefer to sync individual cards one at a time, as you go.

Two Trello cards synced by Unito Board Sync in real-time with live updates

Popular use cases for this 2-way Trello to Trello integration include:

delegating Trello cards to a a contractor’s board without inviting them to access your entire Trello workspace;
sharing Trello project progress with a team lead or client;
establishing a master Trello board that oversees cards across multiple lists and boards;
overseeing work from a single space, reviewing team assignments, and sharing feedback easily.

In this article about 2 way Trello updates

Watch Unito’s Trello integration in action

Why link Trello cards between multiple boards?

Save time and work more efficiently by cutting out manual tasks

The short answer is: to eliminate manual copy-pasting between cards and boards and to keep those cards and boards updated in real-time automatically.

Creating a link between Trello cards across multiple boards is also extremely useful for collaborating with contacts and colleagues in different departments, locations, industries, etc.

Link Trello cards from multiple individual boards to a single master board

The idea is to populate your Trello cards and lists with details from other Trello cards automatically, without having to ask for an update or search for someone else’s board.

For example, you could link cards together to create a Trello master board that oversees several projects, giving you an overview of all the work you and your teams are responsible for.

Before syncing Trello cards between boards with Unito

Make sure you have an account in Trello with the right permissions to access and modify cards in each connected board.

Add Unito to your Trello Board (optional)

This step is for users who wish to add Unito as a Power-Up to an existing Trello board. You can skip this process if you’ve already installed Unito’s Board Sync Power-Up or are using our standalone app directly from a browser. Otherwise, click here if you need help adding Unito as a Trello Power-Up. Just don’t forget to come back to our guide!

Pick the Unito Power-Up that best matches your app needs. You can’t add more than one tool-specific Power-Up to your Board. But when you create a Unito account, you’ll automatically have access to any of our Power-Ups at any time.

Step 1. Connect your Trello account(s) and boards to Unito

Navigate to the Unito App or open Board Sync and select +Create Flow.
Select Start Here to connect your Trello account(s).
+Add a tool to this flow and select your tool(s). In this case, we’ll pick Trello on the left and right (the order doesn’t matter).
Specify which account(s) you wish to connect through Unito, as well as the Trello Board.

You’ll need to authorize Unito to access your Trello board the first time you connect an account.

When you’re ready to continue, click Confirm.

Step 2. Set a flow direction to automate creation of Trello cards

Flow direction determines how new cards are automatically generated in Trello by Unito. Your data can sync either from one board to the other, or bidirectionally (back and forth).

Here’s a breakdown of each option:

One-way flow: only cards created in the source Trello board will appear in the destination Trello board.
Two-way flow: cards created in either Trello board will appear in the other.

Select Confirm when you’ve chosen a flow direction.

Later, we’ll set field mappings to decide which details of our Trello cards to keep updated in real-time automatically.

Step 3. Set conditions for how and when your Trello cards will sync

Next, we’ll set up rules to determine which triggers will create new cards in our Trello boards. This is useful for filtering out irrelevant cards from syncing in our flow. Select Add a new trigger to establish your rules for each directional flow.

Here we can see the different ways in which we can filter out cards from syncing.

Rules help you keep the most relevant information in sync and avoid oversharing unnecessary cards. There can be a lot of variability here that will depend on your particular needs and Trello setup. You can apply custom labels to your cards if you want to be even more precise about what data you want to share:

Here, we told the system to create a card in ABC identical to each card in Master Board with a purple label and to keep them in sync. They will appear in the selected default list since new cards always need a place to go.

As you can see from our demo above, only cards with a purple label in Master Board will then appear in our ABC board. Some use cases for this set of rules could include: providing feedback to your team, creating and delegating to-do’s, or sharing specific details with an external contractor, client or other contact.

Next, we’ll set up a similar set of rules to sync cards back to our master board.

In our demo, we’ve told the system to create new cards in Master Board for every new card created in ABC. These new cards will appear in the chosen default list within the master board.

Select Confirm to proceed.

Find out more about setting rules.

Step 4. Choose which fields to sync between Trello cards

Fields represent the details of your Trello cards: people, comments, attachments, due dates, etc. All of these count as syncable fields in Unito.

When you first open this screen, you should see two options. If you select Auto-map, Unito will pre-populate a list of suggested field mappings which you can then adjust. If you know exactly how you want your fields mapped, Start from scratch.

Learn more about field mappings in Trello.

Your fields will be automatically mapped for two-way updates, but you can adjust them as needed. With a one-way sync between fields, only the destination field will update automatically when you make changes in the source field.

Now, select + Add mapping to sync additional fields. To do so, click Select a field. After you’ve chosen a field in the first board, Unito will suggest compatible matches in the second after you click on the drop-down menu.

Select the gear icon beside a field to customize values or statuses and further customize your flow. In our demo, we have told the system to match cards within each Trello board based on label color.

As described above, our demo syncs labels together based on color to keep things simple and aligned.

Below is an example of our completed demo, although your field mappings may differ based on the needs of your flow.

Note: Trello checklists count as items in sync. So if you include them in your fields, then your items in sync count will increase accordingly.

Hit Confirm to proceed.

Find out more about setting field mappings.

Save and launch your Trello Trello card sync

And that’s it! You’ve just completed our quick-start walkthrough to sync Trello cards between boards and lists. Your linked Trello cards will now update automatically in real-time as you work. Congratulations!

By following the steps above, you should now be able to sync cards from one Trello board to a master board. You can also duplicate this flow to sync other boards to your master board with Unito.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know.

Tips and tricks for optimizing your Trello integration with Unito

Plan out your use case for syncing Trello cards between boards

The goal of the demo flow outlined in this article is to create a two-way link between Trello cards across lists and boards that syncs relevant information between them. How you then use it to link Trello cards is entirely up to you based on your use case.

Here are a few ways you can do more with Unito’s 2-way Trello integration:

Sync cards back and forth between two Trello boards. This is the most basic flow you could create with this setup. If you only plan on syncing a few individual cards at any time, you may prefer Unito’s Two-Way Card Mirroring Power-Up.
Send cards from multiple boards to a single Trello Master Board. This setup is for users who want to have oversight of multiple boards from a single master. To do so, you’ll need to create one flow each for every other board you want synced with the master. That’s easy to do however, with Unito’s duplicate flow function.
Create a Trello Hub Board for an even more expansive and sophisticated Trello setup. A hub board takes in cards from many other boards and then re-distributes them to a select few. Think of it as an automated delegation and oversight support tool. Cards come in from, say, project boards for a department, and then go out to individual contributors. One example could be to take in graphic design requests from multiple places, then assign them all to a single design board.

Several smaller Trello boards synced to a single master overview board with Unito — Here’s an example of a Trello master board set up in Unito. The individual boards are connected through Unito to a single master board. Synced cards appear in the individual board and master, while any changes in either board will appear in both synced cards in real-time.

Here’s how one Unito user transformed their Trello sales pipeline with Unito’s 2-way integration

Additional Unito resources for Trello users

Duplicate this flow to sync cards from other boards.
Learn how to sync custom fields to your Trello workflow
Browse our support documentation for Unito’s Trello integration.
Learn how to sync Trello cards with other industry-leading tools, including Google Sheets, GitHub, Slack, Asana, Outlook, HubSpot, Wrike, and more.