Every response to a form is kept, whether or not it is also filed as a document. This article shows how to read them, follow up, and export.
Open the responses
- Go to Shared by me and open the Forms tab.
- Open the form and choose Submissions.
The Responses tab lists each response with its status, who sent it, when, and where its file went. The statuses are Started, In progress, Submitted, Processed, Waiting at a stage and Abandoned. A person without an account shows as Anonymous.
Open a response to see its Answers, the Language, the Output it made (or Record only), and the Activity timeline.
Follow up
The Recipients tab shows each person invited, with Access, and whether they have not started, opened the form, or Completed it. Remind sends a reminder now. Revoke cancels an invitation. See Asking named people to fill in a form.
Export
Choose Export CSV on the Submissions page.
The activity trail
Each response’s trail records that it was submitted, that its file was written, that fields were filled, that a signature was requested, that an automation ran, was skipped or failed, and each stage hand-off. A failed action never loses the response. Administrators also find a Form submission trail under Monitoring > Activity.
Staged forms
A staged form’s responses have Stage and Assigned to columns. The owner can Reassign or Cancel response. See Filling in a form in stages.
If something does not work
- A response shows Abandoned. The person started but never submitted. Files uploaded to a form that is never submitted are cleared after a day.
- A saved response has gone. A response saved to finish later is kept 30 days after its last save.