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Microsoft Forms Blog
2 MIN READ

Forms data sync to Excel is now fully available with more functionality

junyuB's avatar
junyuB
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jun 28, 2024

We’ve been gradually rolling out Forms data sync to Excel since early this year. During this process, we actively collected user feedback and iterated to enhance the feature for various use cases. I’m excited to announce that this feature is now fully available for all customers, complete with additional capabilities. Let’s explore these updates together. You can also try it from this template.

 

Create from Excel for the web

If you prefer to keep all your data in Excel and are used to starting your data collection journey there, you can now create a form directly from Excel for the web – no need to visit Forms. Simply click "Insert" and select "Forms" in the ribbon. This will open a new form in Forms where you can add questions. All the questions you add and responses you receive will automatically sync to Excel.

 

Create from Excel for the web

Create from worksheets in OneDrive and SharePoint

The “create from Excel” experience supports worksheets saved in OneDrive and SharePoint. Depending on your needs, you can choose where to start. For personal forms that you want the answers accessible only to yourself, start from OneDrive. For collaborative forms involving your team, start from SharePoint to ensure all team members stay updated.

 

Start from Excel saved in OneDrive

New data sync experience for group form

We've also updated the group form data sync experience to be smoother and more stable for greater reliability. For forms where you need all team members to easily check responses, you can create a group form in Forms. As new responses come in, everyone on the team can see them sync to Excel. The Excel worksheet for the group form will be saved in SharePoint.

 

Create a group form in Forms

Share the Excel link to collaborate on up-to-date data

If you want your coworkers to check the new responses and do some further analysis, you need to share the Excel link. When they open it, responses will automatically sync whenever responses are received. (Please note that Forms collaborators don’t have access to the syncing Excel sheets from response page - you must share the Excel link.)

 

Share the Excel link with others

We are currently rolling out to commercial customers and expect to be fully deployed to commercial by mid-July. We’ll also start rolling out to Microsoft account holders in the near future.

Updated Jun 28, 2024
Version 1.0
  • tfrikkee's avatar
    tfrikkee
    Copper Contributor

    Hello!

     

    For a Power Automate flow I need the Form Excel file to sync anytime a new response is submitted. Currently, the Excel file is only syncing with the Form when someone opens the file. This however does not work because my Power Automate flow will look for the newly submitted data but wont find it.

     

    I already transferred it to a private group but that did not make a difference. Anyone now a solution? There must be a way to sync the Excel file upon a newly submitted form without opening the excel file manually.


    Greetings,

    Tim

  • estagio2495's avatar
    estagio2495
    Copper Contributor

    Hey I am doing an intership at a company and tehy asked me to create a way to log operation data, well now I made the forms, all working and synced with Excel. There are a few flaws with the system:
    Firstproblem is the data only gets synced if the owner of the form opens the Linked excel file.
    If I want to share the form with other people or run Power Bi, it won´t ever sync the data.....
    I would like to have the option for the users to check their logs, this way I can´t even do that...

  • RussAshman's avatar
    RussAshman
    Copper Contributor

    estagio2495 
    "For forms where you need all team members to easily check responses, you can create a group form in Forms. "

    My advice would be do some research into Group forms. Now you can likely copy your personal form so you always have a backup and move the copied personal form into a group to make it a group form (Definity make a copy before moving). For business development we generally want to do work within groups that will be reoccurring/ongoing so that if a specific user leaves than things can be transitioned easier. Also, maybe recall too that when you have a MS team you will have a group and a SharePoint behind that team so if there is one already, maybe that is the ones you use. Personally, we tend to have like development ms team where we work and then copy things into live teams after.

    For the PowerBI portion, my advice would be to use power automate to update the data set from the SharePoint file so opening the PowerBI isn't necessary for each refresh. There are some quality YouTubes if you go looking for them on that.

    Best wishes and good luck. 

  • scottbharris's avatar
    scottbharris
    Copper Contributor

    Is this functionality only available when using a Microsoft 365 for Business?  It seems to work when I try and do this from my work account, but if I try from my personal account, it is not available.  

     

    Assuming this is the case, will this functionality be available for personal or family Microsoft 365 accounts at some point in the future?

  • Spoiler
     

    Remember; this is available via One Note for Business files only, not the desktop app. 

  • 903418's avatar
    903418
    Copper Contributor

    Olá!

    Essa funcionalidade é excelente, mas gostaria de poder criar formulários múltiplos a partir de uma única planilha do Excel. Além disso, gostaria de ter a opção de copiar perguntas de formulários já existentes, para não precisar recriar cada pergunta do zero ao criar novos formulários a partir da planilha.

  • AlexK1080's avatar
    AlexK1080
    Copper Contributor

    I have a Power Automate flow with an approval process for Microsoft Form submissions. However, I’m encountering an error because the form’s Excel sheet does not sync unless I open it manually, which defeats the purpose.

    I have tried several solutions, including:

    • Adding the form and the Excel file to a group SharePoint folder.
    • Introducing delays in the flow.
    • Adding an Excel script to update the workbook.

    Despite these attempts, the process still fails unless I manually open the Excel form response file.

     

  • Hi All, 

     

    This issue with not being able to sync the excel file unless it is opened has been an issue for me also when trying to refresh a power BI report using power automate (or even just basic refresh within the power BI web service to get the latest form entries) 

     

    I've tried using power automate to modify the file by adding a row and then deleting it and resaving it to try and force the issue but it breaks the sync. Seems like others above have tried various things too - any suggestions from Microsoft or other users thatt have found a sloution?