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Microsoft Forms Blog
2 MIN READ

Introducing Forms data sync to Excel

junyuB's avatar
junyuB
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jan 23, 2024

The highly anticipated feature – Forms data sync to Excel is now available in Microsoft Forms. With just one click, you can now easily access all your form responses in Excel for the web and take advantage of Excel’s rich functions to analyze and visualize your data. With automatic syncing of new responses in real-time, you can keep working on your existing spreadsheet without missing a beat. No more juggling multiple copies of the same file, making it easier than ever to stay on top of important data. Ready to check out this feature? Let’s get started! You can also try out this feature from this template. 

 

Open responses in Excel

Open any active form or quiz, go to the "Responses" page and click "Open results in Excel". This will automatically create an Excel worksheet in your OneDrive and take you to Excel for the web, where you'll see all your data in just a few seconds.  

 

Open response in Excel

 

 

Deeper analysis in Excel

In Excel, you can manipulate the data the way you want and leverage various tools to do further analysis, like sorting, filtering, and inserting charts.

 

Manipulate data in Excel

 

New responses sync to Excel

New responses will automatically sync when you open your Excel file for the web, allowing you to seamlessly continue your existing work.

 

New response sync to Excel

 

Let’s review two real user cases to see how Excel data sync solved their problems to give you some inspiration on how to leverage this feature.

 

Business scenario

A company uses Excel to manually log every office facility request in a workbook that is shared among different departments for manual status updates and reporting. By using Forms data sync to Excel, they can instead distribute one office facility form through Microsoft Forms and share the Excel workbook of responses. Each department can then review newly synced requests and update the request status they are responsible for accordingly.

 

Education scenario 

Middle school teachers utilize online quizzes for in-class testing. After class, they consolidate various classes' quiz results into an Excel file for deeper analysis, aiming to identify students' weaknesses and provide targeted support. 

 

With Forms, multiple classes can use one quiz, and the results will be synced to a single worksheet, eliminating the need for teachers to manually combine quiz results from different classes. The teacher can add a question for class identification and use the filter in Excel to easily distinguish one class from another. 

 

Please note that Forms data sync to Excel is currently only available in Excel for the Web. While you can still view your data with the desktop and mobile apps, new responses will not be automatically synced unless you are using Excel for the Web.

Updated Jan 24, 2024
Version 2.0
microsoft 365
microsoft forms
outlook
  • LMateo_KP's avatar
    LMateo_KP
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 13, 2025

    I'm also experiencing issues because I rely on the automatic sync for several Power Automate flows. Has anyone found any work-around?

  • safimink's avatar
    safimink
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 25, 2025

    I have been using forms with excel for over a year and the recent update in January my excel sheet no longer automatically syncs. I have to open the form for it to update any new entries. I use the data on another spreadsheet and now must manually update for the spreadsheet to sort the data. Has anyone experienced this or can recommend how I can get the excel document to sync automatically?

  • ZiJon's avatar
    ZiJon
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 21, 2025

    Well... as clearly stated in the blog post above "New responses will automatically sync when you open your Excel file for the web..." so my workflow to use Microsoft Power BI to retrieve form's data from the Excel Online file on predefined in Power BI service schedule is broken. To use Power Automate fix is not an option for me. So, I wrote a simple PowerShell script that periodically opens Excel Online file in browser, waits for it to update and then closes. The script opens supplied URL(s) every 6 hours just before Power BI scheduled data source update. Now I run the script from always signed-in user account on Windows Server that is always online and see my Power BI reports get automatically updated.

    You can try the script on your local machine and leave it powered on or find a dedicated Windows machines for this task.

    GitHub - ZilvinasJonaitis/OpenCloseBrowser

    Regards,

    Zilvinas

  • iamerm's avatar
    iamerm
    Brass Contributor
    Dec 23, 2024

    First, a sincere thanks to ymenesy and anyone else who has suggested workarounds, including the use of Power Automate.  Thank you for taking the time to provide input.

    Unfortunately, Power Automate may not be an option for my situation right now.  Additionally, having to setup a complicated Power Automate flow for a process that was already working is devastating.  For me, this is far from "a highly anticipated feature."

    junyuB  I am now starting to receive notifications that my existing forms (which are simple & work flawlessly) will need to be migrated to this new technology, and I'm terrified.  Is there any chance the ability to sync in the background is in the works?

     

     

    • ymenesy's avatar
      ymenesy
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 24, 2024

      You're right that it may take some time to setup the PowerAutomate, but yesterday i did it for a form with 2 questions and i was done in 5 minutes. i did it for a form with 20 input options, that takes a little longer to finish but it is still doable. the process isnt complicated if you use the correct PA Template, before you start, start with creating a new table the the workbook and have the correct header titles, then you can start with PA. 

  • hohohono's avatar
    hohohono
    Brass Contributor
    Dec 20, 2024

    junyuBkenwashingtonHas there been any updates on resolving the workbook background sync? It's been 2-3 months since Ken/you've posted about finding the issue. ☹️

     

    I recently clicked on a button to update the sync, and WOW DO I REGRET IT. What should be automated is now manual work. Really defeats the purpose of Power Automate. 

    • ymenesy's avatar
      ymenesy
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 24, 2024

      PowerAutomate is the only best workaround that works real-time without forms creator attendance. Read through this post for more details

  • iamerm's avatar
    iamerm
    Brass Contributor
    Nov 17, 2024

    Just echoing what others have stated.  The fact that the form creator has to manually open the excel and watch it update almost renders this functionality useless - especially if you have numerous forms that are shared with various teams (see screenshot).

    The really puzzling thing is that I have numerous EXISTING forms that work just fine.  The file properties show that the sharepoint app auto-updates the excel every time a form submission is received.  Now that this "new functionality" has been added, when I create any NEW forms, the excel has to be manually updated by a creator to reflect new form submissions.

    In summary: this has been a very damaging, massive step backwards.  I'm not expressing this just to complain.  I'm also wondering if anyone has found a solution or workaround.

    • ymenesy's avatar
      ymenesy
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 24, 2024

      I had the same issue, and sometimes it would not update even with the Forms creator having the file open, there would be a significant delay of hours  sometimes, and there is no wat to trigger the update, except for with PowerAutomate. PowerAutomate is the only best workaround that works real-time without forms creator attendance. Read through this post for more details

      • HealthcareCompGuy's avatar
        HealthcareCompGuy
        Copper Contributor
        Dec 12, 2024

        I did create a task in PowerAutomate to solve this problem and it works seamlessly now. I should have updated the posted once I did it. PowerAutomate has a really easy to follow interface to create the task as well. It really only took watching a YouTube instructional video and about 20 minutes to set up. 

        Thanks for the help!

  • Paul__M_'s avatar
    Paul__M_
    Brass Contributor
    Nov 04, 2024

    klausedelmann475You can transfer ownership of a survey to a Team and it will create the excel within that Documents folder on Sharepoint.

     

    I do agree that it's not a very well thought UX design. It should be easier and more discoverable (obviously) that these things exist. Microsoft Forms (unsurprisingly) feels like it was designed by a different company.

  • klausedelmann475's avatar
    klausedelmann475
    Copper Contributor
    Nov 04, 2024

    I highly want to emphassize the need to determine where the excel should go. This is so needed in company areas where you have a shared folder (in a SharePoint Document Libary) for your team and you need to give team access to the result data in order to be independent from the one user who has created the survey. Even the owner of the survey should be settable so that when leaving the company the form and data can be futher used. 

    • MichaelT's avatar
      MichaelT
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 12, 2024

      I highly want to emphassize the need to determine where the excel should go.

      Seconded. I do not want to massively clutter my group's Documents folder, especially with forms that will be duplicated each year with new Excel sheets. 

      1. The optimal functionality would be to designate a destination folder for the Excel sheet.
      2. The second functionality would be to be able to move the Excel after it is created without breaking the link between the form and the sheet.
      3. And I suppose the third functionality I would look for is simply the ability to relink a sheet to its form.

       

      Without at least one of those features, I still can't justify using Microsoft Forms, despite wanting to be able to.

      • Paul__M_'s avatar
        Paul__M_
        Brass Contributor
        Dec 12, 2024

        100% this should be the standard approach from Microsoft. It's simple and the expected behavior of an application like this. Their devs should be scratching their heads wondering why they aren't being asked to prioritize something like this. And if they need more devs, maybe they (Microsoft) should spend more resources on headcount and making good products rather than letting everyone go and spending all their money on putting Copilot in everything

  • MegWhite's avatar
    MegWhite
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 30, 2024

    I haven't because Power Automate is VERY new to me. I figured out how to do it with a data link formula within an IsBlank formula so I get all rows!