Attach files to a form for outside users

Copper Contributor

I need to create an MS Form and share with External Users and allow them to upload and attach files. Would you know if this is possible in Forms, if noty would you be able to recommend a solution on how to do this please.

 

Kind regards

Brian

22 Replies

@BrianHarry1730 this is not possible. Only users within your organisation can upload files.

 

Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

Doesn't it depend on your tenant's OneDrive settings?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/turn-external-sharing-on-or-off#change-the-organization-...

If the tenant allows external access to OneDrive, wouldn't users outside the organization would be able to upload files in Forms, since Forms stores those files in OneDrive?

Or is there another piece to this I am overlooking?

Hi there, if this can be set fo external access to Onedrive, how do I setup a OneDrive Folder with external access please

@Star_D No, it doesn't depend on your OneDrive settings, it looks at how the settings are set in the individual form .

 

Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)

Ah ok, thanks for confirming.

 

So if I create a form, how do I add a OneDrive folder to it to allow external individuals to add attachments please

@RobElliott 

You can't, external users cannot upload a file in Forms.
Yes, but I thought maybe the individual form might allow you to use a File Upload question type while allowing anyone to respond, if your tenant's OneDrive allowed external.

I haven't tested that in my dev, though, so thanks for replying.

@Star_D For our business, we have used the file request link and added that as a section to our forms. I haven't found a way to connect the document upload and form together yet but it is a way for external users to upload documents.

Create a file request (microsoft.com)

 

Hope that helps

you could attach the link to the OneDrive folder as part of the question.. like
1. upload the necesarry document via this link.....

@jessb1445 , were you able to bind the form's response to the file uploaded?

@AlexUnipa 

 

What I ended up doing was adding a link to request files to a onedive folder.

Then set up a flow that moves that file to a sharepoint folder and notify someone.

The sharepoint folder I've moved it to has a lookup field to a list from the form responses.

When someone fills in the document field for their name (lookup field), it adds it as an attachment to the item. This is the only workaround that I have found works.

@jessb1445 , could you please explain it better....When you say I added a link...you mean that you have inserted in an ms form a question containing the link created? Then, you have set up a second flow by moving any uploaded file to an SP list (or library) and this list has a lookup field...then I didn't get what you did...could you please send some screenshot of your flows to let me understand how you join response id with the right uploaded file? Thanks in advance

@jessb1445 

This is exactly what I'm trying to achieve.

Do you perhaps have a video instruction for this workaround?

@MarvT3k 

 

Hi,

 

I don't have a video but I followed this article for getting the file request.

Create a file request - Microsoft Support

Then I added it to the form like this:

jessb1445_0-1670541489388.png

After that, you can set up your flow to start with the trigger of onedrive, when a file is added.

 

We experienced trouble with people completing the rest of the form when they had to follow the link and it opened up in a new tab. We found that people weren't going back to the form to complete it. Just something to be aware of. 

 

Hope that helps you out.

@jessb1445 that's clear this part, it's not how you bind the upload files with the right user that I previously filled the form up...You talked about the lookup field..but it's not clear if you trigger a separate flow anytime a user uploads files. To sum up: The first trigger is when you get a response from ms forms, but this triggers only when the user has hit the submit button, so if he goes outside the form to upload his files the second flow should first start ....... Please explain in detail if you have set up two separate flows and then how you bonded them.

@AlexUnipa 

I have these flows and items set up to complete it:

  • The form with the link
  • A list to record all form responses
  • Onedrive folder where the file request is created from
  • A document library in sharepoint with:
    • Lookup field from the list where the form responses are recorded

Flows:

  • When a form response is submitted, create item in list
  • When a file is created in onedrive folder, create/move to sharepoint document storage. 
    • A notification step helps to know when we need to go in and do the next step
  • When an item is modified in SharePoint.
  • jessb1445_0-1671187854209.pngjessb1445_1-1671187878509.png

     

What the process looks like in real life:

  1. Submitter fills out the form
  2. Submitter uploads a file via the file request
  3. Flow records the response
  4. Flow moves the file to sharepoint
  5. You are notified
  6. You go into the sharepoint document library and choose the correct form response to connect; in the lookup field. (This may be a form response ID or name, depending on the  context of your form)
  7. Flow recognises a change being made, takes a copy of the document and attaches it to the form record you picked.

I hope that makes it more straightforward.

ok, thanks for your explanation, but this requires manual action to bind the file and response and get the second flow get triggered. It's fine for a few applicants, but for more than 100 is unfeasible.

@BrianHarry1730 

 

You should check this solution out here, it works.

 

You need to set the permission of the folder so when users complete the form, a link gets sent to them via email to upload their file.

https://www.youtube.com/live/WDuwqPv4RAc?feature=share

You can create a unique ID, add the filled entry to sharepoint, and use power automate to pick the attachment and add to the sharepoint list

@AlexUnipa 

Hi, was looking for information about Forms and uploads and came across this in one of the MS Forums. It's an external site as they mentioned, but I am on it now and it is fine. Perhaps this may also be helpful to you.  I've shared it with our M365 Collaboration Team as it may be helpful going forward. 

We are just now enabling external sharing and are looking at options for external document submission.

Handling files provided in a Microsoft Forms response — Encodian