SOLVED

Forms responses missing when Excel is opened

Copper Contributor

I have created a Form in Office 365 Business and now have 81 responses.  When I try to open the responses in Excel, it only shows that I have 1 response.  Please advice.

125 Replies

I don't know if this makes a difference but after I checked to make sure that the form was working and onpened it in excel the first time, I then deleted the spreadsheet out of my OneDrive.  If this is what caused the problem, is there away to get the data onto a spreadsheet now? Thanks!

To confirm, are you saying that you created the Form from an Excel workbook in OneDrive, or that you exported your results to OneDrive and deleted that?

I exported from forms to one drive anf then deleted the spreadsheet out of onedrive.

Hm. I could see how being unable to see responses would make "sense" if the Form originated from an Excel workbook in OneDrive, but if you really did create the Form from Forms first...I'm out of explanations for this.

Me too.  The only thing I have been able to figure out through piecing things together is that I broke the live link to the spread sheet and therefore made it mad.

I have same problem: some responses are showing only on Forms web user interface, not in Excel files. My files were created with Excel Online (in OneDrive) then added forms with Forms for Excel. I have 12 files with forms. During one hour, two persons answered with mobile phones and the other response can be found in Excel file while the other response is only on Forms. Even if I open the file on Forms using link "Open in Excel". the other response is still missing. Some files received both responses.  I already contacted local IT support (and received no response) and tried to contact Microsoft helpdesk by phone (they asked to contact local IT support). If synchronization between Forms and Excel is unreliable, then it should at least ask "Would you like to add missing responses to Excel?", when I open the Forms responses using the link "Open in Excel" on Forms.

Did you ever get this issue resolved. I did something to break the link on my Survey as well. I'm getting responses but the Excel sheet is empty!

Hi Tim,

 

Could you send me your form URL? I could help connect to the engineering team for troubleshooting.

 

Regards,

Zhongzhong

I created a form by opening a new Excel document, then clicking Forms --> +New Form. I created my survey, and annoyingly, the spreadsheet kept questions I had deleted or changed. I fixed the columns on the spreadsheet to match the questionnaire in the right order, and I deleted the ones that I had deleted off the form. I have received three responses to my form, and none of them have populated the spreadsheet. I can see them in the "Responses" tab from the forms view. When I click "Open in Excel," the same empty spreadsheet (with the question headers) opens up. Please let me know what I can do to get my responses in Excel, without having to redo the form since it has already been distributed. Thanks! PS: I would be happy to send the URL but I do not want to post it publicly. 

Unfortunately I did not managed to solve it and neither did our IT department (my request is still pending). I read from some forums that old versions of Microsoft Office may temporarily lock the excel files so that the synchronizer cannot write on them. I have recent OneDrive client installed and Excel 2013 so my best quess is that even I did not have opened any files locally or Excel even running when students were answering with their mobile phones, maybe some files were somehow still locked. Anyway, this system feels too unreliable for me if I cannot be absolutely sure that all responses are in excel files. In addition, it seems like forms are not saved in excel-files so I cannot even move or copy excel files in OneDrive without loosing the forms.

I am having this same issue!  There are responses on my form, but when I open the spreadsheet, no responses show up!  Please help!

I have this same problem. Created an Excel Sheet in OneDrive, and used Forms for Excelt to create a form. At first it took responses just fine and added them to both the Form and the Spreadsheet in OneDrive, but now it no longer updates the Spreadsheet and I am missing some responses that are still in the form.

For now I'm going back to using Google Forms since they're much less clunky and more reliable than Office 365's Excel Forms are, and will also be going with GSuite over Office 365 for my business clients' email hosting due to reliably.

Could you send me your form URL, so we could troubleshoot.

Hi Erik,

 

I'm sorry for the error, could you please send the form URL for me, so we could troubleshoot.

 

Regards,

Zhongzhong

Thanks for the quick response! I've sent you a link to the form, but can't share the Excel Sheet itself due to Office 365 account restrictions. Let me know if you need anything else, as I'm quite technical when it comes to this kind of stuff having worked in IT for 10+ years.

Hi Erik,

I have already received your form URL in private mail. We will do investigate based on your form ID (in your form URL) and try to recover the error.

 

Your data is safe in both Forms and Excel in O365. Even for engineering team, we don't have the permission to access your data.

 

Regards,

Zhongzhong

 

 

It actually worked once I cleared all the filters from the spreadsheet. Thanks for your quick response!

No worry. I'm glad to know it works for you now.

 

Please be free to let us know your feedback and anything we could help.

You rock! Since you took a look behind the scenes, the form is now working again. Thanks!
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Zhongzhong Li (Microsoft)
Solution

Dear Forms customers,

 

Forms for Excel contains a live data connection to your form. Any new response data will be stored in your form, and also be reflected in your workbook. On occasion, the workbook may not contain the latest data for a number of reasons.

If this is the case, Forms provides a new feature, "Sync all responses to a new workbook", in order to “sync” your most recent responses to a new workbook. This new workbook will be stored next to your original workbook on OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online. This will ensure your data is up to date. Learn more about how to get missing data.

 

Sync all responses to a new workbook.png

 

Regards,

Zhongzhong

 

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