MS Form not syncing data responses

Question

Hello,

I created a MS Form. When I click on View responses and view the resulsts in Excel, the file is saved to my One Drive. However, the responses only sync when the workbook is open. When it's closed and I open it the next day, responses only sync at this time. Why is it not syncing when the workbook is not opened by me through the MS Forms view responses section?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi. Thanks for your reply and the information provided.

I have that workbook on the onedrive and I have connected it to PowerBI. It just becomes cumbersome to have to log into the file every time to get it to sync with the created survey.

If there was an easier way, that would be really helpful.

Thak you again.

DJ

Answer 2

Hi Dinesh Joshi1,

As per the detailed description, I understand your requirement to have the form response workbook get updated synchronously, but I have to convey that currently it is a by design behavior that the responses are synced to the Excel workbook only when the workbook is open. When the workbook is closed, the responses are not automatically synced until you open the workbook again through the MS Forms "View responses" section.

Though I failed to find any official article to explain the workflow reason, but from my understanding it is because the data connection in backend to trace updated responses from Forms server to Excel workbook requires a manual reopen, otherwise the instant auto-refresh may cause data conflict if the user is trying to edit some specific cells or columns in the workbook for form response analysis.

But still, it is important for Microsoft products to hear the real customer suggestions and feedback, so I suggest you share your valuable ideas directly to the Forms product development team in Microsoft Forms · Feedback Community where product engineers will check 24/7 to collect the suggestions.

Please correct me if I made any misunderstanding of your demand or if there have anything else I can do for you.

Your patience is highly appreciated. Hope you a nice day and stay safe!

Best Regards,

Mia

Answer 3

Hi DJ,

Thanks for coming back to me and don't worry it was just a quick test that I'm glad to offer further investigation for you.

So from my tests, after click the "Disconnect and Sync to a new workbook" button, it will prompt the window saying a new workbook will be created next to the current workbook, which I believe it is currently unavailable to switch the storage location from OneDrive to a SharePoint site, neither change from site to site.

Meanwhile, after I clicked OK this, it turns out the new copied workbook will be created in the same location as the original workbook, and I found the new copied workbook will include all the previous responses. And new collected responses will be added to the new workbook but not the original one.

Please let me know if there have anything I can do for you and if you find my reply bit helpful, you can also use the feedback tool below my reply to submit your feedback for me (pictured below), which will definitely help others in the community who are experiencing similar problems to find solutions to their problems more quickly.

Best Regards,

Mia

Answer 4

Hi Mia.

Thank you for the response.

I have a question regarding the file that the Forms responses are saved. So I went to View responses and I see the following options:

Currently, the document is saved to my OneDrive. What will happen if I click on "Disconnect and Sync to a new workbook"? Will I have a chance to save it on a Sharepoint page? Also, will the old responses copy over to this new workbook or only the new responses copy over?

Thanks, and sorry for the trouble.

Answer 5

Hi DJ,

Thanks for coming back to me and I very much appreciate your kind words.

So from Forms there really has no workarounds to force the self-auto update. But from my experience and tests just now, click the Refresh All button in Excel under Data tab will make the workbook refreshed(get the latest responses) without reopen the workbook. So I would suggest posting a new thread in Excel to see if VBA macro can help to automatically refresh at regular duration or Power BI community to see if the related engineers can provide you any methods to add a simple workflow to refresh the Excel workbook connection each time before the data start getting analyzed in Power BI.

I believe this can at least save the manual refresh each time and may improve a more automatic and efficient experience for you.

Best Regards,

Mia