How to restore deleted response on microsoft form?

Question

I would like to seek your assistance regarding my Microsoft Form (link: [Moderator note: personal info removed]). I recently and accidentally deleted two responses (Response ID: 52 and 54), and I am unable to retrieve them.

May I kindly ask if there is any possibility to recover these deleted responses from your system? These responses are important for my research, and I would greatly appreciate any help or guidance you can provide.

Thank you very much for your time and support. I look forward to your reply.

Answer 1

Dear @Hoi Ka Wai,

I understand how important this data is, especially when it’s related to research.

At this time, Microsoft Forms does not provide a built‑in option to restore individual responses once they have been deleted. When a response is removed from the Responses section, it is treated as a permanent action, and there is no recycle bin or undo feature for responses within Forms itself.

However, if the form responses were previously opened or synced to Excel, Microsoft Forms automatically creates an Excel file in OneDrive or SharePoint. Therefore, here are some steps I recommend you try:

Step 1: Go to your Form > Select View responses.

 

Step 2: click on the Excel file.

Step 3: Please check whether the responses you may have accidentally deleted are still displayed there. This is the interface used to compare questions and answers between the form and Excel:

Step 4: If the responses are not shown, please continue with the steps below to restore the Version History of the Excel file to check whether it can be recovered to a version before the responses were deleted.

Note: You must have Edit permission on the Excel file containing the responses to perform the following steps.

Go to OneDrive > Locate the Excel file that contains the responses > Click the three-dot icon (⋯) > select Version history > Review the available versions, choose a version that still contains the full responses, and click Restore.

You may also refer to the documentation below for more details on how to restore files using Version History: Restore a previous version of a file stored in OneDrive - Microsoft Support

Note: Please understand that as a forum moderator, my role is to provide general guidance and troubleshooting support. I don’t have access to internal systems or backend tools, and I appreciate your understanding of these limits.

I hope the information shared helps point you in the right direction. Please try the steps above and let me know if they work. If not, we can continue working together to narrow this down.

The first response may not always resolve the issue right away, but with your help and more details, we can work toward a solution.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I'm looking forward for your reply.

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