Forms timing out when filling out takes too long

CJ Richards

We have several Smart Sheets for which the data is being populated via a form. However, the form times out if filling it out takes longer than a certain period of time. I was wondering if there is any way to avoid this "timeout" limitation and stay logged in until completing the from regardless of how many pauses will occur in between? Thank you!

Genevieve P.

Hi @CJ Richards

Is it possible that the browser is "timing out" based on inactivity or a tab being left inactive in the background?

There currently is not a way to save a form and come back to it - please add your vote to this Product Idea: Saving a "Form" for later use without submitting as of yet

If your form is extensive, then yes, you could do the "Update Request" way of having users complete the fields that they were unable to fill out in one go. Keep in mind that Update Requests do not have helper text above fields or headers, so your column names would need to be very clear for what they're filling out.

Another option would be to break your 1 form into multiple forms, using a unique value on each submission to then Group the multiple rows under one header (in a Report).

You could also use Google Forms to submit rows to a sheet, if their form builder is more suited to your needs. Smartsheet Sync Add-on for Google Forms

Cheers,

Genevieve

Ella

@CJ Richards interesting, we are using a lot of forms and have never had this issue. I am curious what Smartsheet would say as I did not think there was a time limitation on the form completion.

CJ Richards

Additionally, a user was asking me if there is an option to save responses and come back to the form at a later time/day - I've never seen an option to allow this. Can that be done?

The scenario when this would be important would be if someone were using a form for a type of audit and the form were very large with many sections and a person could only find time to complete one section of the audit and needed to finish the other sections of the audit the next day...

I'm worried save and come back later can't be done (would love it!), but if my worry is true, Does anyone have workaround ideas? The one I'm considering is to instruct users to "Submit" the form even if they haven't finished it, then try to use an automation to "request update" for conditions in which questions/sections are blank...

Genevieve P.

Hi @CJ Richards

Is it possible that the browser is "timing out" based on inactivity or a tab being left inactive in the background?

There currently is not a way to save a form and come back to it - please add your vote to this Product Idea: Saving a "Form" for later use without submitting as of yet

If your form is extensive, then yes, you could do the "Update Request" way of having users complete the fields that they were unable to fill out in one go. Keep in mind that Update Requests do not have helper text above fields or headers, so your column names would need to be very clear for what they're filling out.

Another option would be to break your 1 form into multiple forms, using a unique value on each submission to then Group the multiple rows under one header (in a Report).

You could also use Google Forms to submit rows to a sheet, if their form builder is more suited to your needs. Smartsheet Sync Add-on for Google Forms

Cheers,

Genevieve

CJ Richards

Thanks, @Genevieve P. ! I voted up all the posts re: needing development of a save and complete later feature for smartsheet forms since it's a significant need for many. I may do the breaking out of long form into shorter ones as you mentioned for a work around in the meantime. Hopefully using the unique value to group rows for an individual submission doesn't create too many difficulties in the resulting reporting that we're planning...