Responses
How responses work
What gets recorded, and the four response statuses.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Started | Started a response from the welcome screen |
| In progress | Answered something, has not finished |
| Completed | Reached the end |
| Abandoned | Started, then stopped |
Answers can contain personal information
Response records do not include IP addresses or browser fingerprints. Answers may still identify someone if your survey asks for names, contact details or other identifying information. See respondent data.
Review collection
Use Analytics → Overview for overall progress, Questions for answer summaries and Responses for individual submissions. The overview and question views have different filtering rules, so compare like-for-like counts. See filtering.
Test data submitted through a published link is real stored response data. Use Preview while building, and identify any deliberately submitted tests before analysing your final dataset.
A start is a session, not just a page view
A response session begins when the person starts the survey from the welcome screen. Simply viewing the welcome page does not by itself create that started response. Progress and answers are then saved as the respondent works through the survey; completion is recorded when they finish at End.
A session is not necessarily a unique person. The same person can start again in a different browser, while returning in the original browser can resume an unfinished session. Keep that distinction in mind when reporting the number of people who participated.
Completion does not mean every question was answered
A survey can legitimately finish after screening someone out. It can also finish with blank optional answers or without questions that a branch bypassed. Use the individual answers and the survey's routing to determine which completed responses belong in a particular analysis.
For example, someone who declines workshop feedback may go straight to End. Their response can be completed even though they supplied no workshop rating. Do not interpret the completed-response count as the number of ratings collected.
Before interpreting collection totals
Check the status breakdown and filters, then inspect a few known responses. Preview runs do not appear in these counts. Tests submitted through a published link do appear, and should be identified when preparing the final dataset. See Analytics for where to investigate.