Publishing a form and what each status means

Why does my form link say it is not accepting responses?

Usually because the form is not Published. A Draft is still being built and its links will not open it, and an Archived form no longer accepts responses, although everything already collected is kept. To go live, open the form and click Publish in the builder header, which also creates its first share link.

A form is only reachable by the outside world once it is published. Publishing is a single click, and it is also what creates your first share link.

Publishing

1. Open the form from Forms, then All Forms.
2. Check it over with Preview — nothing submitted in preview is recorded.
3. Click Publish in the builder header.

Publishing does two things at once: it sets the status to Published, and it creates a share link named Default. The Publish button is then replaced by a Share button that takes you to the Share Links page.

The three statuses

• Draft — the form is still being built. Share links will not open it. You can still preview it, and your team can still edit it.
• Published — the form is live. Its share links work, and responses are recorded against your account.
• Archived — the form has been retired. It no longer accepts responses, but every response already collected is kept and stays available in Responses, Reports and exports.

To take a live form offline, save it back to Draft from the builder. Its share links stop opening immediately, and nothing you have already collected is touched. Editing a published form asks you to confirm first, because your changes go live to anyone holding the link.

Opening and closing on a schedule

A published form can also be given a start date, an end date, or a maximum number of responses in its settings. Before the start date a visitor sees "This form is not open yet"; after the end date, "This form has closed"; once the cap is reached, "This form is no longer accepting responses". These are separate from the status, and they apply even while the form is Published.

Why a link might still not work

If a recipient reports a problem, the page they see names the cause. The two most common are a form left in Draft, which reads "This form is not currently accepting responses", and a waiver whose public web link has never been switched on, which reads "This link is no longer available". Waivers are private by default — see Send a form or waiver link to someone for the setting that opens them up.

Publishing is available to Managers and above.