Microsoft Forms not saving responses: what to check

Short answer: open the form at https://forms.office.com, select the View responses tab, and read the count there before you check Excel. If the count is right, the form is saving and only the workbook is stale. If the count is 0, check the signed-in account, the form copy, and the response settings in that order. Exact names may differ on your screen.

Know what "not saving" means

The phrase covers three separate symptoms, and each has its own fix. Match yours first.

Count problem: the Responses tab reads 0, or lower than expected.
Workbook problem: the form lists the answers, but the Excel file lacks them.
Submit problem: respondents report being unable to send anything.

Symptom 2 has its own page, "Microsoft Forms responses missing from the Excel sheet", so this page only hands you over to it.

Step 1. Check the account

Open https://forms.office.com and look at which account you are signed in with. A Microsoft Q&A answer about a "Responses" tab that reads "0" lists "being logged into the incorrect Microsoft account" as one cause, for example a personal account instead of a work account. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: if you use more than one account in a browser, open the form link in a private window and sign in with only the account that made the form.

Step 2. Check you are in the right form

The same Microsoft Q&A answer says the form may be a "Group Form" and located "in the "Group Forms" section, not "My Forms"". It also says to make sure you are "viewing the original form, not a test copy". To check:

Open https://forms.office.com.
Look in My forms. Then look at the forms owned in your groups. Microsoft's page "Move your form to a group" says: "This list shows all the groups you belong to and the forms owned within those groups."
Open the form you think is the right one and compare its title and question list with the link you sent to people.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: if you copied the form to test it, give the copy a name that starts with TEST so nobody sends its link by mistake.

Step 3. Open the responses the way Microsoft describes

Microsoft's page "View results of your form" says: "Select Open in Excel to view an editable spreadsheet of responses to your form." Microsoft's page "How to get missing data in Forms" says a form made in OneDrive, SharePoint, Excel for the web, Teams or the Forms web part gives a workbook with "a live data connection to your form". It also says: "If you created your form in Microsoft Forms and selected Open in Excel, your Excel workbook has no relationship or connection to your form." Such a file will not offer "Sync all responses to a new workbook". So if the Responses tab shows the right count and the file looks stale, select Open in Excel again from the Responses tab and check the new file. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: that last step.

Step 4. Check the response settings

Microsoft's page "Adjust your form or quiz settings in Microsoft Forms" describes the settings that decide who can send an answer and when. Open your form, then open its settings, and look at each one. Exact names may differ.

Accept responses. Microsoft says: "If this setting is unchecked, you turn off the ability to collect any additional form responses." If it is off, nobody can add an answer.
Start date and End date. Microsoft says: "You can specify an exact date and time when you want to start and stop collecting form responses." Check that the end time has not passed.
Who can fill out the form. Microsoft lists three options. One says: "Only people that belong to your organization will be able to respond to your form or quiz." Another says: "Only people or groups in your organization that you specify can respond to your form." If your people are outside your company, these two options block them. See "Microsoft Forms: why "Anyone can respond" is greyed out".
One response per person. Microsoft says: "Limit form or quiz responses to only one per person." A person who tries a second time is stopped on purpose. See "Stop people filling in a Microsoft Form more than once".

Microsoft's page "Send a form and collect responses" says of the public option: "These responses do not require someone to sign in." It also says that for both organization-only options, "You can choose to have their name recorded or not, and to limit responses to one per person."

If you want a form that closes by itself after a set count, see "Close a Microsoft Form after a set number of responses". This page does not repeat those steps.

Why the form and the workbook can disagree

Microsoft's page "View results of your form" says: "Select Open in Excel to view an editable spreadsheet of responses to your form." Microsoft's page "How to get missing data in Forms" says a workbook opened from the form contains "a live data connection to your form", and that a workbook with no connection has "no relationship or connection to your form". So if the Responses tab shows the right count and the file looks stale, the connection is the first suspect. Open the workbook again from the form with Open in Excel.

Step 5. Check the Excel workbook last

Answers can sit safely in the form while the workbook looks blank. Microsoft's page "How to get missing data in Forms" says: "In the event your live data connection is lost, you can still retrieve your most recent response data and sync it to a new workbook." The route it gives:

"In your form on the Responses tab, select More options."
"Select Sync all responses to a new workbook."
"A new workbook will open in Excel with your most up-to-date responses."

Microsoft also says: "This feature is only available for Office 365 Education and Microsoft 365 Apps for business users." And: "To retrieve your most recent response data and sync it to a new workbook, please sign in with your work or school account." A missing option is a question for your admin.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: after any repair, send one test entry with TEST in the first field, then look for it in the form and in the workbook.

Do not move the workbook

Microsoft's page "Move your form to a group" says: "Don't move the Excel workbook to another location." It also explains that moving a form to a group means "everyone in your group becomes an owner of that form." Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: choose one owner for each important form, name a backup, and keep the workbook where Forms put it.

If the owner left or the form is shared

Microsoft's page "Move your form to a group" says: "You can only move the form if you're the owner of that form." It also says "Group co-authors can help add content, analyze responses, and share the form with others." If the owner left, the page says admins can take over forms from people who have left the organization. Ask your admin.

What to avoid

Do not delete the form and rebuild it before you check the Responses tab. The answers may be there.
Do not share a test copy's link with real people.
Do not rely on one workbook as your only record. If the link breaks, you have to repair it.
Do not type over the response sheet. Put notes in a second sheet.
Do not change settings while people are filling in the form unless you must. Note what you changed and when.

A sturdier place for the answers

Forms stores answers but cannot hand them to a person or track progress. When a team must act on each submission, push every one into a SharePoint list through Power Automate at https://make.powerautomate.com. The build itself is in "Save Microsoft Forms answers to a SharePoint list"; this section covers only how to shape the destination list.

List design, column by column

Title: give it the one answer that best labels a submission, such as "Request 31". Renaming it is allowed.
Status: a Choice column: 1 New, 2 In progress, 3 Done.
Answer columns: spell each choice exactly as it appears in the form, or the flow has nothing to match.

Working view

Anything using [Today] or [Me] needs the classic view editor. Microsoft's filtering page says: "You must use the classic view editor to filter columns using these keywords." Open Edit current view, then Filters. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: set blank and "is not equal to" filters in the classic view editor too.

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Where do Microsoft Forms responses show up first?

On the form itself. Open https://forms.office.com, open the form, and select the View responses tab.

Why does the Responses tab show 0 when people say they sent answers?

A Microsoft Q&A answer lists being signed in with the wrong Microsoft account and looking at a Group Form in the wrong section as causes. Check those, then check that Accept responses is on and the dates are right.

Why are my Microsoft Forms responses not showing in Excel?

Microsoft says a workbook made with Open in Excel from a form built in Microsoft Forms has "no relationship or connection to your form". Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: select Open in Excel again from the Responses tab for a current copy, or use "Sync all responses to a new workbook" if your form shows it.

Does turning off Accept responses delete anything?

Microsoft says that unchecking it turns off "the ability to collect any additional form responses". It describes stopping new answers.

Should I keep my answers only in Forms and Excel?

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: for anything your team must act on, copy each answer into a SharePoint list so it has an owner and a status.