Data Deletion

Deleting Form Results

FormSmarts offers a number of ways to automatically or manually delete form results stored in your account.

Remove Individual Form Responses

After you submit a test run of a form or if a user accidentally submitted a form twice, you should remove the form entry to keep the data on FormSmarts consistent and subsequently be able to generate reports with valid data.

Both the administrator of an account and users with the necessary permissions on a form can delete a form entry.

If you need to remove several form responses:

  • Create a report covering the date range you want
  • View each form entry with the link provided and use the Delete button to remove it.

Set a Form Data Retention Policy

A form data retention policy1 allows you to configure how long FormSmarts keeps submitted form results at the level of an individual form.

  • All the data associated with a form submission is automatically erased after the retention period specified in the retention policy has past, including file uploads (form attachments)
  • The retention period can range from a few days to several years
  • In addition to completely removing a form entry, the policy can partially mask some of the data fields after a preset number of days.

FormSmarts' default form data retention policy retains form data for the lifetime of the account.

Please contact Support for help setting up a form data retention policy.

Replace a Form with a Copy

If your subscription doesn't support Form Data Retention Policies, you can manually delete all the data associated with a form by making a copy of the form and deleting the original.

  • Log in to the form builder and make a copy of the form with the Duplicate button in the upper right-hand corner
  • Delete the original. This will delete the form and all associated data, including stored form results and uploads.

The copy will have the same form structure (input fields, etc.) and settings as the original.

Note that the URL (and shortened URL) and embed code of a copy is different from the URL and embed code of the original form.

Basic Accounts

Basic accounts only allow a limited number of stored records. If you have a Basic account and store form results on FormSmarts, you should regularly monitor your usage in the Resource Usage panel of your account. Before you reach your account limit, replace your forms as described in the previous section to release storage space.

Deleting File Uploads

Documents uploaded through a form are typically much larger than the rest of the data associated with a form response, so FormSmarts allows you to control data retention and set limits on uploaded files for each file upload field individually.

For each file uploader you can:

  • Set a file upload data retention policy
  • Enforce a maximum file size
  • Configure the types of files users are allowed to upload

File Upload Data Retention Policy

The data retention policy (Hold on Server setting) of a file upload field is separate from the data retention policy you may have set for a form.

  • If you've set a form data retention policy and form results reach the end of their retention period, all the associated data is removed, including uploaded files
  • Regardless of any form data retention policy you may have created, uploaded files are erased when they reach the end of their retention period

When you add a file upload field to a form, it is configured with the default file upload retention policy. You should adjust its data retention policy to a value suitable for your application, taking into account any regulatory data retention obligation you may have.

The default file upload data retention policy keeps from attachments for the lifetime of the account to prevent accidental data loss.

Maximum Size of Uploaded Files

In addition to the maximum file size enforced by FormSmarts depending on your plan, you can limit the size of individual files uploaded.

The total amount of upload storage available for your account depends on your subscription. You can check your current usage in the Resource Usage section of you account.

Deleting Uploaded Files

If you would like to erase files uploaded on a form, edit the data retention policy of each of its upload fields. Form attachments that have passed the new retention period will be removed within 24 hours.

There is no way to delete uploads associated with a specific form response without deleting it. Note that when a form response is removed, the associated storage is only released after several days.

  1. Only available with Business Max accounts and higher.