Save and Resume Form Progress

Introduction

Save-and-resume (also called auto-save form progress) is a feature that automatically saves the form progress as your visitors fill out the form. This means that if a visitor leaves the form and comes back later, they can continue filling the form from where they left off.

This feature can be enabled on the form editor page, under Settings → General → Auto save form progress.

Here you can also choose to enable the Show saving status option. This will show a small message at the bottom-left of the form (or top-right on mobile devices), indicating that the form progress has been saved.

How it works

Let’s learn how it really works, and how it interacts with other features.

Technical details

Under the hood, Formcrafts saves the state of a form using a browser feature called localStorage. This feature allows web applications to store data on the visitor’s browser. From a privacy perspective, this is a good thing because the visitor’s data is not sent to the server, and no cookies are used.

File uploads

Save form progress also saves and remembers uploaded files for 30 days; meaning your visitors don’t have to re-upload attachments to the form. However, these files are stored on Formcrafts’ servers.

Multi-step forms

Save and resume works with multi-step forms as well. If a visitor leaves the form at step 2, they can continue from step 2 when they come back.

Sensitive data

If your form processes payments, that their credit card information is not saved.

Limitations

Save and resume is meant to be a simple feature that works in most cases. It should not be used for complex use cases, or situations where the visitor is expected to rely on the saved progress for critical data.

There are some other limitations to be aware of:

  1. The saved progress is only available on the same device, and the same browser. If the visitor switches to a different device or browser, they won’t have access to the saved progress.

  2. If the visitor clears their browser cache, the saved progress will be lost.

  3. Save-and-resume can also fail in cases where the browser is in incognito mode, or if the browser is set to clear cookies on exit.

  4. If a different person uses the same browser, they will have access to the saved progress. This is because the saved progress is stored in the browser, and not tied to a specific user.

Common questions

If I have enabled save and resume form progress, can I still add and remove form fields?

Yes, you can still add and remove form fields. This will not affect the saved progress. If the saved data contains fields which are no longer present in the form, they will be ignored.

Do the visitors have to click a button to save the form progress?

No, the form progress is saved automatically as the visitor types. The visitor doesn't have to click a button to save the form progress. This makes the process seamless for the visitor.

How can the visitors resume the form progress?

Formcrafts will resume the form when the visitor comes back to the form. The visitor doesn't have to do anything to resume the form progress.