Save and Resume (Partial Submit)

Long or complex forms can take time to complete. Partial submit lets respondents save their progress and come back later to finish, without losing any of the data they have already entered. This dramatically reduces abandonment on lengthy forms like job applications, insurance claims, or detailed surveys.

What Partial Submit Does

When partial submit is enabled, WittyForm autosaves progress while respondents fill out the form. Respondents also see a Save & continue later button that gives them a resume link they can copy or email to themselves. They can close the browser, come back hours or days later, and pick up right where they left off.

Behind the scenes, the partially completed response is saved to WittyForm's servers and also cached in the respondent's browser via local storage. This dual approach means a same-device refresh restores immediately, while the resume link lets the respondent switch devices or recover after browser data is cleared.

Enabling Partial Submit

1. Open your form in the editor.
2. Go to Settings and find the Access section.
3. Toggle Allow Save and Resume to on.
4. Optionally, enable Email Resume Link so respondents can receive a link to continue on any device.
5. Publish or update your form to apply the changes.

How It Works

Saving progress

As respondents fill out the form, their answers are saved locally and periodically synced to WittyForm as a partial submission. When they click Save & continue later:

• All current field values are sent to WittyForm and stored as a partial submission.
• A copy of the data is saved in the browser's local storage for instant access.
• The respondent sees a confirmation message with a resume link they can bookmark.
• If email resume is enabled, the respondent can enter their email address and receive a link to resume the form on any device.

Resuming the form

A respondent can resume their form in several ways:

• Same browser: Simply open the form URL again. The local storage data is detected and the form is pre-filled automatically.
• Resume link: Click the unique resume link from the confirmation page or email. This works on any device or browser.
• Bookmarked link: If the respondent bookmarked the resume link, they can return to it anytime before the link expires.

When the form loads with saved data, all previously entered values are restored. The respondent is taken to the first unanswered question (in Survey Mode) or the top of the form (in Open Canvas mode) so they can continue where they stopped.

Respondent Experience

From the respondent's perspective, the experience is straightforward:

• Progress autosaves in the background, and a Save & continue later button is visible at the bottom of the form when there is data to save.
• After saving, a small panel confirms the save and shows the resume options.
• If the respondent returns to the form, a banner at the top says "Welcome back! Your previous progress has been restored." with an option to start fresh instead.

Viewing Partial Submissions

As a form owner, you can see partial submissions in the Responses tab:

• Open the Partial tab to see saved and abandoned sessions for the form.
• A Save and Resume summary at the top of that tab shows how many partials have been saved, how many were completed, and the completion rate.
• Switch between the Completed and Partial tabs to focus on the data you need.

Completion Tracking

Partial submit gives you visibility into form completion behavior:

• Where people stop: The Partial tab shows where respondents stop most often, which helps you spot confusing or unnecessary fields.
• Completion rate: See how many saved partials eventually become complete submissions.

Expiration Settings

Partial submissions do not live forever. You can control how long saved data is retained:

• Retention: Set how long a saved partial and its resume link stay valid, from 1 to 90 days. The default is 30 days. After that the link stops working.
• Automatic cleanup: Once the retention window passes, the saved partial and its resume link are removed automatically, so stale data does not pile up.
• Saved on the device: As a respondent fills out the form, their progress is also saved in their own browser and restored automatically if they return in the same browser. Local progress has no fixed expiry; it stays until they submit or clear their browser data.

Configure these settings in Settings > Access > Save and Resume in the form editor.