
Update Your Google Forms Response
“Can students who don’t finish come back to the Google Form later to finish?” Short answer… not really. But, here is how YES!

Edit Response
When editing a Google Form, in the settings cog, is the option to “Edit after submit.” This gives you the false assumption that students can come back to the Form to finish or update their form later.

Edit Your Response
After students submit, if you selected ‘Edit after submit’, they have an option to “Edit your response.” This will allow students to click on that link to get back to their form answers and update their responses.

Save the Link
In order for students to come back to the Form and finish it or update it, they would need to save that link…. but there is no easy way to do this. Students would need to right click on the link and choose “Copy Link Address.” They would then need to paste and save it somewhere.

El Chupacabra
I have created a Google Form where after you submit, it will email you the edit link. Try it out!
Email the Edit Link
This is NOT natively built into Google Forms. Here is a template:
Set Up Menu
After making a copy of the Google Form, go to the puzzle piece icon at the top right and choose “Email Form Link”

Authorize the Add-on
You will need to authorize the Add-on.
This may require clicking on ‘Advanced’ and ‘unsafe’ (it is safe).
Setup
When students submit the Form the link to edit or finish the Form will be added to the spreadsheet of responses. You can choose to have it automatically email this link to all of the students.

Choose “Setup with Send Email” if you want students to receive an email after submitting with the edit link.
Choose “Setup with no Email” if you want the control distributing the edit link.
Spreadsheet
The Add-on will create a spreadsheet for your responses, or add a sheet to the spreadsheet you already have. When a student submits the Form the link to edit their response will be added to the spreadsheet automatically. Additionally, if your students have email they will receive an email with the link.

12 thoughts on “Google Forms: Finish Filling Out Later”
I must be doing something wrong, it keeps kicking me back to authorize the Template repeatedly taking me through the steps and not becoming an add on to use on forms. Help!
Double check that the account you’re authorizing matches the account you’re using.
would this work if someone was filling out the same form multiple times?
Yes
Can this be created as an add-on so I can use it on previously created forms?
No. You’ll need to import in the questions
I have authorised the add-on but now I cant seem to work out how to do the setup where I get to chose ‘Setup with Send Email’. How do I go about doing this part? Also how can I test whether this is all working as it should?
I usually fill it out myself with my email to test it.
I worked out how to do the Setup but keep getting this error message: ‘TypeError: Cannot read property ‘getUrl’ of undefined’. What does that mean?
There is something in your Form that is missing. Unfortunately I am not sure what it would be.
Once I have my own personal copy can I continue to copy that? Will the settings save from copy to copy?
Google Forms has built this feature in. You probably do not need my add on anymore. The advantage my add on has is that it will give YOU the teacher the link to their form and you can see their responses.