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Inconsistent or skipping submission numbers
Inconsistent or skipping submission numbers

Let's explain why you might be skipping submission numbers

Updated over a month ago

Why do I get gaps or skipped submission numbers


Team Forms will generate an auto-incrementing id for every response to help identify and reference your submissions. However, in some scenarios you may notice that the submission numbers can appear out of order or gaps may appear between numbers. This is because the submission number is generated when the user starts a new response (aka a draft). This means that another user could have used a submission number but not yet completed the submission resulting in gaps in the sequence.

In addition, because the submission number is generated at the start of a draft, a user may submit a response several days after the submission number was generated. This could result in a recent submission appearing to have a lower submission number that is out of chorological order.

Why is my submission number showing "Loading..."

There are a number of scenarios where the submission number component will display "Loading..." instead of the next number in the sequence. These scenarios have been explained below:

  1. When building your form template - When the form builder screen is open under the "Build" tab, the submission number component will always display "Loading...". You will need to switch to the "Preview" tab before a submission number will appear.

  2. When the submission number is still generating - When filling out the form a submission number will generate in the background. This process can take over a minute in some rare scenarios. During this time, the submission number component will display "loading...". It is safe to still submit the form before the submission number has finished generating as Team Forms will handle this in the background.

  3. While working offline - When completing a form offline it is not possible to determine the next available submission number live. This is because another user could have consumed the next available number. In this scenario, the submission number will be generated during the background sync process that occurs next time the user uses Team Forms online.

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