Why doesn't google forms recognize responses manually added to the responses sheet

Question

I'm trying to see if I can add responses to a sheet manually through a proprietary application but whatever response I add to the sheets document is pushed down and isn't recorded on the responses tally in the response tab of the form.

I'm collecting data using a Google form inside of a Google sheets speadsheet. When I add a response to that sheet manually I would presume that it would register as a response and be reflected on the form as well. This isn't the case as the tally does not go up as I add responses manually and if I submit another response via the form it appends to the list of form-added responses and just pushes down the manually added one.

Answer 1

The data flow between Google Forms and Google Sheets is one way only, from Google Forms to Google Sheets so any change that you made on the linked sheet will not be sent to the form.

One alternative is to use Google Apps Script to send data that you manually enter on a spreadsheet but be aware that if you use the same sheet to manually enter the data, the form will send that responses as a new row.

Questions related to using Google Apps Script to send data to Google Forms:

• Importing data into a Google Forms response sheet

Answer 2

I know this is an old post but this answer is for anyone else looking for the same solution to a similar problem quite recently.

The solution is a simple workaround -

Combine the live responses from the form & your manual responses data onto a new sheet & work your analysis from that new combined data sheet.

dont work on the actual form responses data sheet get the data to a new sheet and then work on it (more below on why not to do this & what to do instead)

Working directly on the actual google forms responses sheet is not advisable as google forms will overrite any preexisiting data and replace it with the form responses answers - be it text formulas or even cell formatting - theres a simple fix for this - do not work directly on that sheet - just bring that data to a new sheet & then your codes & formulas will work just fine be it scripting code or simple vlookup formulas to colatlate your data.

Heres a simple workaround solution:

I use a simple workaround to bypass the google form overwriting formatting & deleting formulas & other data on the form responses answer sheet on each new entry.

With this solution i will show you - you get two benifits

1) you can retain any cell formatting you want - this method allows you to do that conveniently

2) and most importantly you can use formulas safely without the fear of the formulas being deleted on each new form response entry - as you are aware google forms creates a new entry on the next available row irrespective if you already prefilled formulas in any other collumn or rows on that response sheet - thsi is especially usefull if your form collects numerical data that needs to be summed up etc. & needs to be used for pviots & charts in real time

the solution is simple - on a corresponding new sheet just use "=arrayformula" & refrence the whole form responses answer sheet data range.

What you get on your new sheet is the exact replication of your form responses data sheet that will autoupdate with each new form response & with the added benift of using unlimited formatting & unlimited formulas without the hassel of losing the same by google forms overwriting rows & deleting formatting & deleting formulas.

Here on this new sheet you can even combine live responses with your very own manual responses data or formulas etc as some may have the need to do so.