Is it safe to edit a survey that has already collected responses?
In general, it is not recommended that you make changes to a survey that has already collected responses because of the risk of data loss or corruption.
However, we recognize that problems may arise and that you should make changes after you have collected responses.
The most important rule to remember when making changes to a survey is that any changes you make will affect the responses you have previously collected.
It is highly recommended that you make a backup of the data by exporting it in Excel or CSV format before making any changes to the survey.
Impacts of actions on a survey that has collected responses
Action | Impact | Recommendation |
Edit the title of a question | ⚠️ Medium impact | Caution |
Edit an answer choice | ⛔️ Risky | Avoid |
Hide an answer choice | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Delete an answer choice | ⛔️ Risky | Avoid |
Reorder answer choices | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Reorder questions | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Delete a question | ⛔️ Risky | Avoid |
Delete a survey | ⛔️ Risky | Avoid |
Remove a section | ⛔️ Risky | Avoid |
Add a question in a section | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Move a question in another section | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Remove a question from a section | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Edit a translation | ⛔️ Risky | Avoid |
Edit the collaborators of a survey | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Edit anonymization options | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Edit text analysis options | ✅ Safe | Caution |
Action: Edit the title of a question
Impact: ⚠️ Medium impact
When viewing responses or a report, all responses before and after the change are displayed with the new question text.
Recommendation: Caution
In general, this method is only safe if you are correcting typos or making minor changes. Changing the meaning of the question is not recommended.
Action: Edit an answer choice
Impact: ⛔️ Risky
All responses already collected as well as future responses will be changed to the new value.
Recommendation: Avoid
In general, this method is only safe if you correct typos or make minor changes, as all previous responses will reflect the changes. To maintain the integrity of historical data, it is recommended that you hide the answer choice and create a new one.
Action: Hide an answer choice
Impact: ✅ Safe
Hiding an answer choice allows you to hide the choice from respondents, while retaining the data. You can go back and make the choice visible to respondents again at any time. Hidden choices appear in reports and graphs. If the hidden choice is present in conditional branches, it will be retained but ignored.
Recommendation: Caution
Make sure you really want to hide this choice from respondents.
Action: Delete an answer choice
Impact: ⛔️ Risky
All responses collected for this choice will also be deleted. This action is irreversible. If the choice is present in conditional branches, those branches will also be deleted. To maintain the integrity of historical data, it is recommended that you hide the answer choice.
Recommendation: Avoid
You could lose data.
Action: Reorder answer choices
Impact: ✅ Safe
When viewing responses or a report, all responses before and after the change will be displayed with the new order. No impact on collected responses.
Recommendation: Caution
Generally no impact. To safely change the order of response choices, use the "drag and drop" icon to drag existing choices to new positions. NEVER copy and paste or overwrite existing text with new text to change the order - this may corrupt the responses collected.
Action: Reorder questions
Impact: ✅ Safe
When viewing responses or a report, all questions before and after the change will be displayed in the new order without affecting the collected responses. If questions are contained in conditional logic, changes in position can impact the logic by creating loops.
Recommendation: Caution
Generally no impact.
Action: Delete a question
Impact: ⛔️ Risky
All answers collected for this question will also be deleted. This action is irreversible. If the question is present in conditional branches of another question, the branches will also be deleted.
Recommendation: Avoid
You could lose data.
Action: Delete a survey
Impact: ⛔️ Risky
All answers collected for the survey will also be deleted. This action is irreversible.
Recommendation: Avoid
You could lose data.
Action: Remove a section
Impact: ⛔️ Risky
If there is conditional logic on this section, it will also be deleted. All the questions in this section will be preserved.
Recommendation: Avoid
Generally, this action only affects conditional logic if there is any.
Action: Add a question in a section
Impact: ✅ Safe
When viewing responses or a report, the question will be displayed in the section without affecting the collected responses. If the question is contained in conditional logic, changes in position can impact the logic by creating loops.
Recommendation: Caution
Generally no impact.
Action: Move a question in another section
Impact: ✅ Safe
When viewing responses or a report, the question will be displayed in the new section without affecting the collected responses. If the question is contained in conditional logic, changes in position can impact the logic by creating loops.
Recommendation: Caution
Generally no impact.
Action:Remove a question from a section
Impact: ✅ Safe
When viewing responses or a report, the question will be displayed out of the section without affecting the collected responses. If the question is contained in conditional logic, changes in position can impact the logic by creating loops.
Recommendation: Prudence
Generally no impact.
Action: Edit a translation
Impact: ⛔️ Risky
All responses already collected as well as future responses will be changed to the new value.
Recommendation: Avoid
In general, this method is only safe if you correct typos or make minor changes, as all previous responses will reflect the changes.
Action: Edit the collaborators of a survey
Impact: ✅ Safe
Allows you to modify the rights (read/write) on the survey.
Recommendation: Caution
Generally without impact, but may affect the rights of users who previously had access to the survey.
Action: Edit anonymization options
Impact: ✅ Safe
Responses are always available, anonymized or not, depending on the configuration and user permissions. This action is reversible.
Recommendation: Caution
Personal identifiable information could be visible to users.
Action: Edit text analysis options
Impact: ✅ Safe
Responses are always available, depending on the configuration and permissions of the users. This action is reversible.
Recommendation: Caution
Responses may or may not appear in the text analysis.