How to Enable Save and Continue Later on Forms

May 7, 2024

Save and Continue Later, also known as Autofill or Continue Forms Later, offers ways for your form fillers to save their partially filled-out form. It is useful for long forms or forms with multiple pages. 

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Your form fillers can save their draft to their account, copy the draft link, or send it to their email address.

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Notes

  • The incomplete submission data or drafts that aren’t submitted within two months will be automatically deleted. To learn more, see How to View Incomplete Submissions.
  • The Save and Continue Later feature does not work with the following elements and widgets:
    • Appointment element
    • Unique ID widget
    • Inventory widget
    • Weekly Appointment Planner widget
    • Gift Registry widget
  • The Save and Continue Later feature will not work when embedding your form using the default script method. We recommend the iframe method if you want the save button to appear when the form is embedded on your website.

Enable Save and Continue Later

To enable save and continue later

  1. In the Form Builder, select your Submit button’s gear icon to open properties.
  2. In the properties pane on the right, go to Advanced at the top.
  3. Finally, turn on Save And Continue Later.
Steps to enable Save And Continue Later in Form Builder

You can set the save button’s label in the Button Text field.

The form's save button

Enabling Save and Continue Later adds a Save button to your form. The button opens a save dialog where your form fillers can choose to sign up or log in to Jotform to save and easily manage their drafts in their account.

A form's save draft dialog

Your form fillers can also use the Skip Create an Account link at the bottom of the save dialog to get the draft link or have it emailed to their address.

Customizing the Save and Continue Later Email

Once Save and Continue Later is enabled on your form, you can customize the message for your form fillers if they decide to save their partial data and have their draft link sent to their email.

To edit the email template

  1. In the Form Builder, go to Settings at the top.
  2. On the next page, select Show More Options at the bottom.
Steps to access more options in Form Builder
  1. Scroll down to Continue Forms Later — ensure that it’s enabled — and then select Customize Save and Continue Later Email.
An arrow pointing to the Customize Save and Continue Later Email option in Form Builder
  1. Edit the email template on the next page.
The Save And Continue Later email template in Form Builder

Here are the elements you can customize in the email editor:

  • Email Subject — The email’s subject line.
  • Email Content — The main body of the email. You can edit, format, or style it as you like.
    Note: The Continue Form button holds the form fillers’ draft link. Keeping it is highly recommended.
  • Sender Email — Can be found under the Advanced tab. You can configure it so your users receive emails from your own SMTP server instead of Jotform’s servers.
  1. When you’re done, scroll down to the bottom and select Save Changes.

Discard & Start Over and Continue With Draft

If a form filler accesses your form while logged in to their Jotform account and the system found an existing draft, they’ll see an option to start over and restart filling out your form or to continue where they left off.

A form's incomplete submission dialog

Saving Partially Filled-Out Forms in Jotform Mobile Forms

Save and Continue Later have additional features in Jotform Mobile Forms. It’s built-in on the app and you, as the form owner or assignee, can save multiple submission drafts for forms launched from the main dashboard and viewed directly on the app.

Note

Forms that need to be opened in browsers or require an internet connection, like payment forms, are not supported.

To create a submission draft in Jotform Mobile Forms

  1. Go to the main dashboard and choose your form.
  2. Select Fill Out from the bottom menu.
The Fill Out option in Jotform Mobile Forms
  1. Partially fill out the form, then select back in the upper-left corner or on your device to open the Save as Draft dialog.
Arrows pointing to the back buttons in Jotform Mobile Forms

You can also use the save icon in the upper-right corner on forms with Save and Continue Later turned on.

  1. In Save as Draft, select Save and continue later.
The Save and Continue Later button in Jotform Mobile Forms

Viewing Saved Drafts in Jotform Mobile Forms

Your drafts are saved in the form’s inbox. To view them

  1. In the main dashboard, choose your form.
  2. Select Submissions from the bottom menu.
Arrow guides to view submissions in Jotform Mobile Forms
  1. In Inbox, choose your draft.
A submission draft in Jotform Mobile Forms
  1. Choose whether to continue or discard your draft.
Options to continue or discard an incomplete submission in Jotform Mobile Forms
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