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Blank or N/A responses despite forced responses

  • April 30, 2026
  • 5 replies
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S
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All the questions in my survey are mandatory and I am typically able to see in progress and completed responses separately. 

However, about 50% of the responses in the “data table” section appear blank, and the same ones in the “results” section say “N/A”.  

This is highly confusing and concerning for me. If they are incomplete responses, they should have appeared in the ‘in progress’ section. 

How could so many blank or incomplete responses have been recorded? If that’s not the case, where has the data gone? 

 

Also, I would like to add that I am on a free account. Is this a problem that people on free accounts are facing specifically? 

Best answer by InessaG

What’s your rule for how quickly partial responses are closing - you can find that in Responses settings in survey options: https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-options/partial-completion/

My guess is that these are partial responses that were closed.

    5 replies

    InessaG
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    • InessaG
    • Level 5 ●●●●●
    • Answer
    • April 30, 2026

    What’s your rule for how quickly partial responses are closing - you can find that in Responses settings in survey options: https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-options/partial-completion/

    My guess is that these are partial responses that were closed.

      S
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      The rule was one week, I have changed it to 6 months a few days ago. 

      Your response is helpful, however, considering I cannot see even a single response, do you think they simply opened the survey, consented and then did not come back to it? 

      InessaG
      Level 5 ●●●●●
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      • InessaG
      • Level 5 ●●●●●
      • April 30, 2026

      It’s difficult to guess without seeing the survey.

      What’s your distribution strategy? Are you emailing the link to the survey? If so, have you considered embedded the first question within the survey, which would record at least the response to this first question?

      It’s possible that if you only have the link to the survey in the email, that the spam filters are “clicking” into that link without answering the survey. If the spam filters are at fault, embedding the question in the survey may give your erroneous results. 

      S
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      I am mostly sending the link via WhatsApp. 

       

      Your response has been really helpful. Thank you!

      InessaG
      Level 5 ●●●●●
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      • InessaG
      • Level 5 ●●●●●
      • May 4, 2026

      I’m not as familiar with WhatsApp distribution. Is it possible to include the actual question within that, similar to SMS? that may help you with these empty responses.

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