I know it’s appears like it’s a requirement in your post title, but is it not a possibility add an intro page to the survey (so the survey is 2 pages)? This would make all the standard settings work as expected.

However, there is another point to take note, 

There may be a lot of “visitors” who might just enter the survey to browse and leave after seeing the question. This will cause a lot of empty ongoing survey sessions/incomplete response recorded.

I would suggest trying one of the following (if applicable):

1) to split the survey questions into two pages with the first page with mandatory question.

2) use authenticator if you have the recipient email address.

3) use email distribution/personal links if you have the recipient email address.

Hi,

Qualtrics only records the “in progress” responses as you click on the “Next” button in a survey. You can find some details on https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-options/partial-completion/#UnderstandingPartialResponses.

Please note that responses are only saved as the respondent progresses to the next page of the survey. If you have a survey that is only on one page, Qualtrics would not be able to save any progress the respondent makes on the survey since there is not another page for the respondent to progress to. Instead, the respondent would have to complete their response in one sitting. Qualtrics recommends periodically adding page breaks in your survey to avoid this issue.

I was thinking it might be a workaround to use the Auto Advance on a Timing Question, but in the documentation it is also mentioned that the Auto Advance timer resets if you leave the page. 

Do you only have one question in your survey, or is there another reason why you want to keep all the questions on one page?

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your suggestions.
I tried adding a dummy intro page before the main survey page. With that setup, Qualtrics does record an entry under Responses in Progress, but the answers on the main page are still not saved.

It seems that Qualtrics only saves data from pages that have been submitted — meaning the “Next” action must occur at least once for responses to be recorded. The dummy page triggers the “In Progress” status but doesn’t store actual question data.

Using personal links would solve this issue, but my client requires the survey to use an anonymous link, so that’s not an option.

Thanks for clarifying.
The reason I’m keeping all questions on a single page is due to client requirements — they want the survey to have only 1 page with all questions displayed dynamically using display logic.
Because of this setup, adding a page break isn’t an option. I understand now that Qualtrics only records partial responses when a “Next” action occurs, so even with a dummy intro page, only the session info is recorded — not the answers shown by display logic on the main page.

In case you miss out on the 2nd option that I previously mentioned, Authenticators is added in the survey flow and survey is distributed using anonymous link.

You can always really show your client the alternative where you DO split it in multiple pages, but apply the “auto advance” option in the layout settings, then for the respondent it is still a good experience without having to click the next button each time themselves. 

Then let them evaluate the advantage of having partial responses with such a setup, versus keeping their original requirement to keep it all on one page.

I also just saw the following other thread with a similar question as yours:

there is one suggestion there by TomG to add the same block multiple times in the survey flow and add javascript to click the “next” button after each single question. Because it’s the same block in your survey flow each time, all the answers that you already filled in are “prefilled” when you come to the “next block” in your survey flow because it is the same block.