Form behavior for returning users

What happens when visitors return to a flow they already started on?

When a user returns to a form they previously started but didn’t finish, you can control where they re-enter the flow. This behavior applies to both standalone flows and those embedded into your sites.

By default, Formsort stores a responder’s answers for about 3 weeks. After that, stored data associated with their responder_uuid is purged, and they will start fresh on their next visit - unless you've changed configuration of the settings below.

Go to the Settings tab in any variant and look for Returning responder behavior to find the configuration menu.

For more information about answers storage, see our data retention policy.

---

Options

Start each session as a new responder

When enabled, every visit is treated as a brand new session:

• No previous answers are restored.

• A new responder_uuid is generated on every visit, including page refreshes.

• The user is not pinned to a variant they previously saw.

• Any Formsort-related cookies are cleared, including external variable cookies.

This setting is useful if you want users to always start fresh. For example, they can restart the form by simply refreshing the browser or opening it in a new tab.

If you force-set a responder UUID manually via URL, answers from previous sessions won’t be restored.

If this setting is disabled, Formsort stores the responder’s UUID in browser cookies. When they return to the form using the same browser, their previous answers are restored.

Learn more about responder UUIDs and how Formsort tracks responders.

Resume session on page refresh

This setting is only available when "Start each session as a new responder" is enabled. It allows users to resume their session after a browser refresh, preserving their responder_uuid and the state of the form up to that point.

Start at furthest point

(Default behavior) Responders will resume the form from the furthest step they previously reached. All previous answers will be restored.

This allows users to continue where they left off, even after refreshing their browser.

Start at beginning, discard answers

Responders will restart the flow at the beginning, and previous answers will be discarded. However, their existing responder_uuid will still be used.

This is useful when users should start over, but you want to retain their responder identity for tracking or analytics purposes.

Start at beginning, keep answers

Responders start at the beginning of the form, but their previous answers are restored into the fields.

This is helpful when you want users to review or revise their answers during a second pass through the form.

Want to learn more about other behavior settings? Go back to the Settings overview section.