M365 Changelog: Microsoft Forms now supports live data sync to Excel – Preview

MC713045 – Microsoft Forms offers surveys and quizzes to collect information from your audience. Microsoft has added a new feature that lets you quickly and easily sync the responses to an Excel file. Now you’ll always have the latest responses, updated automatically, so you can leverage the full range of Excel functions to analyze your data and collab with your peers.

Feature Experience:

• Create an Excel workbook in your own OneDrive on the form/quiz responses page.
• Form responses will automatically sync to a table in the Excel workbook where you can start manipulating the data.
• New responses will automatically sync while the workbook is open in Excel for the web.
• Excel coauthors will also get automatically synced responses in Excel for the web. 

Notes:

• The live data sync can only be triggered in Excel for the web. If you want to analyze the data in the desktop app, you will also need the file open in Excel for the web to receive the automatic updates.
• Edit permissions for the form/quiz and the synced Excel workbook of response data are independent of each other. The form author must grant permissions separately. 
• Prior to the release of this feature, there were two types of forms that supported an older version of live data sync to Excel, which will continue without change for a short time: 
• Group form – forms created in your Microsoft 365 group Create a group form or quiz – Microsoft Support
• Forms for Excel – forms created from OneDrive for work or school and from new team sites connected with Microsoft 365 Groups. Create a form with Microsoft Forms – Microsoft Support

With this new feature, Microsoft is introducing a new data sync solution with higher reliability and faster performance. Microsoft will start rolling this new solution out for personal forms/quizzes created from the Forms website, while Group forms and Forms for Excel will continue to use the older solution (the experience will be slightly different from the new solution). Over time, Microsoft will gradually migrate all form types to the new solution. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 374909

When this will happen:

Standard Release with Preview label: Microsoft began rolling out late January 2024 and expects to complete by early March 2024. During the Preview stage, Microsoft will iterate on this feature based on your feedback, and Microsoft expects to remove the Preview label within 3-6 months after release.

Standard Release with Preview label: Microsoft began rolling out late January 2024 and expects to complete by early March 2024.

During the Preview stage, Microsoft will iterate on this feature based on your feedback, and Microsoft expects to remove the Preview label within 3-6 months after release.

How this will affect your organization:

This feature will be automatically enabled for all users who are able to use Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Excel in your organization. They can find the entry point for this feature from the Forms website.

Group forms and Forms for Excel, which already support data sync prior to this release, will continue to work with the previous functionality.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.