How Respondents Resume an In-Progress Survey¶

A respondent halfway through a survey who closes their laptop, loses signal, or simply gets interrupted shouldn't have to start over from question one - and in Opionate, they don't. Progress is saved automatically as a respondent answers, so reopening the same link picks up where they left off rather than resetting the survey.

What Gets Saved¶

As a respondent answers questions, their progress - which questions they've answered, where they are in the survey, and how far they've gotten - is saved automatically in the background. There's no explicit "save" step for the respondent to remember; it happens continuously as they move through the survey.

What Reopening the Link Looks Like¶

A respondent who reopens the same survey link on the same device picks up from where they stopped, rather than being shown a blank survey again. This works across a page reload, a closed browser tab, or a connection that drops and comes back - the point is that ordinary real-world interruptions don't cost a respondent their progress.

Timing Stays Accurate¶

The time recorded for a response - used, for example, in average completion time reporting - reflects the respondent's actual start and finish, including any gap while they were away. A resumed session doesn't distort completion-time reporting by only counting the time after they came back.

What Isn't Covered¶

Resume is built for standard question-and-answer progress. One specific case is a known, deliberate exception: a Pairwise Comparison section's live tournament of head-to-head comparisons is treated as a single continuous activity rather than saved duel-by-duel. If a respondent reloads mid-tournament, they land back at that section's start screen rather than mid-bracket - they aren't stuck or lost, but that specific section restarts rather than resuming from the exact comparison they were on.

Preview Mode Is Different on Purpose¶

When you preview your own survey from the builder, every preview load starts fresh rather than resuming a previous preview session - intentional, since previewing is for repeated testing, not for simulating a single respondent's continuous progress.

FAQ¶

Does resume work if a respondent switches devices partway through?
Resume is tied to the device and browser session the respondent started on - reopening the same link on a different device generally starts a fresh session rather than continuing the first one.

Can a respondent lose progress if they clear their browser data?
Yes - since progress is saved to the respondent's own device, clearing browser data for that site would clear the saved progress along with it.

Does resume work the same way in Chat Interface and Traditional Form?
Yes - both take experiences save and restore progress the same way, aside from the Pairwise Comparison exception noted above, which applies regardless of take experience.

How long does a respondent have to come back before their progress is no longer available?
Progress persists as long as the respondent doesn't clear their browser data or switch devices - there's no short countdown after which an in-progress response disappears on its own.

For more on how a survey path can differ between respondents, see Display Logic: Showing or Hiding Questions Based on Answers.