Autoresponder not working

  • murcielago
    Asked on January 27, 2020 at 7:23 AM

    In Jotform I have always had a hard time with the setup and updating of autoresponders.

    I have read the tutorial for the autoresponder email template. Basically it seems that if you touch it, you do so at your own risk as this might break the auto-update feature or...simply not work as in my experience. 

    1580126368Selection 010 Screenshot 10

    I have been trying to tweak autoresponse  in order to get it to fit for my customers but not only does it not update. It is broken! 

    I just tested the fact that autoresponder doesn't just stop updating but actually stops working altogether (fields are randomly hidden so the functionality is broken) even if I only remove the branding (leaving everything else untouched). 

    1580126471Selection 009 Screenshot 21

    The only procedure I know of in order to remove the branding in the autoresponder is to get into the Template and manually erase it as suggested here

    By the way, as a paying customer I should be able to easily remove the branding from these emails I send without having to manually erase it (and in doing s losing the functionality of the autorepsonder).

    I am considering completely abandoning autorespnder or limiting it to a basic message like: "thank you for your request we will get back to you". (Pretty useless for my customers).  

    Is there any way I can customize the autoresponder (ie eliminating hidden form fields, eliminating Jotform branding) while maintaining its overall functionality and the automatic ability to update with the form? 

  • AshtonP
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 9:32 AM

    Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.

    I am checking your form and will get back to you with an update.

  • AshtonP
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 9:57 AM

    Thank you for your patience.

    I have cloned your form and I have added a new autoresponder. After that, I have removed the branding as well as the hidden fields for the template and save the template.  When I tested the submission it is working fine. Here is the URL to the cloned form: https://form.jotform.com/200264421804949

    You can test it by putting in your email address. And if you want me to do the same changes to your autoresponder, I can do it on your behalf on your form.

    Looking forward to your response.

  • murcielago
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 10:10 AM

    Dear AshtonP,

    actually I see the same error: in the autoresponder the luggage fields which values are 0 by default (they are not empty) are now MISSING. After removing branding this error creeps in it seems (i lost half the afternoon today to figure this out).  If you leave the Branding (this was the test I was referring to initial message) you will see that the luggage is correctly reported as 0.

  • AshtonP
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 12:27 PM

    I have done a few tests and here are the results:

    1) When Branding & hidden fields are not removed- Luggage does not appear

    1580143687We have received your response Screenshot 10

    2) When Brading is not removed and hidden fields are removed - Luggage does not appear

    1580143770We have received your response Screenshot 21

    3) When both branding hidden fields are removed - Luggage does not appear

    1580145943We have received your response Screenshot 32

    In all three cases, it is not appearing at my end. Please correct me if I am doing it in another way or missing out on something.


  • murcielago
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 12:39 PM

    Hi AshtonP,


    Thanks for looking into this issue.  Indeed now it seems to not appear at all. After further testing on my side with the notification email which seems to respond better, it looks like the email template considers the number zero (which is the initial default value for luggage) as the equivalent to an EMPTY response and therefore skips it. When I inserted 1 and 1 suitcases they showed up normally. 

    If this is the case, I believe the template should be made to recognize that zero is actually a number and therefore a valid response. 

  • Kevin Support Team Lead
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 3:53 PM

    I've been performing some tests with the same fields on your form, I used a spinner element which has a 0 value as default, without changing this value, the field seems included in the email without issues, example: 

    15801578482020 01 27 14h36 19 Screenshot 10

    Upon checking your form, it seems there is only a check box which includes "luggage" on its options, may you please indicate us if you have updated your form and provide the new field label so we can perform some tests and pass this to our back-end team if needed? 

    Note that you may also post screenshots on this forum thread, attached images via email replies will not reach this thread, but you can upload your images following this guide: How to Post Screenshots to Our Support Forum 

    Looking forward to your response. 

  • murcielago
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 4:23 PM

    Hi. Yes these are the fields which are not working. 

    form looks like this:

    1580159600Selection 015 Screenshot 10

    if luggage (Small and Large) are left at zero, they are skipped in notification email (which shouldn't happen as they are pre-polulated with number zero and therefore are not empty).  

    1580159690Selection 014 Screenshot 21

    (Template looks like this): 


    1580159728Selection 012 Screenshot 32



    If I insert 1 large and 1 small pieces of luggage in the spinners,

    1580160169Selection 017 Screenshot 43


     then these are correctly reported in notification email. 

    1580159874Selection 016 Screenshot 54


    I don't understand why notification email template is behaving like this. I already tried creating new template and creating new spinners for luggage but I get the same error (number zero in these spinners is considered as an empty value in template?). 

  • Kevin Support Team Lead
    Replied on January 27, 2020 at 6:09 PM

    Thank you for providing more details about the issue. 

    In order to assist you better and escalate this to our back-end team, I've opened a separated thread, we will continue assisting you here: https://www.jotform.com/answers/2134764

    Please kindly post any follow up replies there.

    Thanks.