New Auto-Delete Submissions feature for Enterprise

We’re delighted to announce the new Auto-Delete Submissions feature to help you protect sensitive information and enhance the way you maintain submission data collected with Jotform Enterprise.

You can now get the same functionality of the Auto-Delete Submissions app within the native Jotform Enterprise environment, plus a few added features to enhance your experience. Let’s take a tour of the new Auto-Delete Submissions feature.

Deleting submissions for individual forms

First, let’s look at options for setting a date to delete the submission data of individual forms. By controlling this setting at the form level, you can adapt time frames to meet the needs of your teams based on their workflows and the volume of submissions they’re receiving. Submission data can be deleted in an hour, a year, etc., depending on your needs. 

To set the Auto-Delete Submissions feature on a form, navigate to the Settings tab of the Form Builder, click the Show More Options button, and click the Enable button in the Auto-Delete Form Submissions section.

Follow the prompts to select a deletion period. If you have existing submission data that exceeds your set deletion time frame, the system will alert you. At that time, you can elect to keep or delete the affected records or go back and adjust your chosen window of time.

A summary of your selected changes appears on the final screen. Click Yes, Update to save your form settings. The selected submission deletion period is displayed in the Form Builder Settings next to the Disable button to ensure users know about the Auto-Delete setting.

In the form settings, you also have the option to “Add a default deletion period to all your forms,” which, when clicked, will direct you to the My Account page to set a deletion period that will apply to all forms for the account. See below for detailed instructions on deleting form submission data at the account level.

A message will be displayed for all users in Jotform Tables and Inbox to indicate the Auto-Delete time period for the submission data. 

Viewing and restoring deleted submission data

If you accidentally delete form submission data, don’t panic. Auto-Delete moves submissions to the trash, where you can view or restore them for up to 30 days. Also, any submissions that are automatically deleted by this feature are viewable in the History section of My Account and the Revision History in Tables. 

Additional aspects of this feature help prevent accidental loss of data. While the Auto-Delete Submissions setting removes submission data received from a form, submissions imported to Tables or manually added will not be deleted automatically. Plus, archived submissions and submissions that were deleted automatically and later restored will be excluded. 

Deleting form submission data at the account level

Do you need to delete all of your submission data to meet industry regulations, or do you simply wish to delete it after migration? It’s easy to apply the Auto-Delete Submissions feature at the account level.

To begin, navigate to the My Data section of the My Account page, click the Set Deletion Period button, and choose your desired time frame from the dropdown menu. Any forms with existing Auto-Delete Submissions settings will display on the next screen with their respective times to deletion. You can keep the existing settings, change them to the new time specified for the account, or go back to change your deletion period.

If you opt to change existing settings for your forms, the system will advise of any submission data exceeding your deletion parameters. You can opt to keep that submission data, delete it, or go back and adjust your Auto-Delete Submissions setting.

The final screen provides a summary of your changes. Review your changes carefully and click Yes, Update to set your Auto-Delete Submissions setting at the account level. After saving your changes, the default deletion period will appear on the Data section of the My Account page.

Note that deleting submissions moves them to the trash instead of purging them completely. If needed, you can view and restore deleted submissions from the trash for up to 30 days.

You can view submissions deleted automatically by this feature in the History section of My Account and the Revision History in Tables. 

Note that the Auto-Delete Submissions setting moves only submissions received through a form. Submissions imported to Tables or manually added will not be deleted automatically. Additionally, archived submissions and submissions that were deleted automatically and later restored will be excluded.

All form owners will see a notification screen about the default submission deletion period in Jotform Tables and Inbox when they first visit these pages.

We hope this new enhancement makes it easier for you to manage your form submission data. Creating new features in response to requests from our Jotform Enterprise community is particularly rewarding and creates a more robust platform experience for everyone. We hope you’ll continue to explore new ways to use the Jotform Enterprise platform and share your ideas for new templates, products, and features with us.