Recorded Responses

About Recorded Responses

When you enter the Data & Analysis tab, you will land on the Recorded Responses page by default. Recorded responses contain all the responses recorded for your survey (that are not in progress), and includes all the data that can be displayed in reports or exported from the platform. From here, you can view and manage the data you’ve collected. On this support page, we will cover what is considered a “recorded response,” customizing columns, individual response PDFs, deleting data, and more.

The number of recorded responses displays in the top-right corner of the Recorded Responses page.

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Qtip: Looking for functions not covered on this support page, such as filtering, response editing, or exporting data? Check the menu to the left for more support on Data & Analysis.

What Counts as a Recorded Response?

Recorded responses include any survey response that is completed or incomplete responses that were closed. This includes:

• Responses that were 100% completed by the respondent.
• Responses where the respondent got all the way to the end of the survey, even if they skipped
• Preview, test, and imported responses.
• Responses uploaded from the offline app.
• Incomplete survey responses that were manually closed out from the Responses in Progress page.
• Incomplete survey responses that were automatically closed due to the incomplete survey responses survey option.

Only recorded responses are used in Text iQ, Stats iQ, Crosstabs, and both types of reports.

Qtip: The time zone used for all dates and times recorded in your Qualtrics account correlates to the time zone set in your Account Settings.

Dataset Update Frequency

Depending on how frequently your dataset is updated, your Data section will return a specific dataset update status. This status allows you to get a quick understanding of how frequently your dataset is updated with new responses.

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Dataset Update Statuses

There are 3 possible dataset update statuses you’ll be able to see: Active, Partially active, or Inactive.

• Active: This dataset is updated frequently (within the last 15 days).
• Partially active: This dataset is updated occasionally (within the last 15-30 days).
• Inactive: This dataset is updated infrequently (hasn’t been updated in more than 30 days).

You can view more information about your dataset records by hovering over the Active, Partially active, or Inactive status in your Data section. When you hover over the status, a tooltip will appear with more details about the update status of your dataset.

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Navigating Pages of Responses

You may collect more responses than can appear on 1 page. Use the table navigation at the top of the table to view additional responses. You can click the page number and enter a specific page to view, as well as select how many records to display on 1 page.

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Attention: You cannot view more than 10,000 responses in the Qualtrics data table. If you have more than 10,000 responses, filter to view specific responses or export to view the entire table externally.

Viewing Individual Responses

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Find the response you want to view, and click the 3 dots to the far-right under the gear icon.

Choose View Response.

View the response summary.

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Attention: The question text that is displayed in the response summary is of the current version of your survey as it appears in the survey editor. If you’ve made changes to your survey since your respondent submitted their response, the response summary will update to include those changes. However, your respondent’s data will remain unchanged. Because of this behavior, your response summary may look different than expected if your survey has been edited after data collection.

Click Close to return to your recorded responses.

This Question Was Not Displayed to the Respondent

When viewing an individual response, you may see the phrase “this question was not displayed to the respondent” for some questions. There are a few different scenarios which can cause this message to appear.

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• This is an incomplete survey response, and the respondent didn’t reach the question before their response was recorded.
• The question was not shown to the respondent due to branch logic or display logic.
• The respondent saw a previously published version of the survey without the question.
• The question was nested in a block under an authenticator into which the respondent failed to authenticate.
• Question randomization or a randomizer survey flow element caused the question not to be seen.

Exporting an Individual Response to PDF

By exporting an individual response to a PDF, you can share this file with colleagues and collaborators.

Qtip: You can only export 1 individual response to PDF at a time.

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Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

Find the response you want to view, and click the 3 dots to the far-right under the gear icon.

Choose Export to PDF.

Name your file.

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Select a file orientation.

Select the page size.

Click Export. 

Qtip: To print this report, export it to PDF. From there, you can open the file on your computer to print it.

Deleting Responses

Attention: Responses can be undeleted in limited cases, though it is not guaranteed. Contact Qualtrics support to determine if your responses can be restored.

Qtip: It may take up to 24 hours for responses to be deleted.

You can easily remove specific responses from your dataset. You can delete a single response, selected responses, or responses based on filters.

Qtip: Learn more about GDPR Compliance in Qualtrics.

How to delete a single response

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Navigate to the response you want to delete. Click the 3 dots to the far-right of the response, under the gear icon.

Select Delete Response.

Select the checkbox for I am sure I want to delete responses. If desired, select the checkbox for Decrement all quotas for deleted response.

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Qtip: “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses” means that your quotas will be decreased accordingly when you delete the responses. For example, if one of the responses you are about to delete previously increased your quota count when the response was submitted, your quota will be decreased by one when you delete this response and check the box for “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses.” If your survey does not have any quotas in use, checking or unchecking this box will not affect anything.

When ready, click Delete X responses.

How to Select and Delete Multiple Responses

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Click the checkbox for the response(s) you want to delete.

Click the trash icon.

Select the checkbox for I am sure I want to delete responses. If desired, select the checkbox for Decrement all quotas for deleted response.

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Qtip: “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses” means that your quotas will be decreased accordingly when you delete the responses. For example, if one of the responses you are about to delete previously increased your quota count when the response was submitted, your quota will be decreased by one when you delete this response and check the box for “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses.” If your survey does not have any quotas in use, checking or unchecking this box will not affect anything.

When ready, click Delete X responses.

How to Delete All Responses at Once

In this section, we go over how to delete all the responses in your survey at once.

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Click the top checkbox to select all responses on the page.

Click the blue text to select all responses for the survey.

Click the trash icon.

Select the checkbox for I am sure I want to delete responses. If desired, select the checkbox for Decrement all quotas for deleted responses.

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Qtip: “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses” means that your quotas will be decreased accordingly when you delete the responses. For example, if one of the responses you are about to delete previously increased your quota count when the response was submitted, your quota will be decreased by one when you delete this response and check the box for “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses.” If your survey does not have any quotas in use, checking or unchecking this box will not affect anything.

When ready, click Delete x responses.

How to Filter For and Delete Responses

There are times when you may need to delete a lot of data at once that doesn’t necessarily fit a response type. This section covers how to use filters to delete many responses at once.

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Click Add Filter.

Create a new filter or choose from your saved filters.

Enter your filter criteria and select all responses. If you need assistance building a filter, see Filtering Responses.

By default, clicking the Select All checkbox will select all the relevant responses on that page of the response viewer.

Click the trash icon.

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Select the checkbox for I am sure I want to delete responses. If desired, select the checkbox for Decrement all quotas for deleted response.

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Qtip: “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses” means that your quotas will be decreased accordingly when you delete the responses. For example, if one of the responses you are about to delete previously increased your quota count when the response was submitted, your quota will be decreased by one when you delete this response and check the box for “Decrement all quotas for deleted responses.” If your survey does not have any quotas in use, checking or unchecking this box will not affect anything.

When ready, click Delete x responses.

Choosing Columns

By default, the columns on the Recorded Responses page display the Recorded Date for each response, in addition to a few questions from the survey. However, you can change which columns of data you would like to display. The column options include any data you collected in the survey, such as answers to questions, survey metadata, Embedded Data fields, and custom fields.

You can only display up to 100 columns at a time.

Qtip: When downloading data, you can customize which columns are exported and/or the order of exported columns by using the steps described below. Then, when downloading your data, deselect Download all fields in your export options. With this option unchecked, only currently displayed columns in the Data & Analysis tab are exported.

Attention: If your survey is exceptionally large, then only Contact Fields and Survey Metadata will be available when choosing columns. This can occur in surveys with more than 6,500 basic fields such as multiple choice questions, or 2,000 larger fields such as free form text. To access your data, you must reduce the size or your survey’s dataset to be less than 6,500 fields. Additionally, you will not be able to export your dataset if it contains over 100,000 fields. If you have questions on how to reduce the size of your specific survey or how to prevent it in future, please contact Qualtrics Support.

How to Choose Columns

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab and click Column chooser.

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Select the response information you want to display as columns. Click Select All to select all the fields in your survey.

Note that you can also hover over a column header and click the blue plus sign (+) to add columns, or the red minus sign (–) to remove a column.

You can re-select a column to remove it. Columns currently displayed on the page will be noted with checkmarks.

Column Options

You can access additional options for a column by clicking on the column header.

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From here, you can perform the following actions:

• Sort: Sort the responses in your response viewer by the values in the column (A-Z, Smallest-Largest, etc.).
• Hide Column: Hide the column from the response viewer.
• View as Numeric Values: View the recode values for each answer rather than the choice text.
• Move Column Left/Right: Shift the column over one column left or one column right.
• Move Column To: Move the column to a specific spot in the data table.

Save Layouts

After choosing which columns to display, you may find that there are several combinations of columns you want to be able to reuse later. For example, because you can export just your chosen columns (by deselecting Download all fields), you might have arrangements you rely on when you export your data.

Luckily, you can save different arrangements of columns using the Save Layouts feature.

Qtip: This feature only saves the arrangement of your data columns. It will not save your filters – see Saving and Reloading Filters for those instructions.

Saving a New Layout

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Under the Data section, navigate to Recorded Responses.

Arrange columns of your data according to the directions on the Choosing Columns support page.

Click Actions.

Select Save Layouts.

Select Save as New.

Type a Layout Name in the text box.

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Click Save.

Loading and Editing a Layout

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Under the Data section, navigate to Recorded Responses.

Click Tools.

Select Save Layouts.

Select the layout you want to load.

Make changes to your columns according to the directions on the Choosing Columns support page.

Click Tools.

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Select Save Layouts.

Select Save Changes to Layout “[Name]” to save your changes.

Manage Layouts

After your layouts are created, you have the option of renaming or deleting them.

Navigate to the Data & Analysis tab.

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Under the Data section, navigate to Recorded Responses.

Click Tools.

Select Save Layouts.

Select Manage Layouts.

Select Rename to change the name of a layout.

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Type the new name in the field.

Select Done to save the new name.

If you want to permanently delete a layout, click Delete.

When finished making changes, click Close.

Redacted Responses

Sometimes, you may notice asterisks concealing part of a response. This means that your Brand Administrator has set up a Sensitive Data Policy, which will flag and redact sensitive information in a survey to protect the respondent. Please see the Collecting Sensitive Data section of the Sensitive Data Requests support page for more information.

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Recorded Responses in Different Project Types

The Recorded Responses page is available in many different types of projects. The steps and options described on this page apply to the following project types:

• Survey projects
• XM Solutions

There are a few other types of projects with a page called Recorded Responses. However, there are important differences to keep in mind:

• For Imported Data projects, see Data & Analysis in Imported Data Projects.
• For 360 projects, see Managing Response Data (360).
• For all other Employee Experience projects, see Managing Response Data (EX).
• For Conjoint and MaxDiff, see Data & Analysis (Conjoint & MaxDiff).