How to Sync Microsoft Forms to Excel

Quick Tips

• If you’re using Excel 365 (even with a free account), you can make Microsoft Forms automatically sync through OneDrive, but you’ll need to open Forms to update it.
• If you want a fully automated solution, you’ll need to use Power Automate. For this you will need a Microsoft Business 365 subscription or license.
• Microsoft Forms can also manually download an Excel file, but you’ll need to redownload it to fetch new responses.

Microsoft Forms is one of the few worthwhile options for online surveys, particularly due to the fact it combines with other Microsoft Office tools for a more complete experience. But even with that, you have limited options when it comes to viewing the answers on either the platform or via Excel. And if you need to manipulate or sort through the responses, you’ll need to use Excel.

Here’s how to sync Microsoft Forms responses to Excel so you can get cracking with efficient data analysis.

How to Sync Microsoft Forms to Excel on Excel for the Web

If you have the entire Office 365 package and subscription, the entire process can be automated from the get-go.

Step 1. Create, edit, and publish the survey or quiz via Microsoft Forms as usual.

Step 2. Go to the “View Responses” section on Forms.

Step 3. If you have at least one response, you’ll get the “Insights” section to the right. Click on “Open Results in Excel.”

If you’ve set up the Excel app to automatically save to OneDrive (default on Windows 11), you’ll get a new file on your OneDrive. When you open it, you’ll be redirected to Excel for the Web (or Excel 365).

This will also automatically sync Microsoft Forms with Excel 365. Whenever you get a new response, if the file is still in the same folder on OneDrive, it will be updated.

Note that this also works if you have purchased any desktop version of Office and connected it to the same Microsoft account as the one you used to make the Forms.

Step 1. Reopen the Forms page for the Forms you want to sync.

Step 2. Wait for the app to sync. It will say “Saved” on the save status bar on the top.

Step 3. Open your Excel desktop app.

Step 4. Go to “File” and “Open,” then choose the OneDrive folder you’ve used to save the Forms.

Step 5. Select the file from the list to open it.

Step 6. Wait for the sync notification to disappear.

How to Sync Microsoft Forms to Excel With Power Automate

If you have a Business subscription to Excel 365, you can have Forms automatically save and edit the file whenever someone else makes a response. This method also means you don’t have to manually open Forms to force the resync to Excel and OneDrive. Users who have the Education version of Microsoft Office might also be able to get Power Automate, but this may depend on the specific license you have, so check with your workspace admin.

Step 1. Make the Forms and export it to Excel via OneDrive, the same as in the previous method.

Step 2. Open Power Automate. You can access it through your browser or by opening this link.

Step 3. Click on “Create” on the left and select “Automated cloud flow” on the main screen.

Step 4. Select the option “When a new response is submitted” with Microsoft Forms. Add a name to the automation flow in the textbox on the top, and click on “Create” to continue.

Step 5. Sign in to a Business 365 Microsoft account since that’s the only way to get Power Automate to work.

Step 6. Click on the “Pick a form” field and select the form you’ve created and want to sync.

Step 7. Select “New step” and use the search bar to look for “forms,” then select “Microsoft Forms” from the list.

Step 8. Choose “Actions” and select “Get response details.”

Step 9. Click “Form Id” in the new step and select the same form as in Step 6. In the “Response Id” field, choose “Response Id.”

Step 10. Click on “New Step,” search for and select “Excel Online (Business),” then choose “Add a row into a table.”

Step 11. Find the Excel file from your OneDrive and select it, then select the table name from the sheet.

Step 12. You’ll get a list of fields on the table. For each field in the “Dynamic content” list, check the appropriate field from the response so they correlate.

Step 13. Click on “Save.”

The document should now automatically update whenever someone submits a response (so long as the file is in the expected place). Note that editing the information and leaving the table headers intact won’t change the automation, and each new response will get placed in the next empty row.