Google Forms Not Accepting Responses? How to Fix It
Quick answer: Nine times out of ten, the "Accepting responses" toggle in the Responses tab has been switched off — either by hand or automatically by a response-limit add-on. Check that first, then work through storage, ownership, and sharing settings if the toggle is already on.
You share a form, and someone messages you: "It says this form is no longer accepting responses." If you didn't close it on purpose, this is confusing and a little alarming, especially if it's collecting event RSVPs or job applications on a deadline. The good news is that the causes are limited and easy to check one by one. Here's the full diagnostic checklist.
Step 1: Check the "Accepting responses" toggle
Open your form in the editor, click the Responses tab, and look at the top of the panel. There's a switch labeled Accepting responses. If it's off, that's your answer — flip it back on and respondents can submit again immediately.
This toggle gets switched off in three ways: manually by you or a collaborator, automatically by a script or add-on (see Step 3), or sometimes by accident when someone taps near it on a phone screen. If you intentionally wanted to close a form after reaching a certain number of responses, that's expected behavior — see our guide on closing a Google Form after a response limit for how to set that up on purpose instead of by accident.
Step 2: Check your Google Drive storage
Google Forms responses that feed into a linked Google Sheet still count against your Google Drive storage quota. If your Drive, Gmail, and Photos storage combined is completely full, Google can block new data from being written, including form responses. Go to drive.google.com/settings to check your storage usage. If you're at the limit, delete unneeded files, empty your trash, or free up space, then test your form again.
Step 3: Look for a response-limit add-on
Add-ons like formLimiter are popular for exactly this reason — they automatically flip off "Accepting responses" once a condition is met, such as a maximum number of submissions or a specific date and time. If you or a previous collaborator installed one, it may have triggered without you noticing.
To check, open the form editor, click the puzzle-piece Add-ons icon in the top toolbar, and review what's installed. Open each add-on's settings to see its trigger conditions. If you find one that closed your form, you can either raise its limit, disable it, or remove it entirely, then reopen the form with the Accepting responses toggle.
Step 4: Confirm the form still exists and you still own it
If a form was deleted from Google Drive, respondents will see an error rather than a "not accepting responses" message — but if ownership was transferred to someone else (a co-worker, a shared account), that person may be the only one who can toggle response settings. Check your Drive's Trash folder in case it was deleted accidentally, and confirm who the current owner is under the form's sharing settings.
Step 5: Review sharing and sign-in settings
Sometimes a form genuinely is accepting responses, but specific people can't submit. This is almost always a settings issue rather than a "closed form" issue:
- Restricted to your organization. Under Settings → Responses, if "Restrict to users in [your organization]" is on, anyone outside your Google Workspace domain will be blocked, even with a valid Google account.
- Sign-in required. If the form requires respondents to be signed into a Google account and someone tries to open it signed out (or in a private browser window), they'll be prompted to sign in or blocked, depending on settings.
- Link sharing turned off. Check the form's share settings to make sure the link itself hasn't been restricted to specific people only.
If you intentionally require sign-in but want to keep responses anonymous, see our guide on running an anonymous survey in Google Forms for how to balance the two.
Quick diagnostic checklist
- Is the "Accepting responses" toggle on in the Responses tab?
- Is your Google Drive storage full?
- Is a response-limit add-on like formLimiter installed and triggered?
- Does the form still exist, and are you still the owner?
- Are sharing or sign-in restrictions blocking specific respondents?
Running through these in order resolves the vast majority of "not accepting responses" reports. If everything above checks out and the form still won't accept a specific person's submission, ask them to try a different browser or device — occasionally a stuck cache or an old tab with an outdated version of the form is the culprit.
FAQ
Why does my Google Form say it's not accepting responses?
The most common cause is that the "Accepting responses" toggle in the Responses tab has been switched off, either by the owner or automatically by a response-limit add-on. Other causes include full Drive storage, form deletion, or restrictive sharing settings.
How do I turn responses back on for a Google Form?
Open the form as the owner, go to the Responses tab, and toggle "Accepting responses" back on. If an add-on like formLimiter closed it automatically, check the add-on's settings too, since it may reclose the form once its condition is met again.
Why can respondents not submit my form even though it looks open?
This is usually a sharing or sign-in restriction. If the form requires respondents to sign in with a Google account, or is shared only within your organization, people outside that scope will be blocked from submitting even though the form itself is accepting responses.