Troubleshooting form issues

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Troubleshooting form issues

Last updated July 31, 2023 15:47

Fix common issues that may affect the forms and newsletter signups on your site.

If you're having trouble with the form block or newsletter block, use this guide to identify where the problem is occurring and how to fix it.

Tip: A good way to start troubleshooting is to remove the block, add it again, and reconnect your storage service. This refreshes the block and resolves most issues.

What went wrong?

This section outlines the form submission process from start to finish. Review these steps to identify which part isn't working.

Step 1 - Visitors should be able to enter and submit information

If an error message appears for visitors at this step, review:

Step 2 - The form should send the full submissions to a storage service

If that's not happening, review:

Step 3 - You should receive an email about new form submissions

If the form is connected to an email address and you're not receiving these emails, review:

Not receiving form submission emails

If you're getting spam emails, review:

I'm receiving spam through my forms

If you receive error notifications from Squarespace

You might receive an email or error message about a specific problem. To resolve these issues, review:

Error message: Email address not valid. Email addresses should follow the format user@domain.com

This message appears to visitors if they enter an email address that doesn't follow the standard format, or is longer than 256 characters, which is the character limit for email addresses.

If a visitor contacts you about this error, ask them to try again with a valid email address.

Error message: Error communicating with storage services

Sometimes when a visitor tries to submit a form, a "Form not fully sent. Error communicating with X of Y storage services" message displays (where Y is the total number of storage options and X is the number of storage options causing the error).

If this is happening:

Disconnect and reconnect the storage options using the steps in Managing form and newsletter storage.
If the above step doesn't work, remove the block and re-add it.

Error message: Unknown error, please try again later

If a visitor tries to submit multiple forms through a form block in a short amount of time, an "Unknown error, please try again later" message may appear. They can submit another form later. This helps prevent spam.

Squarespace Email Campaigns isn't receiving new subscribers

In your Email Campaigns dashboard, new subscribers should populate in the mailing list you chose for that form.

If a subscriber doesn't appear, they may not have confirmed their subscription yet.

The Profiles panel isn't receiving form submitter information

In the Profiles panel, visitors that submit through a form block with a required email address field will automatically be added to the Form Submitters list in your Profiles panel.

If a submitter doesn't appear, ensure your form block is set up correctly.

Note: This feature was released for form blocks using required email address fields on July 21, 2023. Form block submissions received before then won't appear in your Profiles panel. To access form submissions received before this feature's release, check the other storage options connected to your form blocks.

Mailchimp isn't receiving new subscribers

If you're not receiving form submissions or new subscribers when connected to Mailchimp, visit Troubleshooting Mailchimp issues.

Tip: When testing a form or newsletter block, use an email address that isn't already on your Mailchimp audience. Email addresses already in the audience won't receive another opt-in email.

Google Drive isn't receiving new submissions

If you're not receiving form submissions when connected to Google Drive, or if the submissions are incomplete, there are a couple of potential causes.

Option 1 - Check the form for special characters

If form field titles include special characters outside the Latin alphabet (like å, ä, or ö), the letters are omitted in the connected spreadsheet. Instead, generalized English placeholder names appear in column headings.

This issue occurs in languages like:

Chinese
Korean
Japanese
Cyrillic
Farsi
Arabic

We recommend avoiding special characters in form field titles whenever possible to avoid any issues.

Note: Forms recognize special characters visitors enter in their submissions. The limitation only applies to form field titles.

Option 2 - Check if column headers in the spreadsheet match form field titles

The column headers in the spreadsheet must match the fields in the form for the connection to work. If you rename a column in your spreadsheet, the form won't recognize the submission from the corresponding field. Instead, a blank field appears in the submission.

Not receiving form submission emails

Sometimes form submissions may filter into a spam or junk folder instead of your inbox. To resolve the issue, ensure that all emails from our default email address arrive in your inbox. Add form-submission@squarespace.info to a rule or filter to accept all emails from this email address.

Tip: If you use Gmail, learn more in the Gmail Help Center. If you use Outlook, learn more in the Windows Help Center.

I'm receiving spam through my forms

There are a few strategies you can use to reduce spam. To learn more, visit Preventing form and newsletter block spam.

Email: Form submission error

If you receive an email with this subject line, your form block or newsletter block is having trouble connecting to Google Drive or Mailchimp.

The email is sent to the email address on file for the site owner, and it will specify which storage service is causing the error so you can take the appropriate next steps.

Google Drive

This email is a failsafe to ensure that if the connection to Google Drive fails, the form submission isn’t lost. To resolve the issue, reset your connection to Google Drive:

Open the storage for your form.
Click the name of the spreadsheet next to Google Drive.
Click Disconnect, then click Disconnect again to confirm.
Click Connect and enter the name of your spreadsheet to reconnect. If the issue continues, connect a new, empty spreadsheet instead.

Mailchimp

You might receive this email if there's an issue with the form's connection to Mailchimp, or if Mailchimp flagged an address as spam. The email includes the submitted information as a backup for you.

For next steps, visit Troubleshooting Mailchimp issues.

Email: Unknown authorization header

If the block is connected to a spreadsheet in Google Drive, you may receive an "Unknown authorization header" email from Squarespace at the email address on file for the site owner.

You can fix this by temporarily disconnecting the form from Google Drive and resetting permissions in your Google account.

Note: Disconnecting the Squarespace app from Google Drive will disconnect all Squarespace forms connected to that Google account.

To resolve the issue, follow these steps:

Double-click the form block or newsletter block on the page or post.
Click the Storage tab.
Click Google Drive, click Disconnect, then click Disconnect again to confirm.
Log into your Google Drive account.
Click the in the top-right corner and select Settings from the drop-down menu.
Click Manage Apps.
Scroll down to Squarespace, and click Options.
Select Disconnect from Drive from the drop-down menu.
Return to the block on your Squarespace site and reconnect it to Google Drive in the storage tab. This reconnects the form to the same spreadsheet that was previously connected.

Error message: Add storage to this form

If you try to save a form block or newsletter block without choosing a storage option, a message will appear asking you to tell us where to submit form submissions.

Choosing a storage option tells the block where to send submissions so you can collect and take action on them. To get started, visit Managing form and newsletter storage.

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