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Integrations·Google Sheets·Automation

How to Connect SiliForm with Google Sheets

SiliForm's Google Sheets integration syncs every form response to a spreadsheet in real time - automatically. No copy-pasting, no exports, no third-party automation tools required.

By SiliForm Team·Apr 2025·5 min read
Quick answerOpen your form's Responses tab, click Connect Google Sheets, authorize with your Google account, and you're done. SiliForm creates a sheet, backfills existing responses, and syncs every new submission automatically.

Why connect Google Sheets?

  • Share live response data with teammates without giving them SiliForm access
  • Build charts, pivot tables, or formulas directly on your data
  • Trigger Google Apps Script automations from new rows
  • Keep a permanent, portable backup of every submission

Before you start

  • A SiliForm form - published or unpublished
  • A Google account with access to Google Sheets
  • Owner or editor access to the form in SiliForm

Step 1 - Open the Responses tab

  1. From your SiliForm dashboard, click the form you want to connect.
  2. In the top navigation, select Responds (the responses view).
  3. In the top-right corner you'll see the Connect Google Sheets button next to the Visit Link button.

Step 2 - Authorize Google access

  1. Click Connect Google Sheets. You'll be redirected to Google's OAuth consent screen.
  2. Select the Google account you want to use and click Allow.
  3. SiliForm requests only the spreadsheets scope - it can create and edit sheets, but cannot read your other Google files.
  4. You'll be redirected back to SiliForm. A green toast confirms: Google Sheets connected! Responses will sync automatically.
What happens behind the scenesSiliForm exchanges the auth code for an access token and refresh token, creates a new Google Sheet named after your form, writes a header row from your field labels, and backfills all existing responses before you see the success message.

Step 3 - Verify the sheet

  1. Once connected, the button changes to a status indicator: Syncing to Sheets.
  2. Click Open Sheet next to the status to view the spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  3. The first row contains column headers matching your form field labels, plus a Submitted At timestamp column.
  4. Any existing responses are already populated. New submissions appear as new rows in real time.

Optional - Sync in-progress submissions

SiliForm autosaves responses as users fill out a form. You can push these partial saves to your sheet too.

  1. After connecting, a small toggle appears below the status: Sync in-progress submissions.
  2. Enable it to write a row for each autosave event, including incomplete responses.
  3. Each partial row is stamped with the fields filled so far and the last-updated timestamp.
Use caseFor lead-gen forms, enable partial sync to capture email addresses entered early - even if the user abandons before hitting Submit.

How the spreadsheet is structured

SiliForm creates one sheet per form. The columns are:

  • Submitted At - ISO 8601 timestamp of when the response was recorded
  • One column per form field, named after the field's label in your SiliForm builder
ImportantIf you rename a field in SiliForm after connecting, the existing sheet column keeps the old name. New rows will still write to the correct column - SiliForm maps by field ID, not label - but the header won't update automatically. Reconnect to regenerate the header row.

Disconnecting Google Sheets

To stop syncing, click Disconnect next to the Syncing to Sheets status. SiliForm revokes the OAuth tokens and stops all future syncs. The spreadsheet itself is not deleted - your data stays in Google Sheets.

Troubleshooting

Connection failed with "Failed to connect Google Sheets"

This usually means the OAuth consent was denied or the redirect was interrupted. Try again and make sure you click Allow on the Google consent screen.

Sheet was created but existing responses are missing

Backfill runs automatically on connect. If it silently failed (rare network issue), disconnect and reconnect - backfill runs again on each new connection.

New responses stopped appearing in the sheet

Google OAuth tokens can expire. SiliForm uses a refresh token to obtain new access tokens automatically. If sync still fails, disconnect and reconnect to generate fresh tokens.

I can't find the Open Sheet link

The Open Sheet link only appears once a sheet URL is stored. If you connected before this feature was added, disconnect and reconnect to generate the link.

Your form data should live where your team already works - not locked inside another dashboard.

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