Collecting data from old versions if questions were deleted

User Support Data Management
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1

I had to make some major changes to a form, including deleting a lot of questions. But I need to see data from the old versions from the questions that were deleted.

I’ve tried exporting data by selecting “include data from all versions” but it seems like data from deleted questions doesn’t appear. How can I get this data?

2

Hello @Meghan,
You might find the old questions moved towards the end of the table row.

1 Like
3

Hi @wroos I checked and it’s not there at the end of the table. I suspect that it’s because those questions from the old version were deleted rather than simply edited. But there must be some way to see the responses that were there for the deleted questions - otherwise that is so much data lost.

Really appreciate if someone can help me.

4

@Meghan, maybe in this case download all the form versions and upload the one that has all the questions and redeploy them. If you don’t feel comfortable, you could try this out in a dummy project first.

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By the way, what to do so that these old questions are no longer displayed when downloaded? Thanks.

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You may have a look at the Help Center article for data download, please. Esp. advanced options
https://support.kobotoolbox.org/export_download.html

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I’m just experiencing this problem - some questions were no longer relevant so i deleted them … and now the old records which answered those questions no longer show any answers.
even when i downloaded data showing all previous versions, those questions are shown in columns to the end, but with no data.
Is there any way to retrieve this old data, or is this just something to be wary of when updating and deleting questions?
Thanks!!

8

This is not the normal behaviour.
What exactly did you change in the form?
Did you also edit the data on server level?
Which server are you using?

If the survey is finished you may

  • Save the current XKSForm and the data (download)
  • Clone the previous form version, from form history view
  • Downoad this previous XLSForm (the clone)
  • Upload and redeploy this previous version to the original project
  • Check now the previous data (in table view and all data download).
  • …
  • Later go back to the newes! version
9

Thanks for the reply. Sorry i am slow to answer. I am just checking in again here now!

So, to answer your questions - we are using Kobo for a simple timesheet for our staff to charge their time to various projects.
When a project ended, i deleted that project from the form (how many hours worked for x project-question).
But then when i downloaded the data - even downloading all previous versions of the form, the columns showing the answers to the deleted projects is no longer there. I just redonwloaded the latest - showing all previous verison data… and confirmed that those columns are no longer there.
I am using the non-humanitarian server.
not sure what you mean but “did i edit data on server level?”

Thanks for the method of how to restore the previous version. For my current needs, it isn’t too important …
But, curious to know if this is a problem on my end (did i delete it wrong)? or something i just need to be aware of when i delete questions in any form that is to be used on an ongoing basis - is there any way to keep the old questions and answers there but just hide the question instead (I bet i could look that up myself!)
Thanks as always!

10

Hi, I also has this problem, I have a question that capture a picture (image attachment), then I revised the form and delete that question, I think I can download that image later, but when I exported zipped attachment, the old image from that deleted question is not in the downloaded files.
I test download XLS with image URL, but the URL is not there.

Please help