Why is my Google form not working for visitors

You are signed in to Google as the owner, so the access rules that apply to a stranger are invisible to you. A visitor who is signed out can meet a sign-in page before the first question. Some browsers make that worse: a link opened inside a social app often runs in an embedded browser, and Google's sign-in can refuse to work in there at all, so the page looks dead. The form itself may be fine. The stranger's path is what breaks.

• The link's address: a public link shows the questions, while an editing address asks for access.
• Whether the first screen shows a question to a signed-out visitor in a normal browser.
• The link opened from a messaging or social app, where a sign-in can be refused in the in-app browser.
• The accepting-responses switch, which shows a closed notice to every visitor at once.
• File upload questions, which need the visitor to be signed in to Google.

Start with the address, because it decides what kind of page the visitor reaches. The link from the share button leads to the answering page, where the questions appear. An address with an editing path leads to a page that asks for access, and a visitor who is not on the access list stops there, whatever the form's settings say. If you pasted a shortened link, follow it signed out and check where it lands, because a short link carries whatever address was pasted into it.

The browser matters as well. A link sent through a social app or a messaging app often opens in that app's own browser. Google's sign-in can refuse embedded browsers, so a form that needs an account can fail there while it works in Safari or Chrome. Test the link in the app a visitor would use, then open it in a normal browser to compare. If it works only outside the app, the fix is to stop requiring sign-in on that form, not to rewrite the questions.

A closed notice means the form is not taking answers, and the control that does it is the accepting-responses switch in the responses tab. Turning it off stops every visitor at once, including people who saved the link last week. Before you change any question, look at that switch, then open the link signed out to see what a visitor gets.

Then check the settings that ask for a sign-in. Limiting the form to one response per person and restricting it to an organization's accounts both require the visitor to sign in, and a file upload question does the same inside a single question. Each produces a different screen that a visitor cannot pass without an account the form accepts. Write down the exact words on that screen, so you know which setting you are looking at.

A simulated visitor opens the link with no Google account, reads the first screen, and works through the questions in order. It records the screen it reached, the question or sign-in page that stopped it, and the answers it gave. A sign-in page is reported as the step where the run ended, and the run does not attempt to get past it, because a visitor cannot sign in with Google.

Branching deserves its own check. Google Forms can send an answerer to a different section based on one answer. Give one run the task of picking a different answer on that question, then compare the sections it reaches with the first run. Include a phone visitor, since a shared link is often opened on one. The run does not read your responses spreadsheet, so check that a test submission arrived yourself and remove the test row afterwards.

Google forms change when a team adds a question, copies the form for a new campaign, or turns on a setting for a giveaway. Each change can bring back a sign-in screen or a closed notice without touching the link, and a branch added late can skip a required question. Rerun the same signed-out visitors after every change, from a normal browser and from a link opened inside a messaging app.