Google form not showing submit button: why

A form that looks finished can stop one screen short. The button is drawn at the foot of the last page, so a visitor who reads only the last question may never scroll down to it. On a phone, the browser's own bar can push the button below the visible area. A form that requires a Google sign-in replaces the questions with a prompt for anyone signed out, and a visitor inside an in-app browser may be unable to finish that sign-in at all. An embed on your site sets the frame's height, and a short frame hides the bottom of the form.

• Open the form's link in a private window, signed out, and scroll to the bottom of the last page.
• Check the settings for a required Google sign-in, which replaces the questions for anyone signed out.
• On a website, compare the embed's height with the form's length, and scroll inside the frame on a phone.
• Confirm the form still accepts responses. A closed form shows a notice in place of the questions.
• Scroll the open form to the end in a phone-sized window before you trust the laptop view.

The first is the last page. Google Forms places Submit at the foot of the final page, and a visitor who reads only the question on screen may not scroll down. On a phone, the keyboard and the browser's own bar can push the button below the visible area, so the visitor sees the last question with empty space beneath it. The button is there, just out of reach.

The second is sign-in. A form that requires a Google sign-in shows a prompt for anyone who is signed out, and the questions stay hidden behind it. The third is the embed. Google's embed code sets a width and height for the frame, and if the height is too short, or the frame does not scroll on a phone, the button sits below the frame's edge where nobody can reach it.

Open the form's own link in a private window, signed out, on a laptop. If Submit shows there, the form is fine and the fault is the sign-in or the embed. If Submit does not show there either, the cause is inside the form, usually the last page or a form that has stopped accepting responses. Work through those two checks in that order.

Then test the embed. Load the page with the form on a phone, and scroll inside the frame to the bottom. A button that shows on the open form but not inside the frame is a height problem, and the frame size in the embed code is where you fix it. Repeat the check after every change to the form's length.

Start the visitor on the form link, and on the embed page if you use one. It answers the questions in order, as a signed-out stranger would, and stops on the last screen it reaches. The report gives that screen with a screenshot, so you can see whether Submit is on it and where the form ends. Run it on a phone as well as a laptop, because a short embed frame can cut off the bottom of the form on a narrow screen.

The run cannot sign in with Google, so a form that requires sign-in stops at the prompt, and the report says so. It does not read the form's settings, so it cannot tell you which switch is on. Keep the embed page in the test as well as the plain link, because the two can behave differently. Owners who submit from a signed-in browser rarely see either problem, which is why the check needs a signed-out visitor.

Adding a question, turning on a required sign-in or adding a section can move the button out of view, and an embed sized for the old form will cut it off. Rerun the same visitor after each change, on a laptop and on a phone, both as a plain link and inside the page where the form is embedded. Owners whose site sits behind a password add it to the run.