Unless you delete collected data yourself, it will build up over time on a SurveyCTO server, as long as it has an active subscription (read more below). Even though SurveyCTO offers unlimited storage, it is not good practice to leave collected data on your server for too long, particularly if that data is sensitive, and especially if you’ve chosen not to encrypt your data. Old data can also slow down the server as it piles up over time.
The most basic measure you have against the build up of old data is to delete a form, deleting all of its data along with it. Alternatively, you can delete collected data up to a specified date, or delete specific form submissions. You can also schedule data to be purged automatically. All four options are described below.
Keep in mind, though, that in order to use SurveyCTO’s Data Explorer feature, the form and data must be present on the server. If the Data Explorer is important to what you’re doing, you might want to wait on deleting or purging data from the server. Alternatively, look into data visualization solutions outside SurveyCTO.
Important preparation
Download, save, and backup data from closed surveys or projects so that it can be accessed again in the future. This is a crucial first step, so this advice will be repeated throughout this article.
We advise frequent exports anyway, so you can start running preliminary analysis and data consistency checks along the way.
Option 1: Delete a form and its related data
This will delete the form, all of its data, and the history of all prior versions of the form. This is a good option if you don’t need your form any more, and you would like to delete all of the associated data in one step.
- Go to the Design tab.
- Under the title of the form you would like to delete, select Delete.
- Check the required boxes indicating that you already have the form definition and data (which you can also download from this screen by clicking on the download links).
- Select the red Delete button.
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