Reset the new form local storage on form load

Airtable Questions
1

I like the new forms but one issue stops me from using them.

I have a table with missing data I need to fill in. I share the table view with another person to fill in the data (who doesn’t have airtable account).

The individual would go to the first record, click on the link taking them to a form, which gets pre-loaded with some data from Airtable, they complete the missing information fields for this record and submit the form.

On form completion, the record is flagged as complete.

Now they go back to the shared view and click on the next record link to take them to the same form, but the form now pre-filled with the data for this next record and so on…

So far so good.

But, if the individual fills in some data but doesn’t submit the form, instead closes the browser window, the entered data is saved in a temporary local storage in browser.

While this sounds great and it’s very useful, it’s not helpful in my case because if another record link is clicked, the data from the record is pre-loaded to the form, however, also the previously entered data in the form but not submitted is loaded, so that the data is now mixed. Some data was preloaded for the record clicked, but some data was loaded from the local storage from the previous non-submitted session for another record so it doesn’t match it.

I know I can click “Clear form” on the bottom of the form and it will clear that local storage data (but not the pre-filled data, which is perfect, how I want it). But it requires manually clear that form.

I would rather risk losing the entered but not submitted data in the form (if browser windows closes), rather than having wrong data loaded from local storage from a previous session that wasn’t submitted.

The old forms didn’t have this issue because when you try to close the window in the old form, it will warn me saying I will lose data if I close the browser window.

The new form doesn’t warn me about that, so it’s clear that the new form stores all input right away.

While this is great overall, it’s not beneficial in my case.

I know Airtable prefers me to upgrade and use share table or share interface for what I am doing but in many cases sharing a form like this to have somebody else complete the form is easier than sharing table.

I wonder if there is a trick in the browser to clear that Airtable form stoage. GPT suggested to add this ?clear_cache=true (without quotes) but it doesn’t work so it’s probably nonsense.

The sequence how the new form is loaded is first the pre-filled formula is processed and then the saved local storage. That means I can’t even use BLANK or something in the formula to pre-fill the form to clear the local storage either.

There is a bunch of 3rd party options for the forms, but I didn’t have a need to look for something else if it wasn’t for this little issue now. It’s time to upgrade those old Airtable forms.

1 Like
2

Sorry for the spelling errors. The text is so bad I had to use GPT to fix my original post but I can’t edit it anymore…

I like the new Airtable forms, but one issue is stopping me from using them.

I have a table with missing data that needs to be filled in. I share a view with someone (who doesn’t have an Airtable account) so they can complete the missing fields. The process works like this:

  1. They click a link in the shared view, opening a form pre-filled with some data from Airtable.
  2. They complete the missing fields and submit the form.
  3. The record is then flagged as complete.
  4. They repeat the process for the next record by clicking the next link.

So far, so good. However, there’s an issue:

If they enter data but don’t submit the form—closing the browser instead—the entered data is saved in local storage. This normally seems helpful, but in my case, it creates a problem.

When they click a ANOTHER record link (different from the previous one), the form pre-fills correctly with that NEW record’s data, BUT it also loads the unsaved data from the previous session. As a result, data from different records gets MIXED UP.

I know there’s a “Clear form” button that removes the stored data while keeping the correct pre-filled values. However, this requires manually clearing the form every time, which isn’t ideal.

I’d rather risk losing unsaved data when the browser closes than have incorrect data carried over from a previous session.

The old forms didn’t have this issue—they warned about losing data if the window was closed. The new form doesn’t warn me, which confirms it saves input immediately.

I understand Airtable would prefer I upgrade to share a table or interface, but in many cases, sharing a form like this is much simpler.

I wonder if there’s a browser trick to clear the stored form data. GPT suggested adding ?clear_cache=true to the URL, but that doesn’t seem to work.

Since Airtable first processes the pre-filled formula, then loads local storage, I can’t override it with something like BLANK in the formula.

There are third-party form options, but I never needed them—until now. It’s time for Airtable to upgrade its forms.

3

So, Fillout doesn’t have the issue with cashed data for the wrong record.

4

Yeah, that form caching thing is a real issue with Airtable’s forms that many people have complained about.

I would definitely submit it as a feature request and/or bug report to support@airtable.com.

In the meantime, like you already mentioned above, your best bet is to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable.

I rarely have my clients use Airtable’s native forms anymore, unless they need the very simplest of forms. Most of my clients are now using Fillout, since it is 100% free and it includes hundreds of advanced features that Airtable doesn’t offer.

Although surprisingly, I discovered the one & only feature that Airtable’s forms have that Fillout’s forms don’t have. I give a step-by-step demonstration of this on this BuiltOnAir podcast episode.