Save & Resume

Let visitors save a long form and finish later from a link emailed to them. Ideal for applications, onboarding, and multi-step forms.

Enable it

1. Open the form → Settings → Save & Resume.
2. Turn on Save & Resume.
3. Choose which field provides the visitor's email (or leave it to auto-detect the first email field).
4. Optionally customise the button label, email subject, and email intro.
5. Save the form.

Settings

Setting	Default	Purpose
Email field	first email field	Where the resume link is sent.
Expiry (days)	14	How long a saved draft (and its link) stays valid (1–90).
Resume button label	"Save & Resume later"	The button shown on the form.
Resume email subject	auto	Supports {form_title} and {site_name}.
Resume email intro	auto	Text above the link. Same placeholders.
Delete after final submit	on	Remove the draft once the form is actually submitted.

How it works

• The visitor clicks the save button; Formatrica stores the current answers and emails them a unique resume link.
• The link contains a single-use token (?fmt_draft_token=…) that rehydrates the form when opened. The email contains only the link and expiry date — never the saved answers.
• Re-saving updates the same draft in place and does not send a second email — the visitor keeps using their original link.
• File uploads can't be saved in a draft; forms are saved without them.
• Saved data is encrypted at rest.

Anti-abuse

• A honeypot and a minimum on-screen time guard against bot saves. (CAPTCHA is not required to save a draft — it runs on the final submission — so a single-use CAPTCHA token isn't burned mid-fill.)
• Draft saves are rate-limited per IP (20/hour), per email (10/hour), and per form (100/hour). Over-limit requests get a 429 with a retry hint.

Test it

• Fill part of the form, click Save & Resume, and confirm the email arrives with a link.
• Open the link in a fresh browser and confirm the answers are restored.
• Submit the form and confirm the draft is cleared (if delete after final submit is on).

Emails going missing?

Resume emails use your configured email delivery — global settings unless the form overrides them. If they don't arrive, send a test email from Settings → Email first to confirm delivery works.