# Issue with Data Not Saving Properly in Pavlovia – soultions to direct to a new survey after completion?

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189>\
**Category:** Pavlovia Surveys\
**Created:** [March 11, 2025, 4:08am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189 "2025-03-11T04:08:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![OrsolyaSzekely](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/orsolyaszekely/32/42543_2.png) [@OrsolyaSzekely](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/OrsolyaSzekely)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 4:08am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/1 "2025-03-11T04:08:44Z")

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I’m running an online experiment in Pavlovia using PsychoPy, which includes a survey (info sheet, consent form, questionnaires), an experimental task, and additional Pavlovia survey-based questionnaires. Participants are incentivised with a prize draw. At the end of the study, they reach the debrief page, where they can enter the prize draw via a link to a separate Pavlovia survey before pressing ‘Complete’ on the main survey. This keeps email addresses anonymous, but when participants don’t return to press ‘Complete’, their data isn’t saved.

I can see email addresses with no corresponding data, and only one full dataset has been recorded, while many appear empty. Pavlovia is set to **‘save periodically** ’ and ‘ **save incomplete results** ’, but it isn’t reliably saving responses before participants leave.

Does anyone know why Pavlovia might not be saving partial data despite these settings?

Is there a way to edit the post-submission message or redirect participants to the prize draw after pressing ‘Complete’?

Also, any suggestions on better ways to collect email addresses anonymously while ensuring data is saved?

Any advice would be really appreciated!

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 9:28am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/2 "2025-03-11T09:28:44Z")

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> [@OrsolyaSzekely](#):
>
> Does anyone know why Pavlovia might not be saving partial data despite these settings?

The result of my investigations is that incomplete data saving fails if the participants navigates away from the tab instead of closing it.

> [@Wakefield's Daily Tips](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/wakefields-daily-tips/43371/69):
>
> Saving incomplete results When I create a new study on Pavlovia, one of the first things I do is turn off “save incomplete results”. The reason I do this is to avoid having lots of data files getting created while I build and test the experiment. This is especially important if you use credits rather than a licence, since each data file will cost a credit. Even when turned on, saving incomplete results can be a bit hit and miss. The data is always saved if you press escape …

> [@OrsolyaSzekely](#):
>
> Is there a way to edit the post-submission message or redirect participants to the prize draw after pressing ‘Complete’?

Yes. Since I doubt you’ll be able to add a link to the post-submission message, you need daisy chaining.

> [@Wakefield's Daily Tips](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/wakefields-daily-tips/43371/35):
>
> Daisy Chaining Daisy chaining means going from one web application to another in a single participant session. It normally requires passing the values of one or more variables from one app. to the next so that the data can be matched. There are two aspects to consider. The first is sending values TO Pavlovia. I highly recommend that you send a value for participant (without changing the spelling or capitalisation) since this value will start the data file and log file names. A column for sessi…

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**Author:** ![OrsolyaSzekely](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/orsolyaszekely/32/42543_2.png) [@OrsolyaSzekely](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/OrsolyaSzekely)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/3 "2025-04-01T19:23:55Z")

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Thanks for your response, I have tried Dasy-chaining from the Debrief page but it really looks like the data is not being saved properly, or at least not always. My experiment consists of a Pavlovia survey (info sheet, consent form, some questions), then a PsychoPy task, and then it ends with another Pavlovia survey with post-task questions and a debrief page.

I currently have two versions of this task -one running on Pavlovia directly, and another I’ve just launched via Prolific. In the Pavlovia version, participants are redirected at the end to another Pavlovia survey where they enter their email address for a prize draw. Based on your suggestion, I managed to set this up by daisy chaining from the debrief page to the email survey. But even then, Pavlovia often shows the responses as “aborted” rather than “completed”, and the overall response rate has been unbelievably low -way lower than in my previous studies.

Now with the Prolific version, I’m using the same daisy chaining method you suggested, except this time it goes back to Prolific using the completion URL. I ran a small test batch with 6 participants just to try it out. I could see them completing the task and returning to Prolific with their completion code and time -so I know they definitely took part. But on Pavlovia, all of them are marked as “aborted”, and when I download the data, only one empty file is recorded and no data at all from any of the participants.

I had noticed a lot of empty data files before as well, but I just assumed it was people clicking on the link and changing their minds. Pavlovia is set to both “save incomplete results” and “save periodically” ( am no using credits so this is fine for me). I’m not sure what’s going wrong.

I would love if I could save the data or at least the task data was saved reliably, even if participants don’t make it to the debrief or post-task survey.

Any suggestions on what might be going wrong or how to fix it would be massively appreciated!

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/4 "2025-04-01T23:06:25Z")

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Please add me (Wake) as a developer and I’ll take a look. I might also need access to the final survey, if it’s attached as an ID.

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**Author:** ![OrsolyaSzekely](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/orsolyaszekely/32/42543_2.png) [@OrsolyaSzekely](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/OrsolyaSzekely)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 4:38am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/5 "2025-04-02T04:38:45Z")

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> [@wakecarter](#):
>
> Wake

Thank you, both have been shared by me (Szekely)

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 8:16am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/6 "2025-04-02T08:16:16Z")

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Your completed URL is blank

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/9/c/9ce42b1bc90a25f8a580df6d8190257d54b5ac80.png)

Your completed URL in the Pavlovia Survey should be blank. You can’t use a Pavlovia Survey completed URL if it’s embedded.

> [@Wakefield's Daily Tips](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/wakefields-daily-tips/43371/35):
>
> Daisy Chaining Daisy chaining means going from one web application to another in a single participant session. It normally requires passing the values of one or more variables from one app. to the next so that the data can be matched. There are two aspects to consider. The first is sending values TO Pavlovia. I highly recommend that you send a value for participant (without changing the spelling or capitalisation) since this value will start the data file and log file names. A column for sessi…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OrsolyaSzekely](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/orsolyaszekely/32/42543_2.png) [@OrsolyaSzekely](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/OrsolyaSzekely)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/7 "2025-04-02T17:05:49Z")

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Thanks for checking. If the completed URL is blank, as it should, be what could be the problem? Please note, data is recorded well for some participants, but not for most.

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**Author:** ![OrsolyaSzekely](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/orsolyaszekely/32/42543_2.png) [@OrsolyaSzekely](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/OrsolyaSzekely)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/8 "2025-04-07T18:31:33Z")

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Or did you mean that it shouldn’t be blank? Thanks, any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

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**Author:** ![wakecarter](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/wakecarter/32/5753_2.png) [@wakecarter](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/wakecarter)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/9 "2025-04-07T18:45:24Z")

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Your Completed URL in the PsychoPy experiment should not be blank.  
Your completed URL in the Pavlovia Survey should be blank.  
You can’t use a Pavlovia Survey completed URL if it’s embedded.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OrsolyaSzekely](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/orsolyaszekely/32/42543_2.png) [@OrsolyaSzekely](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/OrsolyaSzekely)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/issue-with-data-not-saving-properly-in-pavlovia-soultions-to-direct-to-a-new-survey-after-completion/44189/10 "2025-04-09T01:39:44Z")

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Amazing, thank you so much!!