Why renaming a form field makes prior submission data inaccessible

Renaming a field on a live Paubox Form that has already collected responses will cause earlier answers for that field to stop displaying on your dashboard and in exports. The underlying data is not deleted, and restoring the original field name brings the data back immediately.

What you will see

• The column or field for prior submissions appears blank or missing on the Submissions table.
• CSV and PDF exports, as well as emailed notification copies, omit older answers for that field.
• New submissions submitted after the field was renamed display and export normally.

Why this happens

Each answer in a submission is linked directly to a field's internal identifier rather than its visual position on the form. When a user submits a form, Paubox saves the answer under the field's identifier at that moment.

When you view or export submissions, Paubox matches each record's saved answer to the current field identifier. Renaming a field updates that identifier. Because older submissions are linked to the original identifier, the system finds no match for the renamed field, leaving those entries blank. Submissions collected after the change match the new identifier and display as expected.

[NOTE]

Think of this like relabeling a folder in a filing cabinet: the original files remain intact, but the system looks under the new label and cannot find the older records.

Is the data lost?

No. Older answers remain securely stored within your historical submission records. They are simply disconnected from the renamed field and remain hidden until the identifier matches again.

Recover prior submission data

Log in to your Paubox dashboard.

Navigate to Paubox Forms > Forms and select the affected form.

Change the field name back to match its original phrasing exactly. The prior responses will immediately re-link and display on the Submissions page and in exports.

If you are unsure of the exact original field name, please reach out to us at support@paubox.com. The underlying data remains safely stored and can be located.

Best practices for live forms

To preserve historical data integrity on active forms:

• Update display text instead: Edit a field's display label or help text rather than changing the underlying field name after a form is live.
• Finalize names early: Complete field naming adjustments before making the form live, or test changes on a duplicate copy of the form.
• Export backups: Export your existing submissions to a CSV file before making structural adjustments to a live form.
• Add new fields: If you need to collect different information moving forward, add a new field to the form rather than renaming an existing one.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at support@paubox.com.