Why you cannot delete a form, and what to do instead

Why can't I delete a form?

Because deleting the form would delete every submission attached to it. Archive it instead.

Once a form has been published, it stops being just a set of questions. It becomes the container for every response people have sent you, along with the statuses your team assigned, the profiles created from those responses, and the recruitment history behind them. There is no way to remove the container and keep what is inside it, so Vome does not offer the option.

1. Why is there no Delete option on my form?
Because the form is published, and something is almost certainly attached to it.

Open the options menu on any published form and you will find Archive where you might expect Delete. That is deliberate. A published form may be carrying:
  1. Submissions, and the answers inside them
  2. Submission statuses your admin team has been working through
  3. Profiles that were added to your database from those submissions
  4. A link from one or more opportunity recruitment workflows
Deleting the form would take all of that with it, permanently and with no way back. Archiving gets you the same practical result, which is that the form stops being used, without costing you the record.

2. So what can I delete?
Drafts. A form that has never been published has no submissions and no history, so nothing is at risk.
  1. Go to Forms and open your Draft list
  2. Open the options menu on the draft
  3. Choose Delete
This is why the menu changes depending on the form. A draft offers Delete and no Archive. A published form offers Archive and no Delete.

3. What does archiving a form actually do?
It takes the form out of service and leaves everything else alone.
  1. The form is deactivated, so it stops accepting new submissions.
  2. It moves to your Archived list and out of your active and draft views.
  3. Every existing submission stays exactly where it is, with its answers, its status and its attachments.
  4. Profiles created from that form are untouched.
For almost every case where an admin goes looking for a delete button, this is the outcome they actually wanted.

4. Vome is asking me to pick a replacement form. Why?
Because the form you are archiving is linked to at least one opportunity's recruitment workflow.

That includes active, draft and inactive opportunities. If Vome simply deactivated the form, those opportunities would be left pointing at a form nobody can submit, and applicants would hit a dead end. So the archive popup asks you to choose another form to take its place, and the confirm button stays disabled until you do.

You have two ways through it:
  1. Select a replacement form in the popup, and Vome swaps it into those workflows for you.
  2. Or leave the popup, edit the recruitment workflow on each affected opportunity to point at a different form, then come back and archive this one.
If you are not asked for a replacement, the form is not linked to any recruitment workflow and archiving is a straight confirmation.

5. Can I bring an archived form back?
Yes, at any time, and nothing was lost while it sat there.
  1. Go to Forms and open your Archived list
  2. Open the options menu on the form
  3. Choose Unarchive
The form returns to your published list and starts accepting submissions again. Its previous submissions were never touched, so its history is intact.

6. I genuinely need this form permanently deleted. What do I do?
Ask us, and we will do it for you.

Send a support request to support@vomevolunteer.zohodesk.com including:
  1. The exact title of the form you want removed
  2. Your organization name
  3. A line confirming you understand the deletion is permanent, in the terms below

We ask for that confirmation because a hard deletion cannot be undone and cannot be recovered by our team afterwards. Everything the form was tracking goes with it: every submission and the answers inside it, every submission status your team set, the attachments people uploaded to it, and the record of who applied and when. There is no export we can produce for you after the fact, so take one first if you want anything at all.

We will confirm back to you once it is done.

7. Does anything survive a permanent deletion?
Only what was written onto the profile itself.

Answers that were mapped into your database fields live on the profile record, not inside the form, so they stay. The same is true of profile tags that were applied, notes saved to the profile, and the profile itself if it was added to your database. What is lost is everything the form held: the submission, its answers as submitted, its status, and its place in your recruitment history.

If you want a specific person's answers preserved, map those questions to database fields before you request the deletion, or export the submissions first.

Idea
Before asking for a hard deletion, ask yourself what is actually bothering you. If it is clutter in your forms list, archiving already solves it. Permanent deletion is worth it only when you have a real reason to erase the responses themselves, such as a data retention policy or a form built entirely in error.

Summary
  1. A published form cannot be deleted, because its submissions would go with it.
  2. Drafts can be deleted, because nothing has been tracked against them yet.
  3. Archiving deactivates the form and keeps every submission, and it is reversible with Unarchive.
  4. If the form is linked to a recruitment workflow, you must nominate a replacement form before archiving.
  5. For a permanent deletion, email support@vomevolunteer.zohodesk.com with the form title and a confirmation that you accept the loss.
  6. Only data mapped onto the profile survives a hard deletion. The submissions themselves do not.