Not everyone who starts filling out your form will finish it. In fact, industry averages show that 60-80% of people who begin a form leave before submitting. Form abandonment tracking captures the data that visitors have already entered, even if they leave the page before clicking Submit. This turns lost visitors into actionable leads and helps you understand where and why your forms are losing people.
Without abandonment tracking, someone who fills in their name and email but leaves before completing the rest simply vanishes — you never know they existed. With it, you capture that partial data and can follow up or use it to improve your form.
How It Works
Abandonment tracking is automatic once enabled. There are no extra steps for visitors and nothing changes about their experience. Here is what happens behind the scenes:
- A visitor lands on your page and starts filling out the form.
- As they type or select values, Form Forge quietly saves their progress in the background.
- If the visitor navigates away, closes the tab, or leaves the page without submitting, the partial data is saved as an “Abandoned” submission.
- If the same visitor continues and submits the form, the abandoned draft for that browser session is removed and the entry is saved once as a normal “New” submission.
How to Enable Abandonment Tracking
- Open your form in the builder.
- Find the Abandonment Tracking card in the Form Settings stack on the left.
- Open it. The Track form abandonment toggle is ON by default for new and existing forms (so funnel data flows out of the box).
- To turn tracking OFF for this specific form, uncheck the toggle and Save Form. The form will stop recording abandoned sessions immediately.
- Optional: turn on Capture partial values (explicit opt-in) if you want the actual values the visitor typed to be stored alongside the metadata. This is OFF by default — only the form ID and the list of touched field names are recorded — so the privacy posture is GDPR-friendly out of the box. Enable value capture only if your privacy policy informs visitors that partial form data may be retained.
That is all. No code, no additional configuration, no third-party tools.
> GDPR consideration: Even when tracking is on with metadata only, you should mention partial form interaction tracking in your privacy policy. The “Capture partial values” toggle adds a stricter requirement: explicit, informed consent, since you’d be persisting actual content the visitor typed. From the View abandonment data link in the card, you can jump straight to the Analytics page filtered to this form.
Viewing and Using Abandoned Submissions
- Go to Form Forge > Submissions.
- Select your form from the dropdown.
- Click the Status filter and select Abandoned.
- Each abandoned submission shows which fields were filled before the visitor left, along with a timestamp. Internal tracking keys such as
_metadata_only,_touched_fields, and_abandonment_sessionare hidden from the table and the View modal.
How to Use Abandonment Data to Improve Your Forms
| What you find | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Many abandonments with only 1-2 fields filled | Visitors are put off early, possibly by the form’s length or a confusing field | Shorten the form, improve labels, or switch to multi-step |
| Consistent drop-off at a specific field | That field is causing friction (confusing, intrusive, or unexpected) | Reword the label, add help text, make it optional, or remove it |
| Partial contact info (name + email but no phone) | Visitors feel the phone field is too personal | Make the phone field optional or remove it |
| Abandonment rate drops on mobile but not desktop | Desktop layout may have issues (form below the fold, etc.) | Test and optimize the desktop page layout |
| High abandonment on multi-step forms at Step 3 | Step 3 asks for something visitors are not ready to provide | Reorder steps, simplify Step 3, or add a progress indicator |
Real-World Use Cases
- Lead generation: A visitor fills in their name and email on your quote request form but leaves before providing project details. Your sales team can still follow up with that warm lead (if your privacy policy allows outreach to partial submissions).
- Long application forms: Job applications and insurance forms naturally have high abandonment. Capturing partial data helps you re-engage applicants with a reminder email.
- E-commerce order forms: See how many people started an order but did not complete it, and at which step they left. This data is gold for optimizing your checkout flow.
> Tip: Pair abandonment tracking with form analytics (next section) to get the full picture. Analytics shows you the overall conversion rate; abandoned submissions show you exactly what partial data you captured and where people stopped.
> Good to know: Without PRO, abandoned form data is not captured. Visitors who leave before submitting leave no trace. With PRO, every started form session is tracked. Abandonment tracking adds minimal overhead and does not slow down the form for visitors.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Enabling abandonment tracking but never reviewing the data. Check abandoned submissions at least once a week.
- Following up on abandoned submissions without checking your privacy policy. Make sure your policy covers outreach to people who started but did not complete the form.
- Ignoring patterns. One abandoned submission means nothing. Twenty abandoned submissions at the same field means you have a problem worth fixing.
[Screenshot: The Submissions page filtered to show Abandoned status, with several entries showing partial data — name and email filled but later fields empty]
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