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Dear Experts,

I have a requirement to capture data from my workforce (4000+ users) on a regular basis.

I've developed a form for this using MS Forms and it does it's job perfectly.

However, due to GDPR constraints (and the nature of the data) I need to clear the data held in MS Forms every 7 days.

I can't see a way to do this automatically via a script or otherwise.

Can anyone help or offer any advice?

Cheers

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Dani AI

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Short answer: not natively. As of Oct 18, 2025, Microsoft Forms has no built‑in retention timer or auto‑purge for responses, and there is no supported Graph/Forms API to delete responses programmatically. You can delete all responses manually from the Responses tab, or delete the form (which deletes all its responses). That aligns with what noted. (learn.microsoft.com)

What teams do for GDPR is minimize how long data lives in Forms and automate deletion in a system that supports it:

  • Offload immediately: Build a Power Automate flow using the Forms trigger "When a new response is submitted" + "Get response details," then write the data to a SharePoint list (or Excel/Dataverse). (microsoft.com)
  • Auto‑delete after 7 days: Apply a Microsoft Purview retention label/policy to that SharePoint list (or library) to delete items at the end of a 7‑day period. You can use the built‑in "Permanently delete" action, or even kick off a flow when the retention period ends if you need extra steps. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • Clear Forms on a cadence: Once your offload is in place, perform a weekly "Delete all responses" (or, if you duplicate the form weekly, delete last week’s form). If your form writes to a workbook in OneDrive/SharePoint, treat that workbook as separate content and manage/retain/delete it in the same way. (support.microsoft.com)

Operational tip for ’s scale (4,000+ users): host a stable link (intranet/Teams tab) that you update to the new weekly copy so users always hit the current form, then delete the prior week’s form to guarantee purge. Use Forms’ start/end dates to close each weekly window automatically. (support.microsoft.com)

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