I have a field where I would like to capture data when a lead is created, but I don't want that field overwritten when the lead takes additional actions. Today, the field is overwritten if I can add it as a hidden field on forms.
It's been recommended to create a workflow intead of a hidden field, but we already have so many workflows, it would be easiest to just add the field to the form(s).
I read this as we need a feature to lock fields from being overwritten by subsequent forms submission. Once a form has been submitted, there needs to be per field option to lock the content or else subsequent form will overwrite the fields with every submission. Not every field on the form, but selected fields. This would work for progressive form as well. The reality of forms is that the info provided is often sloppy and needs to be edited of sorts. ie. a contact submits his credentials as John Doe but with an email addres of Suzy.Fowler@xx.com. We can safely assume that the contact is called Suzy. So we change the contact name to Suzy. Unfortunately, with the next forms submission the the name is set back to John Doe, Darn!
Having a lock on the field to prevent further update after intialisation would definetly help!
Couldn't agree more - really need this feature! We have people thinking they're registering new people in a form, and registering using the same email address - so the details keep on being overwritten - it's a nightmare to manage
This is a huge issue for us. We are onboarding people with a form - details are overwritten every now and then as HubSpot somehow connects new contacts with existing companies.
This would be huge for us too! Possibly even give an IF/THEN option ... if the field is already populated, just display in the form, otherwise give them a field to fill in
having an option to set a field to "only update if that field isn't already populated in their record ... if the field is already populated, ignore updating from the form, otherwise update it once the form is submitted.
We can't use the pre-populate solution given elsewhere as we have a lot of family members using the same computer.
We were actually told by a HubSpot prefferred suplier during the set up of our HubSpot marketing suite that this would happen and built around the idea that a property would never be overwritten and instead populate with multiple answers - this has recently been shown as incorrect and is causing a lot of issues. So really frustrated that HubSpot nor the 3rd party supplier was able to prewarn us of this
Agree! We are new to HubSpot and track what programs our clients participate in as a multi-checkbox property. Our application for programs are obtained through forms, so when they apply for a program it will overwrite their past program participation. We are currently manually entering each time a client participates in a new program.
During the set-up of our HubSpot marketing suite this would happen and built around the idea that a property would never be overwritten and instead populate with multiple answers - this has recently been shown as incorrect and is causing a lot of issues. So we really need this feature! We have people thinking they're registering new people in a form, and registering using the same email address - so the details keep on being overwritten - it's a nightmare to manage
Now it's Aug 2023. Any solution/workaround for this issue?
I'm facing a similar issue and the previously entered field value is getting overwritten. I wish at least it provides options to update a few fields. Ex: Comments, descriptions. Previously entered data in these fields wash out if the same user submits the form again with diff info in these fields.
I think I have the same issue here. I used to use Vutu.re and there was the ability to make form fields read-only. So you could pre-populate for the intended recipient. Disallowing someone who was forwarded that email/link to LP to overwrite possibly creating duplicates - and indeed completing an RSVP as an un-invited person. This is causing me to have to rely on if then branches in workflows to match against existing lists and then allowing or not accordingly. A lot of bother that would be saved by simply allowing a form field to be a read-only situation (with maybe a link to a blank form if the situation required it)
"having an option to set a field to "only update if that field isn't already populated in their record ... "
We were going to start using a form for customers applying for an account, but probably have to stop the process, as we've discovered it overwrites critical data if the system finds a match (so far, they haven't been true matches). We've found we would risk the invoicing data of a company to be overwritten depending on the match Hubspot makes.
That is in no way a helpful form.
So if we could get some way of putting it on hold for a check before it was allowed to update data, or even could set it to only update field with data if the field is empty, that would be really helpful.
Comment on behalf of my customer: We 100% need this feature and more flexible options to lock a property from being overwritten by different processes. It will help control the sources that are allowed to edit certain properties.
Replying to this idea as this came up again today.
It would be great to have the ability to mark a custom field as Read-Only or locked. Not just for form submissions but for list imports or workflows. I have a workflow where I add a datestamp when a contact enters the workflow. That information is then passed to another database for reporting purposes. I don't want the original datestamp overwritten in Hubspot or the other database. So I have to branch where datestamp is know, skip to another branch, or proceed down the branch where the blank field would be updated.
This would be incredibly helpful. Right now our workaround is having an "original" field for all fields we want to lock and using a workflow to revert to the original whenever the field is changed, but this is obviously not optimal.
I am as baffled as you are for the lack of a clean solution for this issue (without using workflows). I am evaluating HubSpot coming from another service. The other service allows you to link forms to Audiences (distinct groups of contacts) so you can keep data from different forms separately and if data is overwritten it is done appropriately based on the user's preferences. The downside is that you might have duplicate contacts form multiple Audiences and have to deal with that when using the information for a campaign. I was really counting on moving to HubSpot, because I liked the idea of having a centralized repository of contacts for many uses (marketing, sales, service, etc.) and HubSpot definitely has more business features than my existing service.
A workaround to the overwrite issue, at least for my specific use case, is adding fields that are unique to each form (hidden or not), this way when the other form is filled out, the fields that I don't want overwritten are left alone. Contact info that the user fills out should always be under the control of the user, so I don't mess with that, but info that I want to aggregate is kept in separate fields.
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