Form submissions overwriting rather than appending multiple checkboxes

[StCanices]

Hi team – first-time poster, long-time beneficiary of tips and tricks from this incredible community!

I know this is a long-running bug bear but I was hoping someone might have a cost-effective solution to solve an issue relating to form submissions overwriting rather than appending multiple checkbox properties. As we’re a small non-profit, we have Customer Hub Starter and can’t afford to upgrade to the Professional tier, meaning we don’t have access to workflows which seems to be the general workaround to this issue – so I’m looking for an inventive solution, perhaps using a third-party tool.

Basically, I’m trying to use a multiple checkbox property to 'tag' contacts based on their interests (in our different programs, events, appeals etc.). This will then be used to segment our contacts, so we only send them information relevant to their interests.

This multiple checkbox property is updated by either i) users selecting their own interests on a contact form; or ii) using hidden fields on different forms. However, when the data is sent from the form to the property, it overwrites the checkbox selection rather than appending it.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @StCanices,

This is unfortunately not possible at this stage. The default behavior of form submissions is to overwrite instead of append. This cannot be changed.

The only workaround that I know of would require a workflow, as you have already mentioned. One property is used in a form, a workflow then appends the new value to a second property. (Appending values is an option in workflows.) Workflows are however only available in Professional and Enterprise licenses.

Other users have requested this option in the HubSpot Ideas section of the community: Append properties from form submissions You can upvote the idea and comment with your own use case. The product team reviews these suggestions based on popularity.

As far as solving this on a Starter subscription goes, you would either have to leverage third-party automation to mimick the behavior of the HubSpot workflow described above (e.g. via Zapier) – or handle this manually:

1. Besides your original property, create a duplicate version of it to be used in forms
2. Set up form submission notifications for all forms
3. Brief someone to review the form submission notifications, then look at the value submitted in the new custom property from step 1, then manually append it to the true property

Best regards!