You want people to send you a document through your Microsoft Form: a CV, a receipt, a signed consent sheet. Then one of three things happens. The 'Upload file' question type isn't in the list at all. It's there, but the 'Upload file' button looks greyed out. Or the form works for colleagues, and the client you sent it to says they can't get in.
The short answer: Microsoft Forms file upload is not a public feature. Microsoft's help says file upload is only available when the form is set to 'Only people in my organization can respond' or 'Specific people in my organization can respond'. Everything else, including personal accounts, outside respondents and the greyed out button, follows from that one rule, plus a few limits and a storage location worth knowing about.
The symptom tells you where to look, so you don't need to try every fix.
- 'Upload file' isn't offered when you add a question: check the response setting and the account type. See causes one and two.
- The 'Upload file' button is greyed out while you build the form: that's expected. See cause three.
- Someone outside your company can't respond or upload: the form is limited to your organization by design. See cause four.
- Uploads fail for big files, or for certain file types: check the limits on the question. See cause five.
- It used to work and stopped: check OneDrive storage, information barriers and whether your SharePoint site moved. See cause six.
Cause 1: The form is set to 'Anyone can respond'
Every form has a 'Who can fill out this form' setting with three choices. Microsoft describes 'Anyone can respond' as letting anyone inside or outside your organization submit responses. 'Only people in my organization can respond' limits it to people who belong to your organization, and 'Specific people in my organization can respond' limits it to people or groups you name, up to 100 names in total.
Only the last two allow file upload. If your form is on 'Anyone can respond', switch it before adding the question:
- Open the form and select 'Settings'.
- Under 'Who can fill out this form', choose 'Only people in my organization can respond' or 'Specific people in my organization can respond'.
- Select 'Add new question', then 'More question types', then 'Upload file'.
- Type your question, set the 'File number limit' and 'Single file size limit', and turn on 'Required' if every responder must attach something.
- You can also find the same respondent choices by selecting 'Collect responses' when you send the form.
Cause 2: You built the form with a personal Microsoft account
If you signed in to Forms with a Hotmail, Outlook.com or Live address, you are using a personal Microsoft account, and the organization-only settings aren't there for you. Microsoft's settings help says those options are only available for Office 365 Education and Microsoft 365 Apps for business users, and asks you to sign in with your work or school account to access them. Its sharing help adds that the 'Share with people in my org' option is disabled for consumers.
Put those two pages together with the file upload rule and you get the reason the question never appears on a personal account: the form can only be open to anyone, and file upload needs an organization-only setting.
The fix is to build the form with a work or school account, if you have one, and set it to one of the organization options. There is no setting on a personal account that turns file upload on.
Cause 3: The 'Upload file' button is greyed out for you, the author
This one is not a fault. Microsoft's help says the 'Upload file' button is inactive for you as the form author. It only becomes clickable for responders.
To check the question works, select 'Preview' and look at it the way a responder will. If you want to test a real upload end to end, ask a colleague in your organization to fill it in, then look for their file in your OneDrive (see cause six for the folder path). If a responder tells you the button is greyed out for them, ask which account they are signed in with; it needs to be an account in your organization.
Cause 4: The person responding is outside your organization
Because a form with a file upload question must be set to 'Only people in my organization can respond' or 'Specific people in my organization can respond', anyone without an account in your organization can't respond to it. A client, a job applicant using personal email, or a supplier at another company will hit a sign-in wall rather than an upload box. Changing the form back to 'Anyone can respond' lets them in, but then the file upload question is no longer available.
If you need files from outsiders, Microsoft has a separate feature for that in OneDrive for Business:
- In OneDrive, open the folder where you want the files, and select 'Request files'.
- Under 'What files are you requesting', describe what you need, then select 'Next'.
- Select 'Copy link' and send it, or enter the recipients' email addresses, then select 'Done'.
- Microsoft says anyone with the file request link can send you a file and doesn't need OneDrive. People who aren't signed in are asked for a first and last name, which isn't validated.
- Your administrator must enable the Request Files feature before it appears, and Microsoft says it isn't available for OneDrive for home.
Cause 5: The file is bigger than the limit, or the wrong type
Each file upload question has its own limits, set when you create it. Microsoft's help says a maximum of 10 files is allowed per question, and the 'Single file size limit' can be set to 10MB, 100MB or 1GB. If a responder's file is too large, the limit on that question is the first thing to raise.
File types are set separately. Under 'More settings for question', you can allow Word, Excel, PPT, PDF, Image, Video or Audio. If someone is trying to send a type you didn't tick, or a type outside those groups, the question won't take it.
- Open the form, click the file upload question, and check the 'File number limit' and 'Single file size limit' drop-downs.
- Open 'More settings for question' and check which 'File types' are allowed.
- If people need to send more than 10 files, ask them to combine them, or add a second upload question.
Cause 6: It worked before, and now it doesn't
Uploaded files don't stay inside Forms. Microsoft says they go to the form owner's OneDrive for Business: sign in, select 'Files', open 'Apps', then 'Microsoft Forms', then the folder with the form's name, then the folder for the question. That means problems with that OneDrive can show up as problems with the form.
- Your OneDrive is full. Microsoft's OneDrive help says that while you're over your storage quota you can't upload, edit or sync new files. The Forms help doesn't spell out what a responder sees in that case, but the files have nowhere to go. In OneDrive on the web, select 'Storage used' in the lower left to check, delete what you don't need, select 'Empty your recycle bin' (the Recycle Bin counts toward your quota), or ask your IT admin to increase your storage quota.
- Your organization uses information barriers. Microsoft says file upload questions are not available for personal forms when Microsoft Information Barrier is enabled. You can still create one by creating a group form: at the bottom of the Forms start page, open the group under 'My groups' and select 'New Group Form'.
- Your SharePoint site moved to a different domain. Microsoft says existing file upload questions stop working when that happens, and you need to recreate them in the new domain.
- Someone changed the form's settings. If a co-owner switched 'Who can fill out this form' to 'Anyone can respond', file upload is no longer available. Switch it back under 'Settings'.
Prevent it next time
Decide who will fill in the form before you design it. If every respondent has an account in your organization, Forms file upload works well. If even one doesn't, plan a different route for their files from the start rather than finding out after you've sent the link.
- Build upload forms with your work or school account, never a personal one.
- Set 'Who can fill out this form' first, then add the 'Upload file' question.
- Set the 'Single file size limit' to match the biggest file you expect, and tick every file type you'll accept.
- Test with 'Preview', then with one real colleague, and confirm the file appears in OneDrive under 'Apps' and 'Microsoft Forms'.
- Keep an eye on 'Storage used' in OneDrive if the form collects video or large PDFs.
If your respondents aren't in your organization
If the people filling in your form are clients or customers rather than colleagues, a OneSol form may suit them better: respondents don't need to sign in, so someone outside your organization can fill one in with just the link.