Allowing anyone to take a Microsoft form

Dear @Lindsay,

Good day, and I appreciate the clear explanation of your concern.   

There are two common reasons why the “Anyone can respond” option might be unavailable in Microsoft Forms. 

Reason 1: The form contains a “File upload” question 

Microsoft Forms only allows file uploads from users within your organization. So, if your form includes a “File upload” question, it can only be shared with signed-in users in your tenant and the “Anyone can respond” option will be disabled. 

• Option 1: If you do not need file attachments from external users 

You can remove the file upload question and enable external responses by following these steps: 

Open your form in Microsoft Forms. 

Locate and delete all “File upload” questions. 

Click Collect responses. 

Under Who can respond, select Anyone can respond. 

Copy and share the response link. 

Option 2: If you need to collect files from external users (workaround) 

Since external users cannot upload files directly through Forms, you can use a secure workaround with 

OneDrive or SharePoint: 

Go to OneDrive or SharePoint. 

Select or create a folder where files will be stored. 

Click Request files to generate an upload link. 

Copy the generated link. 

Paste this link into your form as a question or instruction, for example: 

“Please upload your document using the link below” 

This method allows external users to upload files without accessing or viewing other contents in the folder. 

Note: If the “Request files” option is not available, your administrator may need to enable it. 

Reason 2: External sharing is disabled in your organization 

If your form does not include a file upload question and the issue still occurs, it is likely that external sharing is restricted at the organization level. 

Note: If you're an end-user, please contact your organization's IT administrator to complete this step. 

An administrator can enable this setting by following these steps: 

Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center at https://admin.microsoft.com  

Go to Settings > Select Org settings > Open Microsoft Forms. 

Under External sharing, enable the option that allows sending forms and collecting responses from outside the organization. Save the changes. 

Once this setting is enabled, return to your form: 

• Open the form > Click Collect responses > Select Anyone can respond. 

Additionally, if you are using a guest account in another organization’s tenant, this option may also be limited. In that case, the setting would still need to be managed by that tenant’s administrator. 

As community moderators, we kindly ask for your understanding that our access to internal development details is limited. Our primary role is to guide users toward the appropriate resources and support channels. While we may not have visibility into performing deeper backend analysis, we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.  

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions or need further support, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

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In Microsoft Forms for business, the ability to let “anyone” respond is controlled in the form’s settings and by the type of account/tenant being used.

To allow anyone (inside or outside the organization) to take the form:

1. Open the form in Microsoft Forms.
2. Select Collect responses in the upper-right corner.
3. In the Send and collect responses dialog, under Who can respond, choose Anyone can respond.
   • This allows people inside or outside the organization to submit responses without signing in.

If Anyone can respond is not available or is greyed out:

• The organization may be restricting external sharing for Forms/SharePoint, or the tenant type/policy may only allow:
  • Only people in my organization can respond
  • Specific people in my organization can respond
• In that case, an administrator must change the organization’s external sharing or Forms settings; otherwise, only internal users will be able to respond.

Once Anyone can respond is available and selected, share the form using Copy link, QR code, Embed, or Email from the same Collect responses pane.

References:

• Send a form and collect responses
• Choose who can fill out a form or quiz
• Adjust your form or quiz settings in Microsoft Forms
• Share a form
• Set up your survey so names aren't recorded when collecting responses