I have a survey up and running but the respondents who have saved their progress are having a having a hard time returning to it. They go to the "welcome" screen and hit "continue," rather than load or continue a previous survey. Once they have done that, they can never get back to that first screen where they have the option of loading a partially completed survey unless they switch devices and come in with another IP address.

I have tried to improve my directions on my website, but is there anything I can do to the survey itself without losing data?

Many more people have saved their responses than have completed the survey and I can't afford to make an amateur mistake which will result in them losing the ability to complete the survey. For the purposes of my research, surveys that are stared over from the beginning are invalid.

Thank you for your help.

earlofwessex wrote: I have tried to improve my directions on my website, but is there anything I can do to the survey itself without losing data?

I'm not sure I understand the issue correctly.
Issue: Respondents don't resume surveys in the correct way. They start a new survey instead resuming and completing the survey they started.

I don't use that function, so I cannot provide any workarounds. But you should provide the LimeSurvey version and how people access the survey in the first place.

I'm using 1.4.5+
I guess the main thing I might be able to do is to turn off the feature that remembers ip addresses. I think that if I did this, then my participants could exit and reenter the survey if they hit "continue" by mistake. As it is, they can never get back to that initial screen where they have an option to resume a saved survey.

Is that correct? Could I change this feature while the survey is running? If not, I'll just try to work things at the website end instead of in the survey. Thank you again for any help.

I'm using 1.4.5+

You are using Limesurvey Version 1.4.5+? that doesn't sound right. I actually have never heard of that version and I am on this forum for quite a while now.