Google Sheets/Drive Integrations.

We can connect our Clappia apps to Google Drive so that all submissions get synced to Google Sheets and all images and files get synced to Google Drive in real-time. The connected Google Drive gets updated on the following events:

1. New Submissions
2. Submission edits
3. Status change
4. Submission deletes
5. Bulk upload of data

Help video

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Here are the steps to connect Clappia apps to Google Drive:

1. Sign in to Clappia and select the app you wish to connect with to Google Drive. Go to the ‘Design App’ tab and click on ‘Configuration’.

Then click on the ‘Google Sheets/Drive’ button.

2. On the right panel, enable the option and click on the button Connect with Google Sheets/Drive. This will take you to Google Account authentication.

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3. You will get a Google Sign In prompt. Select your Google Account or and Sign-in to your Google Account.

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Click on allow. This will authorize Clappia to write data to the Google Drive and you are done.

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Note: In case you get an error message while connecting to Google Drive, try checking your browser settings or updating your browser.

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4. Once connected successfully, the right panel will be updated with syncing options. You can click on Show Google Sheets and Show Google Drive Folders option to view the connected Sheet and Folder. 

Existing submissions of the app will get synced to Google Sheets and all submission events after this step will also update the Sheet in real-time. Any images or files data will be synced only for new submissions. Old image data cannot be back-filled.

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Sync Specific Fields

After connecting your app to Google Sheets or Drive, you have the flexibility to control which fields from your submissions are synced.

In the right panel, under Columns Selected, click the dropdown. You will see a list of all fields currently available in your app's submissions.

Deselect any fields you do not want to sync to your Google Sheet.

Once you make your selections, click Save & Resync. A success message will appear confirming the changes.

Only the selected fields will be visible in your connected Google Sheet.

Note:

• If you add new fields to your app later, they will not automatically sync to your Google Sheet. You must manually select them in the Columns Selected list and save again.
  
  
• If you deselect any fields, they will immediately be removed from the Google Sheet. If you want them back, simply reselect and save.
  
  

Sync Images and Other Files

When your app submissions include files such as images, videos, or documents, Clappia can automatically upload these files to the connected Google Drive. This ensures that all file attachments from submissions are stored securely and are easy to access later.

After enabling Google Sheets/Drive integration, you can enable the “Sync Images and Other Files” option from the right panel. Once this option is turned on:

• Every file attached to a submission (e.g., photos taken in the app or uploaded PDFs) will be uploaded to the Google Drive folder linked to your app.
  
  
• New files will continue to sync in real-time for every new submission, along with the data updates in the connected Google Sheet.
  
  
• Each file can be automatically organised by the submission it belongs to, making it easier to identify which files came from which records in the app (see Organise Files into Sub-Folders section). You can also leave the pathway as it is, which is {$app_id}, where all the files will reside in the main folder.

Note:

Files (images, videos, documents) are only pushed to Google Drive for new submissions made after the integration is enabled.

Submissions created before enabling this feature or during periods when the feature is disabled will not automatically sync their files to Google Drive.

Workaround:

You can manually download these files from the Submissions tab. Use filters (e.g., by submission date) to find the files corresponding to the time when Drive integration was disabled, then upload them manually to your Google Drive.

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Sync Print Templates

If your app generates PDF documents using print templates, you can enable Clappia to automatically save these PDFs to your connected Google Drive folder.

By enabling the “Sync Print Templates” option in the right panel:

• A PDF copy of each print template generated for a submission will be stored in Google Drive, along with other synced data.
  This is useful for keeping a centralised archive of all generated PDFs, such as invoices, certificates, or reports, without manually downloading them.
• Only the primary print template (if multiple are configured) will be synced to Google Drive.
• The PDF files generated from print templates will also follow the same folder structure as defined in the File Path settings under Sync Images and Other Files (see Organise Files into Sub-Folders section).

Note:

PDFs from print templates are only pushed to Google Drive for new submissions made after enabling this feature. Older submissions will not sync their PDFs automatically. You can download them manually from the Submissions tab and upload them to Google Drive if needed.

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Organise Files into Sub-Folders

When submissions in your Clappia app include files (such as images, videos or PDFs from print template), these files are automatically stored in a Google Drive folder named after your app’s ID (e.g., AppID).

With the File Path setting, you can create a custom folder structure within this main AppID folder. This helps you organise files based on submission data instead of having all files stored in a single location.

How it works:

• Default Behaviour: By default, all files are stored in a single folder:
  AppID/
  
  
• Dynamic Folders: You can insert field variables (like dropdown values or text fields) into the folder path to automatically create sub-folders for each submission.
  
  

How to set it up:

1. In the File Path field, {app_id} will appear by default, which means all files go to the main folder.
   
   
2. By typing @ in the File Path field, you can choose any field variable (like country or state) to build your own folder hierarchy. You can get multiple folders to store corresponding images within the main AppID folder.
   
   

Example Scenario:

If your app contains dropdown fields named Country and State, having same variable names, and you set the File Path as:

{$app_id}/{country}/{state}

Then, a file uploaded by a user in the submission, selecting the dropdown named country as ‘India’ and state as ‘Karnataka’, will be saved like this:

AppID/India/Karnataka/

This approach is especially useful for apps that manage data from multiple regions, projects, or categories, as it keeps files neatly separated and easy to find.

Note on Subfolder Retention:

If you define a folder path using field variables (e.g., {$app_id}/{country}/{state}), Clappia creates subfolders inside the main AppID folder based on those field values.

If you later delete that field (e.g., state) from the app or remove it from the File Path, the corresponding subfolders and files will not be deleted automatically. These subfolders will remain in your Google Drive.

You can manually delete these subfolders if needed, but ensure you download or back up their files first to avoid data loss.

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Resync Data

• If your connection to Google Drive gets interrupted or some submissions fail to sync, you can use the Resync button at the bottom of the panel.
• Clicking Resync will refresh the sync and ensure your Google Sheet is updated based on the current data in your app.
• The Resync option only updates submission data (Google Sheets). It does not resync files (images, videos, or documents) or print template PDFs that were missed or uploaded previously.

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Troubleshooting

Here are some additional important cases and how to resolve them.

1. Why have my recent submissions stopped syncing to Google Sheets?

Possibility: Reached Google Sheet’s Cell Limit

Google Sheets supports a maximum of 10 million filled cells per sheet. When Clappia syncs submission data, each submission adds one row, and each field in the app adds one column. For example, if your app has 100 fields, each new submission fills 100 cells in the Google Sheet.

Once the 10 million cell limit is reached, Clappia will stop syncing new submissions, and the Google Sheets integration will be automatically disabled.

What you can do:

• Deselect unnecessary fields from the Columns Selected list to reduce the number of synced columns (fields), freeing up space in the sheet.
  
• Delete older submissions from the app if they are no longer needed, reducing the number of rows (submissions) in the sheet.
  
  

Then, click on Save & Resync to re-enable syncing.

2. Why doesn’t the Resync button update my Google Sheet?

Possibility: Resync Failure Due to Google Sheet Protection

If your connected Google Sheet is protected (i.e., editing access is restricted to specific users or only to the admin), then other users—even those with permissions in Clappia—will not be able to trigger a resync. Clicking Resync in this case will not update the sheet.

What you can do:

• Either unprotect the sheet temporarily, or
  
• Grant edit access in Google Sheets to all users who may need to click Resync in Clappia.

3. I added new fields to my app, why are they not showing up in the Google Sheet?

If new fields are added to your Clappia app after the Google Sheets integration is already enabled, these fields will not automatically show up as new columns in the connected Google Sheet. This is done intentionally to give admins control, so if they accidentally added unnecessary fields or were just testing a few things, those fields won’t instantly show up in the Google Sheet and disrupt its structure.

You may also see a message like this in the side panel:
“Some columns in the selected columns list have changed. Please click Save and Resync to update the connected Sheet with the latest columns.”

What you can do:

• Go to the Google Sheets/Drive panel in the Configuration section.
  
• Under Columns Selected, manually select the new fields you want to sync.
  
• Click Save & Resync to push these new fields into the connected Google Sheet.
  
  

This behaviour gives you more control, especially if you’ve added fields for testing or temporary use and do not want them to sync immediately.

4. The Google sign-in window does not appear when connecting to Google Sheets/Drive
Possibility: Browser Pop-ups are Blocked
When you click the button to connect your Google account for Sheets/Drive integration, usually the browser opens a new tab and shows a Google sign-in pop-up window. If this pop-up does not appear, your browser may be blocking pop-ups for Clappia (or other sites).

What you can do:

• In Chrome, open a new tab and go to chrome://settings/content/popups. If this doesn’t open then go to the Browser settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Scroll down to Pop-ups and redirects.
  
  
• Find Clappia in the list (or add it) and allow pop-ups for the site.
  OR
  If it is set to ‘Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects’, change it to ‘Sites can send pop-ups and use redirects’.
  
  
• Once pop-ups are allowed, retry connecting your Google account. The sign-in window should now appear.

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If you are still unable to connect your Google account to Clappia;

Possibility: Third-party Cookies DisabledEven if pop-ups are allowed, sometimes the connection fails because third-party cookies are blocked in your browser. Google account authentication for Clappia requires cookies to be enabled.

What you can do:

• In Chrome, open a new tab and go to chrome://settings/cookies. If this doesn’t open then go to the Browser settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Scroll down to Third-party cookies.
  
  
• Ensure that Allow third-party cookies is enabled.
  
  
• Retry connecting your Google account from Clappia.

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Key considerations

1.   Google Sheets can support up to a maximum of 10,000,000 cells. So if a Clappia App has 10 fields, then every app submission will occupy 10 cells and so up to 1000,000 submissions will be accommodated in the Google Sheets. The number of supported submissions will keep reducing as the number of fields in the app increase.

2.   What happens if I disable the connected Google Sheet?

If the Google Sheets/Drive feature is disabled or the “Sync Submissions” toggle is turned off, the Google Sheet that was previously created remains intact in your Google Drive. Any data already synced will continue to exist in the sheet. When the integration is re-enabled, new submissions will resume syncing to the same sheet, and you can also use the Resync button to push any data that was missed during the disabled period.

3.   If new fields are added to the app, go to the “Columns Selected” section in the configuration panel, select the new fields, and click Save & Resync. This allows admins to control exactly which fields are added to the sheet without affecting the existing data structure.

4.   If you want to create more sheets that have dependencies on the connected Sheet, it is advisable to do so in a separate Google Sheet, not as a sub-sheet of the connected Sheet. You can use the IMPORTRANGE function to do this. Otherwise you run into the risk of the entire sheet getting deleted if an App Admin disconnects the Google Sheet from the App.

5.   If you are having multiple print templates then only the first one will be synced to the Google Drive folder, as of now.