Troubleshooting

Signature View links are password protected by default for maximum security.

For two hours after signing, the link is "open", where other add-ons and the respondent may view and take any action as needed. After that time the link becomes protected. Protected links can be opened only by the Owner or any current Collaborator of the Form.

Logging-in

Editors may click the "View" button. The first time, they're asked to allow "Signature log-in" access to their account. This only retrieves "Basic profile information", which is your email address.

We use this to check against the list of Editors in the Form to decide if you can continue.

If you get stuck in a loop at this stage, please see our notes on "Multiple accounts"

Changing the security setting

This can be done from the Dashboard.

1. Click "AA" at the top left

2. Open Website Settings

3. Click the Camera area - this will probably say "Deny" currently

4. Set this to "Ask" or "Allow", then click Done

The green button should appear on the Form when it's visited via a link the add-on provides.

This link is either emailed directly to the recipient (for Single Signatures), or is copied to the Form Owner's clipboard so they can paste in an email or as a link on a website etc. It can be retrieved at any time by the Form owner from the "See pending" area of the add-on.

The standard Form "Send" menu options unfortunately won't load any signing features or green buttons.

If you're using a link from the add-on and it's still not loading the green button, please forward that to us so we can check why.

Please also let us know what internet browser you are using so we can check compatibility.

Most browsers unfortunately won't allow the Signature add-on to work when the Form requires the user to be logged-in.

These features usually are:

• File Upload questions

• "Restrict to users in ... and its trusted organisations"

• "Limit to 1 response"

As the Form's owner, please remove these settings/items and re-try activating the Form for signature collection.

If you use Apple's systems to limit web activity, you can Allow these sites to work with Multiple signatures:

Our main signing link (excluding the parts that might change, which means any Signing activated Form could be reached):

https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbzPfSdWV_Vdaz8eu9NtRbgGgvUZT23qgS4gqGhVLZ1e2PqhsDc

Google Forms (all Forms - alternatively specify your own Forms individually):

docs.google.com/forms

Google user-created content (we can't get more specific than this unfortunately as these seem to change every other visit):

googleusercontent.com

The add-on adds a "bot" account as an editor on the Form (and Sheet for Multiple Signatures) so it can insert additional information.

Occasionally this access is removed by a user or policy etc., and in rare case it isn't applied correctly! We encourage Form owners to use the "Test" button that's presented straight after signing is activated.

If access is missing, you can resolve it by adding our bot account "multisignaturebot@gmail.com" as a Contributor in the Form, and as an Editor in the Response Sheet.

The link will immediately start working again.

​When the add-on is used, Google may inadvertently say one account is using it rather than the other. This can easily lead to errors so we prevent you from continuing.

T​here are three solutions:

• Use a Chrome Profile with just one account logged-in (this is our preferred method)

Or

• Open a new Private or Incognito browsing window and visit drive.google.com. You'll be asked to log in before you can continue to your Form

Or

• Log out of Google, then log back in with just one account

"Response Sheet missing" will appear when the Form doesn't have a Google Spreadsheet attached.

A standard Google feature of Forms is to attach a Google Spreadsheet to store responses. We use this Sheet also as the actual signature data location so we don't store any of your users' personal information.

As the owner of the Form, open the "Responses" tab, then click the green Google Sheets icon to attach a Response Sheet.

If you receive this error, the link you are using has been truncated. This occasionally happens when emailed; email programs might change the link's format.

If you are the Form's owner, please always "beautify" the link in an email by pressing Ctrl+k. This will also allow you to make it appear better looking.

You can get the link again at any time from the "See pending" area of the add-on.Please re-send the link to your users so they have the correct version.

If you are not the Form's owner, please contact them and advise them that they need to re-send you the link, or instruct them to read this help section.

The error message " ... (the account holder of this Form's signatures) has no signatures available." refers to the current balance of signature tokens in the Form owner's account.

If you are not the Form owner, please ask them to increase their balance or visit this help page.

If you are the Form owner, 10 signatures are included when installing the add-on so you can get started. Each month you're topped-up to 3 also.

If you need to collect more signatures than these limits, you can purchase them within the add-on under "Get more signatures", or on our bulk-buy page for a discounted rate (this is also linked within the "Get more signatures" tab).

We use simple sales to keep the add-on funded. We don't show advertisements or sell any information.

Occasionally Sheets stop responding to external API's like ours. We usually see this starting to occur at around 500 responses.

When your Form approaches 500 signatures, we recommend switching out the Response Sheet for a new one.

There are two options:

1. Create a new Form and Response Sheet

(This will mean a new signing link to give to people)

Or

2. Unlink the existing Response Sheet and link a new one

To do option 2:

In your Google Form, visit the Responses area and click the green Sheets icon, and choose to Unlink.

Then delete all responses from the Form itself - responses already received are still stored in the existing Google Spreadsheet which you'll keep.

Then click the green Sheets icon again and create a new Response Sheet.

This lets you continue as before, using the same Form and signing link.

Keep the old Response Sheet - the add-on should be able to access it again after a little time. The contents can also be copied to a new Sheet and viewed.

(You'll visit the "Dashboard" from any View link, or the "See pending" area of the add-on, and paste the old Sheet's URL to view the contents)

• Log out of Google

• Log back in with just the one account you'll be using with Forms

This is a well known issue in the Google add-ons community and Google are working on it. It's related to having two or more accounts logged-in at once, and the permissions are being picked up from the wrong one

General errors can be a result of incomplete permissions. The first thing we recommend for nearly every error is as follows

Signature isn't an option in the jigsaw-piece menu

The add-on isn't installed, or hasn't loaded

Try refreshing and waiting a moment. If it's still missing, follow the Installing steps

"Start" isn't there, only "Help"

It's installed, but hasn't loaded yet. Wait a moment, then use the jigsaw-piece menu again

Or refresh the page if it's being particularly stubborn

Stuck at "Checking..."

Wait up to a minute - this can take a little longer as we're creating an account for you

If it's been a minute, there may be a problem. Usually the permissions haven't come through completely

We recommend uninstalling, and reinstalling the add-on to get the security prompts to appear. It only takes about 30 seconds

To uninstall, follow the steps at

Installing

You'll see that the "Add" button in the marketplace will now say "Uninstall"

When you follow those steps again to reinstall, take note of whether you receive the Google security pop-up, and ensure you accept it

(If you look at the Youtube video in the above link, you'll see the prompts appear about 25 seconds in)

It may pop up when you first try to open the add-on, rather than when it's installed

If you don't get any security prompt, it might be blocked by your browser. We recommend Chrome, but any current browser should be fine. Internet Explorer isn't recommended