File upload
Collect a document or an image with the File upload question: choose which file types you accept, set a size limit, and see exactly what respondents get when they attach a file or pick the wrong one.
File upload asks the respondent for one file: a CV, a signed form, a logo, a screenshot of an invoice. The file goes straight from their browser to secure storage, and the answer appears in Submissions as the file's own name, ready to open or download.
Add the question
Click Add question and pick File upload from the Text group. Its gallery hint reads A document or image.
Write the question text on the canvas the way you would for any other question, and use the description to tell people what you expect. PDF or Word, up to 10 MB saves you a round of bad attachments.
Choose what it accepts
Select the question and look at Question settings on the right. A File upload section appears with two controls of its own.
pdf, doc, docx, jpg, png.Accepted files is a row of four presets over a text box. Clicking a preset adds its extensions to the box; clicking it again takes them out. The box is the real setting, so you can type anything the presets do not cover.
Documents
pdf, doc, docx, txt
Images
jpg, png, gif, webp
Spreadsheets
xls, xlsx, csv
Archives
zip
Type extensions separated by commas, lowercase, without the dot: pdf, dwg, ai. A preset lights up only when every extension it stands for is in the box, so ticking a half-matching preset completes the set rather than doing nothing.
⚠️ Note: Empty the box and the warning Choose at least one kind of file, or nobody can answer this question appears. With the box empty the question does not stop anyone: any file that is not a program or a web page is accepted, so list at least one type deliberately before you publish.
What is never accepted
Two families of file are refused whatever you type in the box, on every form:
Programs and scripts, including
exe,msi,dmg,pkg,deb,rpm,jar,bat,cmd,sh,ps1,vbsandjs.Web pages, including
html,htm,xhtmlandsvg, because those run code in whatever opens them.
The hint under the box says it plainly: Programs and web pages are never accepted.
Set a size limit
Largest file (MB) is your own ceiling for this question. The hint tells you the ceiling the deployment allows, which is 10 MB on forms.dapta.ai. Leave the field empty to allow the full amount.
You can only go lower. Type a bigger number and it is clamped back to the deployment's limit, because the limit is enforced twice on the server: once before the upload is authorised and again against the stored file.
What respondents see
The question renders as an upload area reading Choose a file, with the accepted types and the size limit spelled out underneath. Respondents click it to pick a file from their device.
While the file travels, the control reads Uploading 42%. Once it lands, the area is replaced by the file's name and a Remove link that clears it and starts over.
Pick a file that breaks a rule and the upload never starts. The message sits under the control with a Try again link:
Picked a type you do not accept
That kind of file is not accepted here.
Picked a file over the limit
That file is bigger than 10 MB.
The upload was interrupted
That upload did not finish.
💡 Tip: A File upload question obeys Required like any other. Leave it required and the form will not advance without a file; turn it off and people can skip it.
How the file gets there
The file never passes through the form page or through Dapta's servers. The browser asks for a short-lived, single-use upload address and sends the bytes straight to storage.
When the respondent submits, the file is checked again before the response is saved: its actual contents have to match its extension. A program renamed to .pdf fails that check and the submission is refused, so a file that reaches your Submissions table is a file whose type was verified.
Limits
Files per question
1. Add a second File upload question to collect a second file.
Largest file
10 MB on forms.dapta.ai, or your own smaller number.
Types
Whatever you list, minus the programs and web pages that are always refused.
Scoring
A file answer carries no points and never changes the score.
Screens
On a Slides form it always gets a screen of its own.
Prefill
A link cannot carry a file, so it cannot be prefilled. The Hidden question switch is offered, but a hidden File upload is never answered.
What's next
Uploaded files in Submissions: open, preview and download what people sent you.
Question settings: Required, Field key and the rest of the shared controls.
Question types: the other thirteen.
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