You may or may not know that, in addition to the option to delete/remove a question or answer option, we also have the option to disable questions and answer options. If you are aware of both you might be confused why we have these similar options. It's actually because they are quite different!
When Should I Delete/Remove a Question/Answer Option Versus Disable It?
If the question or answer option has collected data and you expect that you might want the data at a later time, we recommend disabling your question or answer option instead of deleting. By and large, if you restore a deleted question or answer option that has collected data, the data will be restored as well, but with very complex question types (I'm looking at you Custom Tables) we've run into data loss issues when a question or answer option has been deleted and restored. This is why we have the option to disable a question.
What Are the Implications of Deleting/Removing?
In Surveys
Deleted questions and answer options will not display for any survey responses that are started after the question has been deleted. Notice, this behavior is the same as for disabled questions and answer options.
On the Build Tab
Deleted questions will not display on the Build tab. You can restore them if you wish.
Deleted answer options will not display on the Build tab. Deleted answer options cannot be restored.
In Individual Responses
Deleted questions and answer options will not display in Individual Responses, even if they have previously collected data.
In Reports and Exports
Deleted questions and answer options will not display in Reports and Exports, even if they have previously collected data.
What Are the Implications of Disabling?
In Surveys
Disabled questions and answer options will not display for any survey responses that are started after the question has been disabled. Notice, this behavior is the same as for deleted questions.
On the Build Tab
Disabled questions will be greyed out on the Build tab with a quick link to restore them.
Disabled answer options will not display on the Build tab. When editing the question you can display disabled options if you wish. To do so, click the Advanced Option Settings link above the answer options and select Show disabled options and Save.
Now your disabled answer option will appear greyed out, with the option to restore it next to the red X. Give it a click to re-enable!
In Individual Responses
Disabled questions will still display in Individual Responses. Disabled answer options will display in Individual Responses if that response selected that option.
In Reports and Exports
Disabled questions will still display in Reports and Exports
Disabled answer options can be added/removed from your report by clicking Overall Options > Answer Options > Disabled Options.
