Form to PDF

Autocrat not working? Common causes and what to try

Autocrat is a free add-on that makes documents from the responses in a Google Sheet, often from a Google Forms™ form. When it stops, it is usually one of the problems below. Each one has steps you can try yourself.

Checked November 15, 2026, against Autocrat's own guide, FAQ and Google Group.

Try these first

These fix a large share of problems, so they are worth doing before anything else:

  1. Use only one Google account. Sign out of every other Google account in your browser, or open an Incognito (private) window and sign in only with the account that owns the Autocrat job. Autocrat's own team gives this advice for its 2026 sign-in problems.
  2. Open Autocrat again and allow it. In the response Sheet, open Extensions › Autocrat › Open. If Google asks for permission, allow it.
  3. Check the job's trigger. In Autocrat, open the job and check that its form trigger or time trigger is still on.
  4. Run the job once by hand. If that works but new responses still do nothing, the problem is the trigger, not the template.

"Authorization Required" and repeated sign-in emails

What it looks like. Autocrat shows "Authorization Required" when you open it, asks for permission again and again, or you get many emails asking you to authorize it. Documents stop being made until it is allowed again.

What we know. In June 2026, Autocrat's team pinned a post in its Google Group saying form triggers were not working, that a fix had been deployed, and that "excessive authorization emails" were still being sent. "Authorization Required" was among the most common topics in the group from June to October 2026.

What to try.

  • Sign out of all other Google accounts, or use an Incognito window with only the job owner's account, as Autocrat's team suggests.
  • Open Autocrat from the Sheet's Extensions menu and allow it again. Make sure you allow it with the same account that created the job.
  • If you share the Sheet with colleagues, check who created the job. The job runs as that person, so they are the one who needs to allow it.

Nothing happens when a form is sent

What it looks like. New rows arrive in the response Sheet, but no document is made, and nothing shows in Autocrat's status column for those rows.

What we know. Autocrat's guide says form triggers can "disappear", which is why it also offers an hourly time trigger to repair them. Its FAQ says the form trigger only works if a form is attached to the Sheet. "Form triggers not working" was a recent topic in its group.

What to try.

  • In the form, open the Responses tab and check that it is still linked to the same Sheet. If the form now sends responses to a new Sheet, the job is looking at the old one.
  • In Autocrat, turn the job's form trigger off, save, then turn it on again.
  • Turn on the hourly time trigger as well, so missed rows are picked up later.
  • Check your triggers on Google's Apps Script triggers page, signed in as the job owner. Look for failed runs and their error messages.

Documents arrive up to an hour late

What it looks like. Documents are made, but long after the form was sent.

What we know. Autocrat's time trigger runs at most once an hour. If the form trigger is not working and only the time trigger is, each document can wait up to an hour.

What to try. Fix the form trigger as described above. If you need a document at once for a single row, run the job by hand.

Jobs have disappeared

What it looks like. You open Autocrat and the job you set up is no longer listed.

What we know. "Existing Jobs Disappeared" was a topic in Autocrat's group in 2026. We could not find an official explanation.

What to try.

  • Make sure you are signed in only as the account that made the job, and that you opened the same Sheet, not a copy of it.
  • If the job is really gone, make it again. Have your template open so you can map the tags again. Write down the settings this time: template, folder, file name, and email.

Documents are made twice

What it looks like. Two documents, or two emails, for the same response.

What we know. "Autocrat Creating Duplicates" was a topic in its group in 2026. We could not find an official cause.

What to try. Check whether the same job exists twice, or whether two people set up triggers for the same job. Look at Autocrat's status column for the rows that were made twice, and ask in the group with what you find.

It stalls on a new response Sheet

What it looks like. Autocrat worked on older forms, but stalls or skips rows on a newer form's response Sheet.

What we know. One teacher traced Autocrat stalls to the table formatting that Google Sheets now applies to new response Sheets, and wrote it up in November 2025 (mguhlin.org).

What to try. Check whether your response Sheet shows as a table, with a colored header and filter buttons. If it does, read that post to see what they found and what helped. Test with one new response after any change.

"Too many executions" and other Google limits

What it looks like. An error such as "too many executions running simultaneously for this Apps Script project", or some documents and emails are made and the rest are not.

What we know. Every add-on runs inside Google's limits. Google's published quotas include about 100 email recipients a day on a personal account (1,500 on Workspace), 250 documents created a day on a personal account (1,500 on Workspace), 90 minutes of trigger run time a day on a personal account, and 6 minutes for each run.

What to try.

  • Wait and try again later. Daily limits reset after about 24 hours.
  • Run large batches in smaller parts, for example a few dozen rows at a time.
  • For school or work accounts, ask your administrator which limits apply to you.
  • Read Google's Apps Script quotas page for the current numbers.

Getting help from Autocrat

Autocrat is made by New Visions Cloudlab, a non-profit, and is free. Its support is the Autocrat Google Group, where other users answer many questions, and the email address cloudlab@newvisions.org. Search the group for your error message first: someone may have posted the same problem.

Autocrat's user guide and FAQ explain each setting.

Or switch

If you only use Autocrat to turn form responses into PDFs, Form to PDF is our add-on for that one job. It is different from Autocrat in a few ways that matter when things break:

  • It works from the form, not from the response Sheet. There is no Sheet in the middle, so Sheet formatting and Sheet links cannot stop it.
  • It shows what happened. A Log lists every response with its PDF, or the reason it was not made, in plain words. A passing Google error is tried again by itself after 1, 5 and 15 minutes. You get one email if a PDF fails, and a Retry button.
  • It asks for less. Autocrat asks to see and change all your Google Drive files. Form to PDF can only open the files it makes and the ones you pick.

To be fair about the differences:

  • Autocrat is free. Form to PDF makes 20 PDFs a month free, then costs $19 once for no monthly limit.
  • Autocrat can use Sheets templates and make one merged document from many rows. Form to PDF uses Google Doc or Word templates only and makes one PDF per response.
  • Autocrat can run only for rows that match a condition. Form to PDF makes a PDF for every response.
  • Autocrat can work with any Sheet, not just form responses. Form to PDF works only with Google Forms.

Form to PDF is in early access. See how to start.

Moving your template

Your Autocrat template is a Google Doc, so you can use the same Doc in Form to PDF. Most tags work as they are:

  • Tags named after question titles work. Autocrat's tags look like <<Student name>>. Form to PDF reads <<Question title>> the same as {{Question title}}, and ignores capital letters and extra spaces.
  • Tags named after Sheet columns need renaming. If a tag matches a column you renamed or added in the Sheet, such as a column with a formula, rename the tag to the question's title. Form to PDF reads the form, not the Sheet, so it does not know your column names.
  • Dates. Replace <<TODAY>> with {{Today}}, and <<NOW>> with {{Timestamp}}.
  • Images from a link. Form to PDF does not put pictures into the PDF. File-upload answers appear as a link to the file.

When you pick the template, Form to PDF lists any tags it cannot match, so you can fix them before you turn it on. Make a test PDF from the latest response to check. All placeholders are explained on the help page.

Sources

All checked November 15, 2026.

Autocrat is made by New Visions Cloudlab. Form to PDF is not connected with Autocrat or its makers.

Something here is wrong or out of date?

Email shubhamvscode@gmail.com and we will correct it. We cannot help with Autocrat itself; for that, use its Google Group.