LimeSurvey bugs and feature requests - Issues

20681: Inconsistent survey's date formats in admin dashboard view

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:31:23 +0200

Admin dashboard view lists surveys in a table. You can add-remove columns from the table.
Column "Created" and "Modified" display dates into two different styles ( slashes and dots).

Dates should be displayed in a consistent way, accordingly admin's locale language. I don't know which language displays dots as separator for dates.

Italian: dd/mm/yyyy
Japanese: mm/dd/yyyy

20680: Upgrade from 6.17.19+260832 to latest 7.x fails with DB (Postgres) transaction error

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:55:13 +0200

I'm upgrading Limesurvey from latest 6.x to latest 7.x. I'm using Postgres as database.
I'm doing updates using ComfortUpdate and right now I'm stuck with an intermediate database version 705 because the updater is asking me to update to database version 711 but it fails with this error:

A non-recoverable error occurred during the database update. Error details:
CDbCommand failed to execute the SQL statement: SQLSTATE[25P02]: In failed sql transaction: 7 ERROR: current transaction is aborted, commands ignored until end of transaction block

File updatedb_helper.php, line 2910.

20679: Searchable input fields for for text-based questions

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:03:32 +0200

When browsing through the responses, available filters only appear under fields such as ID, Completed, Date of last action etc. There's no option for searching/filtering through a column from a text question (e.g. a name/surname column). Would it be possible to add filters for text-based questions? Thank you

20678: Duplicate control of particpant work diffrently with crypted data and not cryoted data

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:47:22 +0200

When importing participants, duplicate use case-insensitive searches for not crypted data and case-sensitive for crypted data

20677: Incorrect image path generated for question background images on Windows Server 2025 with WampServer

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:20:40 +0200

When using LimeSurvey with Apache2 on Ubuntu 22.04, images added as a question background image are displayed correctly.

However, when the same functionality is used on Windows Server 2025 with WampServer, LimeSurvey generates an incorrect image URL. The Windows directory separators (`\`) appear to be encoded as `%5C` in the generated `src` attribute.

On Ubuntu 22.04, the generated HTML is:

``

On Windows Server 2025 with WampServer, the generated HTML is:

``

The `%5C` value represents a backslash (`\`). Since backslashes are being used in the generated URL and then URL-encoded, the browser cannot correctly resolve the image path, and the image is not displayed.

This appears to be related to path separator handling on Windows. LimeSurvey may be using Windows filesystem path separators (`\`) when generating a URL, instead of converting them to URL-compatible forward slashes (`/`).

The issue does not occur in the Ubuntu 22.04 + Apache2 environment, where the image URL is generated correctly with forward slashes.

20674: Invalid html lang attribute set for Dutch informal leading to weird auto-translate behavior

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:38:54 +0200

Using language Dutch informal sets an invalid html lang attribute, which results in incorrect auto-translation.

20672: HTTP 400 "The requested hostname is invalid" does not mention allowed_hosts.php, leaving admins without a way to recover

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:51:07 +0200

When a request arrives with a host name that is not listed in
application/config/allowed_hosts.php, LimeSurvey returns:

400: Bad Request - The requested hostname is invalid.
The request could not be understood by the server due to malformed
syntax. Please do not repeat the request without modifications.

The message does not mention allowed_hosts.php, the config directory, or
any way to fix the situation. An administrator who hits this has no
indication of what is wrong or where to look.

This matters because the allowed hosts file is created automatically, and
the only explanation is shown once and cannot be retrieved later.

In application/controllers/admin/Authentication.php (line 185 in
7.0.13+260903), on the first successful login LimeSurvey writes
allowed_hosts.php containing only the host used at that moment, and shows
a flash message:

"The allowed hosts file (application/config/allowed_hosts.php) has
been created with "%s" as trusted host. For security reasons,
LimeSurvey can only be accessed through that domain. If you need
additional hosts, please edit the allowed hosts file directly."

That wording is clear and actionable. However it is a one-time flash
message. Once it is gone, the administrator has no way to see it again.

The exception itself is thrown in application/core/LSHttpRequest.php
(line 313 in 7.0.13+260903):

public static function checkIsAllowedHost($hostInfo)
{
$host = parse_url($hostInfo, PHP_URL_HOST);
if ($host && !App()->isHostAllowed($host)) {
throw new CHttpException(400, gT("The requested hostname is invalid.", 'unescaped'));
}
}

This is easy to run into with common deployment patterns:

- Install with Docker and log in once through http://localhost:8080
while setting things up, then put the instance behind a domain name.
- Set up through an SSH tunnel or a reverse proxy, then switch to the
public host name.

In both cases the first login writes "localhost" as the only trusted
host, and every later request through the real domain fails with the
generic 400 above.

I hit this while deploying LimeSurvey 7.0.11 in Docker behind nginx. I
had to read the source (LSHttpRequest.php, LSApplicationTrait.php) to
find out that allowed_hosts.php existed at all. An administrator who is
not comfortable reading PHP source would most likely be stuck.

20670: PDF export displays file path instead of selected image for image-based multiple-choice answers

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:27:22 +0200

When a survey question uses images as the answer options, the selected answer is not rendered as an image in the Print Answers / PDF export. Instead, the PDF displays the file path or filename of the selected image.

20666: Group with 2 questions and condition crashes with SQL error

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:22:44 +0200

Using a survey with 1 question group and 2 questions with 1 condition crashes the survey.

20663: Add version of get_participant_properties to retrieve multiple participants in 1 request

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:32:07 +0200

The current RemoteControl API function get_participant_properties is setup so that you can set query parameters to find a participant, and according to the documentation (https://api.limesurvey.org/classes/remotecontrol-handle.html#method_get_participant_properties), it gives an error if there are multiple results. It does not allow providing multiple tokenIds to get the properties of multiple participants at a time.

I'd like to request a version of this (maybe as a new endpoint), where i can supply a list of tokenIds and get the participant properties for all of those. Note that it should be clear which properties are for which token, so either make sure to include the id in the result as well, or return the properties in the same order as requested.

If you want to make it more generic and also use query parameters (not needed if it was up to me), then definitely include the token id in the response, or at least allow me to specify that i want to have the tokenId in a aTokenProperties parameter, just like the existing get_participant_properties. In that case also don't return an error if there are multiple matches.

20661: assign attributes without tokens to a session

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 10:08:20 +0200

token attributes can contain important data for workarounds. They can mimic dynamic lists.
It would nice to have these attributes in open surveys without tokens.
You define a few attributes set and have a rule to assign attributes to participants.
That could be random or allow to change that attribute set via expressionscript during a interview.

Other tools have (dynamic) lists, which can be defined globally. Reusing parts of what LimeSurvey already got might be as good as that.

20660: A server-side error was reported in a supplier survey.

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:48:29 +0200

Our survey returned an internal 500 server error. It was related to the LimeSurvey platform rather than a single questionnaire.
Based on the available survey configuration the error was the file attachment (File Upload) field.
The survey contained an attachment question where respondents could upload supporting documents. During processing, LimeSurvey attempted to evaluate or validate the field value as if it were a numeric value. However, the attachment field returns text-based data (such as file metadata, filenames, or JSON content), which can cause calculation or validation functions to fail.
The issue became particularly visible when a respondent uploaded the maximum allowed number of attachments. In that scenario, the attachment field returned a larger structured value, and LimeSurvey failed while processing the response, resulting in an HTTP 500 error and a PHP exception similar to:fmod(): Argument #1 ($num1) must be of type float, string given.
As a result, survey submission failed even though the uploaded files themselves were valid.
The attachment field configuration was changed, especially:Maximum number of files allowed.
Reducing the maximum number of attachments or removing the attachment field from calculations and validation expressions should prevent the error from occurring again.
Note: The root-cause section above is based on the investigation and troubleshooting conclusions discussed around the issue. The enterprise search results confirm the existence of the LimeSurvey-related server error but do not contain a detailed technical diagnosis of the attachment-field processing failure.

20649: API feature request: expose survey activation consistency check without activating

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:38:42 +0200

We are integrating with LimeSurvey through the RemoteControl API and we would like to request an API capability to validate whether a survey is activation-ready, without actually activating it.

Current problem:
At the moment, consistency validation appears to happen only when calling activation-related actions (for example activate_survey). This makes it hard for external tools to provide clear pre-activation guidance to users.

Requested capability:
Please expose a dedicated API method to run the same consistency checks used by activation, but in read-only mode.

Suggested endpoint behavior:

Input: survey_id
Output:
* is_consistent (boolean)
* errors (list of blocking issues)
* warnings (list of non-blocking issues)
Optional structured details per rule, for example:
* no question groups
* no questions
* no active questions
* groups without questions
* other activation blockers detected by core LimeSurvey logic

Why this helps:

External dashboards can show users exactly what must be fixed before activation.
Integrations can avoid failed activation attempts.
Better UX and fewer support issues for admins.
Backward compatibility:

New method can be additive and optional.
Existing activation flow remains unchanged.
Thanks for considering this request.

20638: Theme options dropdowns do not have any values in Firefox

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:49:24 +0200

In the Firefox browser only, the theme options values. These do render on Chromium.

I identified this in all "Theme optiosn"select boxes (e.g. "Theme colors", "Fonts", "Check icon").

All of these work as expected in Chromium-based browsers.

If you switch to Chromium you can edit these values.
Firefox will display the selected values when refreshing the page, but still doesn't give any items in its own dropdown, making it impossible to change the setting through firefox.

20637: 500 Internal Server Error since Update

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:53:21 +0200

Lime is very slow and i do not get new answers by participants. When I try to download the dataset for spss or excel i get the error "500 Internal Server Error". We had an update yesterday and i believe that we have the problems since then. Yesterday everything worked fine.

20619: Security update available - although LimeSurvey is updated to the latest 6.x version

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 13:23:50 +0200

We currently have two recent versions, one in the 6.x line and one in the 7.x line. Both are considered stable.
Since we cannot switch to the 7.x version anytime soon, but security updates are available for the 6.x version, the message “Security update available” should only be displayed if not all security patches for the 6.x version have been installed.

This leads to uncertainty and unease among users, as this gives the impression that LimeSurvey is being operated with security vulnerabilities, while at the same time handling sensitive data (surveys).

20611: New feature to exclude items at quick translation

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:38:28 +0200

The quick translation feature is a very useful tool, especially when making use of a Google Translate API key to automatically translate items to different languages. There are some drawbacks though: When using the auto-translation, it always adjusts all items on the current page/tab. But if parts of the translation have already been reviewed by a native speaker, or if there are equation questions, which the auto-translate sometimes messes up, then you need to redo the whole translation process after the auto-translation was done.

This can easily be solved by having a checkbox for every item, which is enabled by default, but offers the ability for the user to disable the translation feature for certain items.

We could try to develop this and provide a pull request. Is this considered a helpful feature? Then we would give it a try.

20599: When questions have a relevance equation, mandatory questions are not enforced.

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 08:57:18 +0200

I am seeing issues in a survey, where I have mandatory questions, and I am able to move forward without answering them
The issue seems to happen when questions have a relevance equation... that seems to kill the enforcement of mandatory questions.
When the questions don't have relevance equations, the mandatory rule is enforced.

This happens on v6 and v7

20596: Panel-Integration parameter (Survey-URL-Parameter) missing after copy

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:17:33 +0200

When I copy a survey, the panel integration parameters are missing in the result.

When using export / import to "copy" a survey, the panel integration parameters are not missing.

20589: Direct link to view single response no longer opens a dedicated page since v7 — only a modal/popup, breaking shareable links

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:48:14 +0200

## Expected Behavior

In previous LimeSurvey versions (pre-v7), clicking view/edit on a response opened a dedicated page with its own unique URL, e.g.:

https://umfrage.example.tld/responses/view?surveyId=532561&id=280

This URL was directly shareable, colleagues or reviewers could be sent a link straight to a specific response without needing to log in, navigate to the survey, and manually search for the response ID.

## Problem

* Old-style direct links (responses/view?surveyId=X&id=Y) still resolve to a working page (confirmed on our instance), but this is no longer reachable from the UI itself.
* The response list now only supports a popup for viewing/editing individual responses, and popups cannot be bookmarked, linked, or shared via URL.
* This breaks existing workflows for teams that share direct links to specific responses (e.g. for QA, moderation, or cross-referencing with partners).

## Suggested Fix

Restore the option to open a response in its own dedicated page (either as default behavior or as a user-selectable alternative to the popup), so the URL updates to reflect the currently viewed response and can be copied/shared.

Alternatively: make the popup update the browser URL (e.g. via history.pushState) so the current response state is reflected in a shareable link, similar to how many modern SPA implementations preserve deep-linkability even inside modals.

20576: Partial Scoring for Multiple Choice Questions

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:35:03 +0200

Currently, LimeSurvey calculates the score for Multiple Choice questions by summing the assessment values of all selected answer options. As a result, it is not possible to implement a scoring model that is commonly used in knowledge and competency tests.

In many tests, only correctly selected answers should contribute to the score, while incorrectly selected answers should neither receive points nor cause a penalty.

This behavior cannot currently be achieved using the standard Assessment feature.

If incorrect answers are assigned an assessment value of 0, participants can simply select all answer options and still receive the maximum score. Assigning negative values to incorrect answers introduces a penalty-based scoring system, which is not appropriate for many assessment scenarios.

20573: Database : ranking question contains unrelated information

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:21:21 +0200

In 7.X database contains the question ID and subquestion ID

But data are related to other subquestion ID

20572: Can not add new element to ranking question in 7.0

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:58:03 +0200

In 6.0 : we can add element in ranking quetsion after activation, not tru in 7.0

20568: Implicit conversion from float 0.5 to int loses precision

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:23:01 +0200

With crypted attribute , when try to get quartile, we cast as float, not if not crypted.

1. No reason of cast if we do not cast when not crypted (must cast as both)
2. Throw an error with debug set

20562: {TOKEN_COUNTER} not documented for dummies particpant

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:19:21 +0200

When you create dummies participant, you can add {TOKEN_COUNTER} to have different participant, but no information