# Autosave for Long and Complex Forms

**URL:** <https://community.directus.com/t/autosave-for-long-and-complex-forms/138>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** collections\
**Created:** [April 29, 2025, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/autosave-for-long-and-complex-forms/138 "2025-04-29T12:56:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Pedro\_Martins](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/pedro_martins/32/115_2.png) [@Pedro\_Martins](https://community.directus.com/u/Pedro_Martins)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/autosave-for-long-and-complex-forms/138/1 "2025-04-29T12:56:41Z")

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Hi community,

I’m using Directus to manage a large pharmaceutical product database. Many of our collections are deeply related, and some contain a high volume of fields and data, which makes form editing a time-consuming task.

Because of this, our editors often spend a long time filling out forms, and sometimes they lose their work due to unexpected interruptions like power outages, internet issues, or browser crashes.

Is there any built-in autosave functionality in Directus for these cases?  
If not, what would be the best approach to minimize the risk of data loss during long editing sessions?

Thanks in advance!

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**Author:** ![TheDerf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/thederf/32/128_2.png) [@TheDerf](https://community.directus.com/u/TheDerf)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/autosave-for-long-and-complex-forms/138/2 "2025-04-29T13:29:20Z")

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There isn’t any built-in autosave functionality, but it is possible to implement with a custom interface. We have an internal implementation we could share, I just haven’t gotten around to open sourcing it yet.

EDIT: Here’s our source, you might be able to work with it: [https://github.com/cmiteam/directus-extension-autosave](https://github.com/cmiteam/directus-extension-autosave) ​ ​ ​

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**Author:** ![bryantgillespie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/bryantgillespie/32/33_2.png) [@bryantgillespie](https://community.directus.com/u/bryantgillespie)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/autosave-for-long-and-complex-forms/138/3 "2025-04-29T14:15:39Z")

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Great question. We don’t have native support for this yet.

For now, I’d highly recommend using CMD+S shortcut which is Save and Stay while editing.

Have a follow up question 😂 as this is top of mind for me right now.

Are there different `versions` for each product? For example if they’re filling it out and autosave is happening - is it ok to save to the ‘active’ or ‘published’ product?
