Epicollect5 Google Integration

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Project Name (if applicable, otherwise just type n/a)

LEVANTAMENTO

Question

Bom dia, estou tendo problemas em sincronizar os dados do epicollect com o google planilhas através do script. Já adicionei o epicollect na planilha do google utilizando o script disponível no site do epicollect, mas depois de alguns dias atrás ao apertar o botão para atualizar os dados do epicollect com aplanilha não está funcionando apresentado erros e falhas. como posso resolver esse problema.

I confirm I have read the User Guide at docs.epicollect.net

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I confirm I have searched for an answer in this community.

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I confirm I have tried asking the same question to Perplexity AI with the tag #epicollect5, but it did not help.

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2

The most common reasons the Epicollect → Google Sheets script stops working after a few days are:

  • project or form changed in Epicollect

  • project not public anymore

  • too many entries / API limits

  • authorization or script errors in Apps Script

To move forward, it helps to pinpoint which of these is happening in your case.

Step 1 – Read the exact error

  1. In your Sheet, click the Epicollect button that fails.

  2. Then go to
    Extensions → Apps Script → View → Executions (or “Executions log”).

  3. Open the latest failed execution and look at:

    • the error message text

    • The line number where it fails

Typical messages you might see:

  • “Request failed for https://five.epicollect.net … returned code 403/404/500”

  • “Service Spreadsheets failed while accessing document”

  • “Exception: Service invoked too many times”

  • “Exceeded maximum execution time”

Step 2 – Quick checks directly in Epicollect

Before touching the script, check these:

  1. Project is still public
    The Epicollect Google Sheets integration works only for public projects; if the project was made private or permissions changed, requests will start failing.

  2. Form / questions have not been renamed or deleted
    If the script (or URL inside it) refers to a form_ref or field names that changed (for example, you edited the form structure in Epicollect), the API URL can become invalid and start returning errors after the change.

  3. Try the export URL in the browser
    In the script you should see a URL like:
    https://five.epicollect.net/api/export/entries/{project-slug}?...

    • Copy that URL from the script.

    • Paste it in your browser while logged out (to simulate a public call).

    • test if the URL works.

    • If you see an error page or JSON with an error message, that’s what is breaking the Sheet

Step 3 – Check data size and pagination

When projects become large, the Google Sheets integration may start failing because the exported dataset becomes too big or the script takes too long.

Things to try:

  • Reduce per_page in the URL (for example from 500 to 200)

  • Add page=1, page=2, etc., and import multiple chunks into separate sheets or separate parts of the same sheet.

  • If you are using IMPORTDATA() inside the script or in cells, try splitting it into multiple calls with fewer rows per call

Step 4 – Re‑authorize or re‑create the script

Sometimes, the problem is on the Google side: authorization token expired, or the script got corrupted / partially changed.

Try this sequence:

  1. In Apps Script, click Run on the main function manually.

  2. If a permissions dialog appears, accept it again. Lack of fresh authorization can cause “Service … failed” errors.

  3. If it still fails, create a new Google Sheet and re-add the script, carefully pasting the fresh project URL and parameters

  4. Test the button on the new Sheet; if it works there, the old file may simply be corrupted or hitting some limit. See Api rate limits at Epicollect5 API | Epicollect API Guide