Guide
How to see Facebook group member answers
There is exactly one screen in Facebook that shows what somebody wrote when they asked to join your group, and it stops existing the moment you approve them. Here is where to look, what you can and cannot get back, and how to stop losing answers you meant to keep.
Updated 6 minute read
The short version
- The pending request card is the only place answers are shown.
- Approving deletes the card. There is no admin screen listing past answers.
- No export exists, not in insights, not in your information, not in the API.
- A member can see their own answers. You cannot see everyone's.
- Anything you want to keep has to be copied before you click Approve.
The one screen that shows them
Open your group, go to the admin tools in the left column, and choose Member requests, which newer layouts call Participant requests. Each person waiting to join appears as a card, and underneath their name are the questions you asked with their answers written out.
That card is the whole story. Facebook does not keep a separate record you can consult later, and there is no second screen where the answers are archived. What is on the card is what exists.
This is a desktop-only screen
Facebook’s own documentation on adding and editing participation questions notes that the feature is not available on mobile browsers. If you are looking for the answers on your phone and finding nothing, that is why. Use a desktop browser.
What happens when you approve
The card is removed from the queue and the answers go with it. Not archived, not moved somewhere quieter, gone. The person becomes an ordinary member with no attached record of what they wrote.
This surprises people because every other part of Facebook keeps things. Posts, comments and messages persist. Participation question answers are the exception, and the behaviour is consistent enough that it is best treated as a rule: the answer exists between the moment they submit it and the moment you action the request, and not after.
| Where you might look | What you get |
|---|---|
| Member requests (pending) | The answers, in full. The only place they appear. |
| Member list, after approval | Name and join date. No answers. |
| A member's profile in the group | Nothing. There is no admin view of one member's answers. |
| Group insights | Growth, engagement and activity. Nothing about question answers. |
| Download your information | Your own data as an account holder, not your members' answers. |
| The Graph API | No endpoint exposes participation question answers. |
Scroll for the rest
Why the member can see their own
A member can open the group, click their own name and find a participation questions section showing what they submitted. This confuses admins who read about it and expect an equivalent view of their own.
There is not one. That screen shows one person their own data, which is a different thing from an admin report. If somebody tells you they can see their answers, they are not describing a screen you can reach.
So what can you actually do
Given the answers exist only while a request is pending, every workable approach comes down to reading them before you approve. There are three, and they differ mainly in how much of your attention they consume.
1. Read and copy, one at a time
Open the queue, copy each answer into a spreadsheet, then approve. Free and completely reliable, and it is genuinely fine at a handful of requests a day. It stops being fine at thirty, partly because of the time and mostly because approving is a single click sitting next to the answers you were supposed to copy first.
2. Slow down the queue
You do not have to approve on the day. Letting requests sit gives you a window to work through them properly, and it has a second benefit: somebody who requested to join and has not answered yet may still answer. Approving quickly guarantees you never find out.
3. Have something read the card for you
Because there is no API, anything automated has to read the card in a browser the same way you do, which is what this category of browser extension exists to do. It reads the pending card, writes the answers somewhere durable, and only then approves.
The order matters more than the tool
Whatever you use, the sequence that keeps data is: read, store, verify it stored, then approve. A tool that approves first and files afterwards has nothing to file, because the card it was going to read has already gone.
A workflow that stops the losses
- 1
Turn the questions on properly
Three questions maximum, and make the email one required if you intend to follow up. An optional question gets skipped by most people.
- 2
Stop approving as they arrive
Batch the queue instead. Every same-day approval is a card you had one chance to read.
- 3
Store the answers somewhere you own
A spreadsheet is enough. The requirement is that it is not Facebook, because Facebook is the thing that deletes them.
- 4
Re-read recent requests before you clear them
Late answers are common. A second pass over the last day or two catches people who filled the questions in after requesting.
- 5
Only then approve
And check the row landed before you do. A store that silently failed looks exactly like one that worked.
If you have already lost some
They are not recoverable. Nothing in the admin tools, the API or a support request will bring back the answers attached to a request you have already actioned, and it is worth accepting that quickly rather than spending an evening looking.
What you can do is ask the people already inside. A pinned post with a short form collects from existing members what the questions would have collected at the door, and it is the one route that reaches people who joined before you started keeping anything. The guide on collecting emails covers how to word that without it reading as a data grab.
Questions people ask
- Where do I see Facebook group member answers?
- On the pending request card, under Member requests or Participant requests in your admin tools. That card is the only place the answers are shown, and it exists only while the request is pending. Approve or decline the person and the card goes, taking the answers with it.
- Can I see the answers after I have approved someone?
- No. Once the request is actioned, the card is gone and there is no admin screen that lists past answers. Approving is the point of no return, which is why anything you want to keep has to be copied before you click.
- Why can I see my own answers but not other people's?
- A member can look at their own answers from their profile in the group, because they are their own data. That view is per-person and only ever shows the one member looking at it. There is no admin equivalent that lists everybody.
- Does Facebook let me export the answers?
- There is no export. Group insights cover activity and growth rather than question answers, and neither the download-your-information tool nor the Graph API exposes them. Anything you keep, you keep by reading the card while it is on screen.
- The card says the person has not answered. What does that mean?
- They requested to join without completing the questions, which is allowed unless you have made answering required. It is also worth checking whether they answered later. A request can sit unanswered for a while and then be filled in, which is why re-reading recent cards catches answers a single pass would miss.
Keep reading
How to save Facebook group participation question answers
What Facebook keeps, what it throws away, and the three ways admins keep the answers instead.
How to collect emails from Facebook group members
A participation question is the one compliant place to ask. How to word it, store it and follow up.
Facebook group participation questions: 24 examples that work
Twenty-four questions you can copy, sorted by job: filter, qualify, segment, and capture the email.
Getting Facebook group answers into Google Sheets
A sheet layout that survives contact, three ways to fill it, and the failure modes that lose rows.