What is happening and why?

What Qualtrics account is going to have maintenance?

The YaleSurvey account will be undergoing maintenance from June 15, 2026, through June 18, 2026

Why is there going to be an outage of Qualtrics?

The YaleSurvey Qualtrics account is currently hosted in a Canadian data center. In order to comply with Yale's Minimum Security Standards for high-risk systems, the YaleSurvey Qualtrics account needs to move from a Canadian data center to one located in the United States. During this migration, it will not be possible to log into Qualtrics.

Why is this outage so long?

YaleSurvey is Yale's largest Qualtrics account by a considerable amount and is considered extremely large by Qualtrics's standards. The amount of information that needs to be moved while preserving the integrity of Yale's survey response data means that this migration needs to be performed slowly and carefully.

Why does this maintenance need to be conducted during business hours? Can't it be scheduled for a weekend, or during a recess?

Originally scheduled for winter recess, the migration was canceled by Qualtrics due to a flaw in the migration process. Weekend migration wasn't feasible, so we collaborated with the Qualtrics Governance Committee to select a date that avoids academic semesters.

How was the timing for this maintenance selected?

We consulted our Qualtrics Governance Committee, which has representatives from several research-oriented areas of the university, for viable dates that would minimize impact to the users they represent.

How does this impact me?

Are my surveys and data safe?

Yes. All surveys and data will be migrated to the new data center.

Will this affect ongoing data collection?

Existing surveys will continue to collect responses during the maintenance period. However, survey distribution will not take place during the maintenance period. Scheduled distributions will be queued up and will be sent once the system has been migrated.

I need to conduct a survey during the outage. What should I use?

We suggest you consider using Microsoft Forms, which is another self-service form tool that is approved to collect high-risk data.

I scheduled a survey distribution to go out via email during the outage. Will it work?

No. It will be queued up and resume after the migration is complete.

I collect responses via the offline survey app. Will I be able to upload those responses during the outage?

No. But once the maintenance is over, you will be able to upload those responses.

My survey has third-party integrations. Will they work during the outage?

It depends on where the integration takes place. If it takes place on survey submission, it will not work. If it's part of the survey logic, it may work.