Masking main google sheet to contributors

Hi all,
I'm looking for some clarifications for what concerns the "masking" of the main DB (i.e. google spreadsheet).

I have many data collectors that contribute to the project but it's required that the data remain visible only to me (as DB manager). I checked the forum and I found that:

  • the issue was already raised one year ago within another topic but it received only a suggestion for a workaround based on external apps, and
  • the way (bullet 6-d) that is proposed on the official documentation doesn't work (i.e. who sends the completed forms gets an error related to a lack of administrator privileges. This shouldn't happen due to the fact that they can modify/view the main sheet and not the 'hidden' one).

Is it a bug? is there any other solution/workaround without the use of external automation apps?

Thanks in advance for any help!

maybe any update from @LN or @Grzesiek2010 ?

For google sheets you can for example add your submission url to a form, thanks to that you won't need to share it with anyone. It's not a perfect solution because if someone is determined and have some knowledge their will be able to find that url in files.
Google sheets provides options:

  • can view
  • can comment
  • can edit

if we need to send a filled form we need the last one. There is no option like edit but only via ODK Collect.