# Netlify Forms: Custom success message ignored due to invalid action parameter

**URL:** <https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988>\
**Category:** Support\
**Tags:** netlify-forms\
**Created:** [January 25, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988 "2020-01-25T17:26:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davehilldev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/davehilldev/32/6109_2.png) [@davehilldev](https://answers.netlify.com/u/davehilldev)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/1 "2020-01-25T17:26:49Z")

</div>

Hi,

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, my custom success message isn’t being used, it seems to be ignored. Here’s my form.

```
<form name="contact" netlify-honeypot="bot-field" method="POST" action="/feedback/success/index.html" data-netlify="true">
  <input type="hidden" name="form-name" value="contact" />
  <p class="u-visually-hidden">
    <label>Don’t fill this out if you're human: <input name="bot-field"></label>
  </p>
  <label>What is your name?
    <input name="full-name" type="text" placeholder="Your full name" required>
  </label>
  <label>What is your email address?
    <input name="email-address" type="email" placeholder="Your email" required>
  </label>
  <label>What your message?
    <textarea name="message" type="text" placeholder="Your message..." required></textarea>
  </label>
    <button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>

```

Can anyone offer a solution?

Thanks,

Dave

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fool](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/fool/32/37_2.png) [@fool](https://answers.netlify.com/u/fool)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/2 "2020-01-25T21:35:36Z")

</div>

Hey Dave,

Take a look at our form debugging docs:

> [@\[Support Guide\] Form problems, form debugging, 404 when submitting](https://answers.netlify.com/t/common-issue-form-problems-form-debugging-404-when-submitting/92):
>
> Last reviewed by Netlify Support in July 2025 sparkles [AskNetlify’s](https://docs.netlify.com/ask-netlify/) Version sparkles Where can I check form submissions on my site? Copy the prompt above and paste it into [AskNetlify](https://docs.netlify.com/ask-netlify/), and it’ll break down this info. You can also ask clarifying questions. Still need help? No problem! We’re happy to clarify. Last reviewed October 2024 Please give these debugging tips a try before making a new post. If none of the suggestions work, please include the requested information that we request…

If that doesn’t help you find a solution, you’ll see the details we need (which is not your source code :)) to help you proceed with debugging, at the end of the article.

Almost all form troubles that are possible are covered in that article though, and we won’t be able to get back to you too quickly on this, so hopefully that can help you find a solution!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davehilldev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/davehilldev/32/6109_2.png) [@davehilldev](https://answers.netlify.com/u/davehilldev)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/3 "2020-01-25T22:14:22Z")

</div>

Thanks. I read that post before posting. That’s how I got the default message to work, but now I can’t get my custom message to work. I’ll keep trying, it’s possible I missed something. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fool](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/fool/32/37_2.png) [@fool](https://answers.netlify.com/u/fool)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/4 "2020-01-25T23:10:50Z")

</div>

You could also send us the URL is your html form as requested and we’ll take a look, like it says there at the end 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davehilldev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/davehilldev/32/6109_2.png) [@davehilldev](https://answers.netlify.com/u/davehilldev)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 12:22am UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/5 "2020-01-26T00:22:04Z")

</div>

Here’s the URL, [https://www.davehill.dev/feedback/](https://www.davehill.dev/feedback/)

Form name is contact.

I’ve made changes to the form since what I provided earlier. I’m still seeing the standard thank you for submitting though.

```
<form name="contact" method="POST" action="/success" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" netlify-honeypot="bot-field" data-netlify-recaptcha="true" data-netlify="true">
  
  <input type="hidden" name="form-name" value="contact">

  <p class="u-visually-hidden">
    <label>Don’t fill this out if you're human: <input name="bot-field"></label>
  </p>
  
  <label for="name">What is your name?
    <input name="name" type="text" required>
  </label>
  <label for="email">What is your email address?
    <input name="email" type="email" required>
  </label>
  <label for="message">What your message?
    <textarea name="message" required></textarea>
  </label>
  <div data-netlify-recaptcha="true"></div>
  <p>
    <button type="submit">Send</button>
  </p>
</form>

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davehilldev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/davehilldev/32/6109_2.png) [@davehilldev](https://answers.netlify.com/u/davehilldev)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 6:17am UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/6 "2020-01-26T06:17:42Z")

</div>

Can the active form called contact be deleted from my site? I think it’s causing a problem.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fool](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/fool/32/37_2.png) [@fool](https://answers.netlify.com/u/fool)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/7 "2020-01-26T06:22:56Z")

</div>

If it’s active, it cannot be deleted.

Try changing the name in the form you are using to a new name if you think the old one is interfering 🙂

When I took a quick look at the html version of your form, I saw that this also is in violation of the suggestions on the debugging page:

`<form name=contact method=post action=https://www.davehill.dev/success ...`

- action should be a path starting with /, not a URL.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davehilldev](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/davehilldev/32/6109_2.png) [@davehilldev](https://answers.netlify.com/u/davehilldev)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 8:37am UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/8 "2020-01-26T08:37:51Z")

</div>

Thanks for that @fool, I investigated why the full URL was being added and found that it was because I’d set canonifyurls to true in my Hugo config.

It’s working now. 😁

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikumikumiku914](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/mikumikumiku914/32/14402_2.png) [@mikumikumiku914](https://answers.netlify.com/u/mikumikumiku914)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2020, 7:21am UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/9 "2020-08-09T07:21:17Z")

</div>

Hello. I’m getting the same issue and can’t seem to figure it out.

```auto
<form
      name="contact"
      netlify-honeypot="bot-field"
      method="POST"
      action="/contact/thanks"
      data-netlify="true"
    >
      <input type="hidden" name="form-name" value="contact" />
      <div class="inputText">
        <label>Name</label>
        <br />
        <input type="text" name="name" class="marginbtm" />
      </div>
      <div class="inputText">
        <label>Email</label>
        <br />
        <input type="email" name="email" class="marginbtm" />
        <br />
      </div>
      <div class="inputText">
        <label>Message</label>
        <br />
        <textarea name="message" class="marginbtm"></textarea>
      </div>
      <button type="submit">送信する</button>
    </form>

```

Redirect is working, and I’m pretty sure I’ve deployed my own custom thank you page which is “/contact/thanks”, but it still redirects to the default Netlify thank you page. Any tips on troubleshooting?

Just fyi, I’ve already checked [this page](https://answers.netlify.com/t/support-guide-form-problems-form-debugging-404-when-submitting/92) and I think I’m doing everything it says here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fool](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/fool/32/37_2.png) [@fool](https://answers.netlify.com/u/fool)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/10 "2020-08-10T14:38:27Z")

</div>

In the post you reference, we ask some very specific questions at the end of it. Please answer those questions so we can help you troubleshoot from there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikumikumiku914](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/mikumikumiku914/32/14402_2.png) [@mikumikumiku914](https://answers.netlify.com/u/mikumikumiku914)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/11 "2020-08-11T14:59:08Z")

</div>

Hello, sorry about that.

1. The URL for your live form as you want visitors to use it  
[Bored of Plastic](https://boredofplastic.site/contact)

2. The URL of your deployed html form (in case you have a javascript form, we need to literally be linked to the html version you’ve deployed as mentioned above - look for “pure javascript”)  
Html is posted in my previous message.

3. The form **name** that you’ve set and that shows in our UI  
Form name is contact.

4. Any errors or logs from the Netlify build logs, dashboard or browser developer console  
I’m not seeing any errors currently.

5. Description of anything you have tried that did or didn’t help or make things better/worse  
I’ve tried changing the action=“/thanks” , action=“contact#thanks” as advised in a different thread but it doesn’t seem to be the solution.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fool](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/fool/32/37_2.png) [@fool](https://answers.netlify.com/u/fool)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-forms-custom-success-message-ignored-due-to-invalid-action-parameter/7988/12 "2020-08-11T19:07:57Z")

</div>

Thanks for all that!

Could you make the action a URL that is not a redirect? Something like `action=/` or `action=/myfile.html` instead of something that is handled by a redirect? It anyway needs to start with a slash, so the second you mention is known to be nonfunctional and that is called out in the doc you linked to:

> If you want to show your own content after the `POST` rather than our generic thank-you page, make sure you include an `action=/path` parameter in your form definition. ( `/path` should be the page you want to display - might be “/” or “/thank-you/english.html” - must be either ‘thank-you’ to use our automatic thank you page, or a path starting with / […]