Canvas Back-up – WSB Teaching and Learning Toolkit

Access your Canvas Back-up Copy

Overview

Canvas courses are regularly backed up on the system server. If you experienced issues related to groups, custom assignment dates, and/or assignment settings, you may be able to access the back-up copy of your course. Use the steps below to restore prior settings.

Steps to restore a back-up Canvas course

In one tab open one of your courses, and note the 6 digit course number in the URL (example: RE-530 is 428174)
Open a second tab and paste this URL in: https://wisconsin-madison.beta.instructure.com/courses/XXXXXX
Replace the XXXXXX with your 6-digit course code, and visit the page:
- This is a BETA/backup version of your current course (is dated from last week)
- The BETA page has a pink border at the bottom
- You will be able to see your original groupings on this page

If you see your “original” content, you may:

Manually update your “current course” by referring to the information from the backup course copy, or
Put in a service ticket to the DOIT helpdesk or (608) 264-4357 to see if they can automate the copy over for you, this may take some time.
- If you elect to put a ticket into DOIT helpdesk, please note that their automated process may overwrite anything you do manually when they do get to it.

NOTE:

Please use the BETA site only for reference: Making student-based changes within the BETA site (assigning grades, posting comments or announcements) may result in an email/message being sent to the student.
The BETA site is refreshed every weekend with a fresh copy of your CURRENT/ACTIVE course: As result some content older than one week may not be accessible.