Support from FASE's Education Technology Office

Can I retrieve a deleted course item?

Updated on

When course content is deleted in Canvas, it is possible to restore select content after it has been deleted. As this function is not a true, comprehensive restore function, we do not recommend relying on this tool and instead recommend, as always, that you carefully save your work and be thoughtful about deletions.

What are the limitations of "undelete"? The undelete function does have limits. For example, a Discussion can be restored, but the student submissions to the Discussion are NOT restored. To err on the side of caution, you should assume that undelete will be unable to restore student work.

This functionality is not documented by Canvas and reports indicate it does not have a 100% success rate. However, many users in the Canvas community have found it fairly reliable.

1. On the course where you want to restore a deleted item, go to the Home page

2. Note the URL in your browser's Address line

  1. In your browser, find the course URL. Note: Your URL will have a different number at the end - this is a unique code for each course.

3. Add /undelete to the Home page URL

  1. At the end of your course URL, add /undelete and press enter on your keyboard.

4. To the right of the item you want to restore to the site, click Restore

  1. Find the item that you would like to recover, and select "restore".
Previous Article How can I customize my Notification settings?
Next Article How do I add external tools to my Quercus course?
Still have questions? Contact the FASE EdTech Office