Restore deleted course files or activities in D2L Brightspace

Summary

What course files or activities can be recovered if items were deleted in a D2L Brightspace course? Can instructors restore course activities from within a D2L Brightspace course?

Body

Overview

This article is to intended to answer questions surrounding the restore capabilities of the Minnesota State D2L Brightspace learning environment hosted in D2L’s cloud services.

Can delete course files be restored from QA?

Note that files that have been deleted in D2L Brightspace sites may still exist in QA sites. D2L Campus Site Admins can access QA to locate the files.  If they exist, the files can be downloaded from QA and uploaded to the Production site.  The timeframe for these files to remain in QA is approximately 25 days, as QA is refreshed each month.  Review the Brightspace CD update schedule on the D2L IMS site.

Request to restore deleted files or activities

Please submit a request to the Learning Technologies team. Requests must be reported as soon as possible after the deletion!  D2L can only restore data from up to 30 days ago.  Please include detailed information to expedite the process.

Course Content

  1. Institution name or D2L Brightspace site
  2. Semester and Course name
  3. Instructor’s name (for verification)
  4. Exact file/document name(s), or request “all course materials”
  5. Date the file(s) were uploaded, created, or last updated within D2L Brightspace
  6. Date the file(s) were deleted from D2L Brightspace
  7. Date when you believe the file(s) were intact in D2L Brightspace
  8. Whom it was deleted by

Course Activities

  1. Institution name or D2L Brightspace site
  2. Semester and Course name
  3. Instructor’s name (for verification)
  4. Type of item (e.g. deleted survey)
    • Name/title of item
    • Indicate if this item was associated with a grade item
    • Estimated date/time deleted
    • Whom it was deleted by

Course files, objects, or activities that may be restored

The following table provides a list of course items and activities.  In some cases, the items can be restored in the D2L Brightspace learning environment by the course instructor or the D2L Campus Site Admin.  In other cases, D2L can restored select deleted files, objects, or activities provided those items have only recently been deleted (i.e. within the past 30 days). For reference, we have listed additional course objects or activities that cannot be restored once deleted.

Tool

Items Deleted

Restored by
instructor
or
administrator

Restored
by
D2L

Announcement

Announcement item and associated file attachments

Restore from: Announcements tool > More Actions > Restore page.

Yes

N/A

Assignments

Single user's submission files(s)

Note: If a student does an UPLOAD, but fails to do the subsequent SUBMIT, then the submission cannot be recovered.

Restore from: Assignments tool > Submission Log from assignment menu > click Restore for the submission.

Yes

N/A

Assignments

Submission folder with or without submissions

Restore from: Assignments tool > More Actions > Event Log > click Restore for the assignment folder.

Yes

N/A

Attendance

Attendance register and associated data

(Register name, session names, and exact date and time
where the register was last known to exist is required.)

No

Yes

Attendance

Attendance scheme

No

No

Awards

Awards, certificates, badges

No

No

Blogs

Blogs, blog entries

(The Blog name and point in time where blogs/blog entries existed are required.)

No

Yes

Bongo

Video Assignment

No

No

Bongo

Virtual Classroom session

(Username, course, meeting/session name, timestamp)

No

Yes

Calendar

Calendar event

No

No

Checklist

Checklist with or without associated data

No

No

Checklist        

Checklist categories/items and associated data

No

No

Checklist

Entire checklist, including all categories/items and associated data

No

No

Competencies

Competency, learning objectives, activities

No

No

Content

Content Modules/Topics

(Exact Module/Topic name(s) are required.  

Deleted items only; items cannot revert back to a specific date/time.)

Note: During the restore process, content items are restored as 'Draft' and placed in the Content module. 

The Instructor can determine what can be published.

No

Yes

Content Files

Content files in the Manage Files tool.

(File names, and point in time where files exists are required.  

Deleted items only; items cannot revert back to a specific date/time.)

No

Yes

Discussions

Single user's discussion post(s)
*Available if the instructor has the appropriate role permission.  

If you don’t have the permission, please contact your campus site administrator.

Restore from: Discussions tool > View Topic > click the thread or post > click Restore Thread or Restore Post link. 
(You may need to enable the "Display deleted posts" option in Discussions Settings first.)

Yes*

N/A

Discussions

Discussion forums and topics with or without any posts

Restore from: Discussions tool > More Actions > Restore > click Restore for the topic or forum.

Yes

N/A

ePortfolio

ePortfolio artifacts, objects, forms, presentations

No

No

External Learning Tools

Name of Learning tool link and point in time where the external learning tool link existed are required.

No

Yes

FAQ

FAQ category and/or question(s)

No

No

Glossary

Glossary term

No

No

Grades

Grade item with or without scores/feedback

*The following grade item types can be restored:

  • Numeric
  • Selectbox
  • Pass/Fail
  • Text

Note: Calculated and Formula grade items cannot be restored in the D2L Brightspace.

Restore from: Grades tool > Manage Grades > More Actions > View Event Log > click Restore for the grade item.

Yes*

Yes

Grades

Grade category

No

No

Grades

Entire gradebook including all grade items (with scores and feedback)

No

No

Groups

Individual group

Restore from: Groups tool > Recycle Bin > select group > click Restore.

Yes

Yes

Groups

Group locker

No

No

Groups

Entire group category with groups (including existing enrollments and group lockers)

Restore from: Groups tool > Recycle Bin > select category > click Restore.

Yes

Yes

Homepages

Homepage

No

No

Instant Messages

Instant Messages

No

No

Intelligent Agents

Intelligent Agents

Restore from: Intelligent Agents tool > More Actions > Restore > click Restore for the agent.

Yes

N/A

Link

Link categories and links

(Link and Link Category name are required.)

No

Yes

Locker

Individual locker file(s)

No

No

Locker

Locker folders with or without associated files

No

No

LOR

Learning objects files, folders, objects, collections

No

No

Navbars

Navigation bar

No

No

Org Units

Campus Site Admins can restore deleted org units from the Org Unit Editor’s recycle bin.

Restore from: Admin Tools > Org Unit Editor > Recycle Bin > select org unit > click Restore.

Yes

N/A

Quizzes

Single user's quiz attempt

(Quiz name, OrgUnitId, and Username are required.)

Restore from: Quizzes tool > Attempt Logs from quiz menu > click Restore for the attempt.

Yes

Yes

Quizzes

Quiz with or without attempts completed

*If a quiz is restored, any attempts associated will be restored automatically.

Restore from: Quizzes tool > More Actions > Restore > click Restore for the quiz.

Yes

Yes

Question Library

Questions in the Question Library

No

No

Rubrics

Rubric (any type) whether or not associated with a course activity

No

No

Seating Charts

Seating Charts and/or Locations

No

No

Sections

Sections

No

No

Self Assessments

Self Assessment with or without attempts completed

(Object name, OrgUnitId required, and if there were User attempts are required.)

No

Yes

Surveys

Single user’s survey attempt

(Survey name, OrgUnitId, and Username are required.)

No

Yes

Surveys

Survey with attempts completed

*If a survey is restored, any attempts associated will be restored automatically.

(Object name, OrgUnitId required, and if there were User attempts are required.)

No

Yes

Users

User accounts

(First/Last name, Username, and email are required.
*A user account cannot have be recreated if it would result in duplicate accounts.)

No

Yes

Themes

Themes

No

No

Widget

Custom widget

No

No

Details

Details

Article ID: 70
Created
Thu 2/27/25 1:42 PM
Modified
Wed 4/9/25 7:30 AM
Application Software
Application Software is designed to fulfill the requirements of a user for performing specific tasks. Example types: Education, Word-processing, Spreadsheet, Database, Graphics, Entertainment.
LMS - D2L Brightspace
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Informational

Related Services / Offerings

Related Services / Offerings (1)

The online learning platform for Minnesota State. D2L Brightspace is the product, which includes third-party integrations with Minnesota State enterprise systems.