Restore a Past Course

Restoring a backup file into a new course allows an instructor to reuse past course materials, resources, and activities while discarding the old student data (assignment, forum, and quiz submissions, grades, etc.). Moodle only supports the restoration of Moodle Backups (.mbz file type). Follow the steps provided below to restore a course backup from a previous Moodle site. 

1. Open the empty new course page by clicking the link for the course located on your Dashboard, My Courses, or Profile.

2. Click on the Course Management dropdown in the top right corner.

3. Under the Course Settings column on the far right, select Restore.

4. You can either click the Choose a file button to browse for and upload the backup file you made, or you can drag and drop the file. A progress bar will appear depicting the status of the upload.

   • Depending upon the size of the course, it could take several minutes for the import to complete.

   • Do not navigate away from this screen until the upload completes as it could corrupt the upload.

   • If the backup file is larger than 100MB it must be restored by a Moodle administrator. Please contact LITS Support for assistance with course restores over 100MB.

5. Once the upload completes successfully, click the Restore button.

6. Review the backup file content, then click Continue. 

7. On the Destination page, scroll down to the Restore into this course, section. Select Merge the backup course into this course. and then click the Continue button. 

8. On the Restore Settings page, uncheck the Include Blocks option.

9. Click Next.

10. On the Course settings page, select or deselect the items you would like to include (all items are selected by default). 

    • We recommend deselecting the News Forum or Announcements, as keeping it will create a duplicate.

11. On the Review Page, scroll to the bottom and click the Perform Restore button.

12. Click Continue. The course restoration will begin and the progress bar will show the status.

    • Depending upon the size of the course, it could take several minutes for the restoration to complete.

    • Do not navigate away from this screen until the restore completes as it will corrupt the backup process and cause you to have to restart the process at the beginning.

13. Restoration of the course has been completed. You can now edit the content of the new course.