Restore a Course Backup

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You must have a Course Backup File (.MBZ) before you can restore any course.

There are two main methods to restore a course:

  • In your Staging Area – This is typically done to create a course for a student finishing up an Incomplete, to review student grades or coursework, or to develop a new course for future use.
  • In an existing Course – This is typically done to place past course content into a current course. NOTE: You’ll only want to use this method if you do not have access to the past course in Moodle.

Into a Staging Area

Restore a Course into a Staging Area

You will need a staging area for this process. If you can’t find your staging area or do not have one, please submit a ticket to OLET via Online Learning/Moodle Support.

Log into Moodle and navigate to your Staging Area.

Click the More option from the secondary navigation.

Select Restore course.

NOTE: There may be another More drop-down menu (grey) listed, but it will not have the restore course option. Please make sure you are using the correct option from the secondary navigation. 

Drag and drop your Moodle Course Backup file into the dashed box…

or click the Choose a file… button and select the Moodle Course Backup file to restore.

Click the Restore button.

Confirm will be your chance to preview some details and go back to select a different file, if needed.

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click the Continue button.

Destination will be your chance to select where you want to restore the course.

In the Restore as a new course area, select the radio button to the left of your staging area.

NOTE: You will likely have a single option. However, if you have several choices, you can type your last name, first name into the search box to find the proper staging area.

Click the associated Continue button directly below.

Settings will be your chance to select if you want to restore the content only or with student data.

To restore content only (for development courses)

    • Uncheck Include enrolled users

To restore with student data (for incomplete courses, grade challenges, etc.)

    • Check Include enrolled users
    • Set Include enrollment methods to No, restore users as manual enrollments

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click the Next button.

Under Schema, double-check the following:

  • Confirm Course Name and Course Short Name. Be sure to edit the course name to distinguish the restored course from the original (see our course naming conventions).
  • Confirm the course Start date. This will result in the course opening to students/guests automatically on that date. Other dates within the course will update in relation to this start date.
  • Confirm which weeks, topics, activities, and resources you want like to include.

Scroll to the bottom of this page.

Click the Next button.

Review will allow you to verify that you have selected the proper settings.

If everything looks correct, click the Perform restore button.

Process, the size of the backup will determine your wait time for this step.

Click the Continue button when it appears.

Into a Course

Restore a Course into a newly provisioned course

This would be used if you want to use a previous course that is no longer available in Moodle in your current course. If the course is still available in Moodle we recommend using the Import method to copy the course content as it is easier and creates fewer issues.

Start on the course page that you want to back up.

Scroll to the top of the main page of your course.

Click the More item from the secondary navigation.

Select Course reuse.

NOTE: This page will default to the Import option in the drop-down menu.

Select Restore from the drop-down menu.

Leave all the settings at their default.

Drag and drop your Moodle Course Backup file into the dashed box.
OR
Click the Choose a file… button and select the Moodle Course Backup file you want to restore.

Click the Restore button.

Confirm will be your chance to preview some details and go back to select a different file, if needed.

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click the Continue button.

Destination will be your chance to select where you want to restore the course.

In the Restore into this course area, select the Merge the backup course into this course option.

Click the associated Continue button.

Settings will be your chance to uncheck Include enrolled users since the users will automatically be enrolled in your provisioned courses.

Scroll to the bottom of this page.

Click the Next button.

Schema will be your chance to confirm which weeks, topics, activities, resources you would like to include in your current course.

Scroll to the bottom of this page.

Click the Next button.

Review will allow you to verify that you have selected the proper settings.

If everything looks correct, click the Perform restore button.

Process, the size of the backup will determine your wait time for this step.

Click the Continue button when it appears.

Related Tags
Import Content into Moodle (21)Moodle (LMS) (110)Staging Area (7)