Manually back up a course
    • 20 Nov 2023
    • 2 minutes to read

    Manually back up a course


    Article Summary

    Course backups can be used to save course data to be restored at a later date if required. Typically the Site Administrator sets a schedule of automated course backups for the whole site, while a Trainer with editing privileges can create a manual course backup. Trainers can also download an existing backup for safe keeping or for use on another Totara site.

    Alongside any automated backups that are run on your Totara site, it is sometimes necessary or advisable to perform a manual backup of an individual course (e.g. if you are going to make any significant changes to the course).

    To complete a manual backup, follow these steps:

    1. From the course page, click on Backup in the Course block.
    2. On the Initial settings page, select the areas of the course you want to include in the backup. Then you have two options:
      • Click the Next button to select which activities and resources are included.
      • Click Jump to final step if you wish to include everything in the backup (in this case the backup will be performed immediately).
    3. If you clicked Next, you will now see the Schema settings page. Here you can select specific items to include in backup, including specific topics and activities. Once you are done, click Next.
    4. On the Confirmation and review page, check that the selected content is correct. Click Previous if you need to make any changes. If you are happy with the selected options, click Perform backup.
    5. Once the backup has been performed you will see a confirmation message. Click Continue to finish.
    We strongly recommend that you do not include quizzes with question banks in your course backups, as questions in the question bank will be duplicated. If Include question bank is disabled then quizzes will not be included in the backup.

    The backup may take a few moments depending on the size of the course. 

    A backup file (with distinctive .mbz extension to avoid confusion with .zip files) is then saved in the course backup area. Backup file names are of the form backup-totara-course-coursename-date-hour.mbz, ending in -nu.mbz when backed up with no users and -an.mbz with anonymised names. 

    Anonymising user information

    Anonymise user information is a backup feature which protects user identities by making each user anonymous. If this box is checked in the backup Initial settings, Totara will substitute aliases for real names, substituting @doesntexist.com email addresses and so forth. For example 'Max Manager' might become 'anonfirstname4 anonlastname4'. This can only be done by users with appropriate permissions, such as Site Administrators and managers.

    Additionally, users with these permissions can choose whether to include users, user role assignments, groups, groupings, user files, comments, user completion details, course logs, and grade history in the backup.

    Next steps

    © Copyright 2024 Totara Learning Solutions. All rights reserved. Some content originally obtained via GPLv3 license and continues to be available under GPLv3. All other content is the sole copyright of Totara Learning Solutions. 


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