Within the report general settings, if no options are selected, then the export option for reports will not be available. There are a number of export formats available from report builder:
Excel: Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx).
ODS: OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).
CSV: Comma-separated values (.csv).
Standards-compliant CSV for use with custom scripts or integrations. This does not contain any of the Excel-specific workarounds present in CSV (Safe for Excel).
Due to security issues in Excel, loading CSV exports containing untrusted data can lead to code execution.
CSV (Safe for Excel): Comma-separated values (.csv).
CSV formatted as Excel expects it. Formula injection is prevented.
Excel export is preferred, as it preserves the native data formats such as numbers and dates.
PDF landscape: Portable Document Format (.pdf).
PDF portrait: Portable Document Format (.pdf).
Note that you can override the available export formats for individual reports via the Performance tab when creating or editing a report.
It is also helpful to note that where a right-to-left (RTL) language is used this will be supported. When RTL is used as part of an export, not only will the text itself be displayed correctly but so will the column orders.
The only exception is CSV format, as this does not have capabilities to store text direction property. For those requiring RTL, after importing this CSV in their office suite, they need to enable RTL mode manually.
Background exports
The Background export setting changes the way exporting reports are processed.
Instead of generating the export immediately—blocking you from using the site until it’s ready—the export is queued to run in the background. This is particularly useful for large reports, as it allows you to continue working while the export is generated.
Background exports for reports are enabled by default, this can be disabled by:
Going to Quick-access menu > Reports > General settings.
De-select the Background export checkbox.
How it works
Queueing the export
When you export a report with background exports enabled, your chosen search criteria and filters are captured.
The export request is added to a background queue instead of running immediately.
You will see an on-screen notification confirming that the export is queued.
If you attempt to export the same report and filters while it’s already queued or processing, you’ll see a message directing you to your Report exports queue instead.
By default, you can have up to five pending exports at a time. Trying to exceed this limit will prompt you to cancel or wait.
Processing the export
By default, a scheduled task processes queued exports every minute.
Site administrators can alternatively run a dedicated command-line script (
server/totara/reportbuilder/cli/process_exports.php) to process exports independently.Multiple jobs can run in parallel without processing the same export twice.
If the export fails, the system will log the error and send you a notification.
File availability and clean-up
Downloaded exports are deleted 1 hour after the first download.
Completed but not downloaded exports are deleted after 24 hours.
Exports stuck in processing for over 24 hours are automatically marked as failed and removed.
Next steps
Get involved in the conversation about Reporting on the Totara Community.
The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to using Reports in Totara. Here you can learn more on how to use reports, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.
Join the Totara Community for more resources to help you get the most out of Totara.
© Copyright 2026 Totara Learning Solutions. All rights reserved.