If you accidentally delete an assignment in your learning management system (LMS), please note that the assignment and student submissions are not deleted from Turnitin. Deleting the assignment in your LMS just breaks the link between the two systems.
Important: New Standard Assignments cannot be restored
Turnitin support cannot restore New Standard Assignments. This includes all Clarity assignments and Paper to Digital assignments created via LTI 1.3. If these are deleted from your LMS, they cannot be recovered, and support cannot transfer the submissions.
Best practice: The fastest way to fix a deleted assignment is to ask your school's LMS support team or system administrator to restore the original link. This keeps your student data and grades exactly as they were.
Select your LMS platform below to see standard steps and options for restoring links:
Restoring an assignment in Canvas
If you’ve recently deleted an assignment in Canvas, you can restore it without losing any student data.
To do so:
- Go to your course URL in the address bar of your browser
- Add /undelete to the end of the URL and click enter
- The URL will look something like this:
- https://[YourSchool].instructure.com/courses/[CourseNumber]/undelete
- A list of recently deleted items will appear
- Click the Restore button next to the assignment you want to bring back
- Once the assignment is restored, you will need to republish it for your students to see it
If this method does not work for you, please reach out to Canvas support for further assistance in restoring your deleted assignment.
Restoring an assignment in Moodle
If you have recently deleted an assignment from your Moodle course, you can restore it from the recycle bin. Deleted items are typically stored in the recycle bin for a set period (often 7 days) before being permanently removed.
To restore the assignment:
- From your course page, navigate to the course administration or more menu
- From the dropdown menu, click on the Recycle bin
- A list of recently deleted activities and resources will appear
- Find the assignment you want to restore and click the Restore icon next to it
- The assignment will be restored to the bottom of the section it was originally in
If you don't see the recycle bin option or are unable to restore your assignment, please contact your institution's Moodle support team for assistance.
Restoring an assignment in D2L Brightspace
How you restore an assignment in D2L Brightspace depends on your setup:
- D2L V2 integrations: If your D2L assignment uses the V2 integration with Turnitin, you may be able to restore it following the steps in this guide: https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/3405-reorder-edit-and-delete-assignments-and-categories. If this option is unavailable or unsuccessful, please contact D2L support for assistance.
- D2L LTI 1.3 integrations: To restore an LTI 1.3 assignment link to your D2L environment, you’ll need to contact D2L support directly. Please provide them with the course name or ID where the content was deleted, and the title of the deleted assignment. D2L support will be able to assist you in restoring the LTI link.
Restoring an assignment in Blackboard
When you delete an assignment link with student submissions in Blackboard, the platform asks you to confirm that you want to permanently remove it, along with all submissions and grades.
If you delete it by mistake, Blackboard does not have a built-in way to "undelete" the link. We recommend contacting Blackboard support immediately to see if they can recover it from a system backup.
What to do if the LMS link cannot be restored
If your LMS team cannot recover the original link, you can use these options to access or move your data:
Even if the LMS link is completely broken, administrators can still download student papers and Turnitin similarity reports using the submission search tool.
To use this tool, you will need the original assignment ID. If you do not have it, you can find it by searching for student info from that assignment—like a student's email or a submission ID.
Once you find the assignment ID, your school can download the files or reports for grading and records.
Please note: Turnitin support cannot restore a deleted assignment link inside your LMS directly. However, depending on your setup, support may be able to move the papers to a brand-new assignment you create in the LMS.
Remember: This service is not available for newer assignment types, including New Standard Assignments, Turnitin Clarity, and Paper to Digital (P2D) assignments using LTI 1.3.
Select your integration type below to see the rules and steps for requesting a paper transfer:
If you use a standard, non-LTI integration, Turnitin support can try to move the submitted papers to a new assignment. To help us find your data, please complete these steps before contacting us:
- Create a new assignment: In the same course, create a new assignment with the exact same settings as the deleted one. (Note: We do not recommend creating it in a different course, but if you must, make sure the exact same students are enrolled in both courses or the transfer will fail.)
- Submit a dummy paper: Upload a placeholder/dummy file to this new assignment.
- Share the paper ID: Find and send Turnitin support the paper ID number of that dummy submission.
Important details for non-LTI users:
- Rubrics: If you used a rubric to grade the old assignment, the rubric owner must attach the exact same rubric to the new assignment. If you do not, your rubric grades will be lost. Do not export and re-import the rubric via email, as this changes its ID and causes grade loss.
- Due dates and late flags: The new assignment might have different dates than the old one. Because of this, papers that were originally marked late might not show up as late in the new inbox.
- PeerMark: PeerMark papers cannot be moved out of their original assignment. They stay attached to the original assignment, which you can still see by logging directly into Turnitin.com or Turnitinuk.com.
Turnitin support cannot restore an assignment inside your LMS once the link is deleted. However, we can often help retrieve submissions by moving them to a new assignment you create in the same course.
Gradebook impact: If you use an LTI integration, previously applied grades will not move to your LMS gradebook. It is not technically possible to sync grades back to the LMS during an LTI paper transfer. You will need to manually type the grades into your LMS gradebook after we move the papers.
If you want to proceed with the transfer knowing grades will not sync, please follow these steps:
- Create a new assignment: Create a new assignment in the same course with the exact same settings and rubric as the original. Please add the term "Restored" to the new assignment name so support can identify it.
- Submit a dummy paper: Upload a placeholder/dummy file to this new assignment.
- Share the paper ID: Send us the paper ID number of that dummy submission so we can locate the new inbox.
- Tell other instructors: Let any other instructors in the course know that papers are being moved and that grades must be re-entered manually.
Important details for LTI users:
- Rubrics: If you used a rubric to grade the old assignment, the rubric owner must attach the exact same rubric to the new assignment. Otherwise, the rubric grading information will be lost permanently.
- Your old inbox still exists: Deleting the link in your LMS does not delete the assignment on the Turnitin backend. You can still log in and view your old assignment and its content before we move anything, so your existing grades are safe while you check.
- Due dates and late flags: The new assignment might have different dates than the original. Submissions that were marked late before may not show up as late in the new assignment.