[ARCHIVED] What happens to videos 'Shared with Me' that get deleted?

[monka]

I'm trying to determine the best way to share videos within our institution. If someone shares a video with me, and then I use that video in my course, what happens to the video if the creator decides to delete it?

Is it a better practice to copy videos to 'My Library'?

Side question: Can I search videos shared with me by user? For example, if I have a large amount of videos shared with me, but I want to see only videos shared with me by a specific person, is that possible?

[monka]

Bumping this back up. Anyone in the know?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @monka ...

I was curious about this myself, so I decided to do some testing in my own sandbox course.  First, I masqueraded as a dummy account, Frodo Baggins.  Then, in his Studio library, I added a video from YouTube.  Then, I shared that video with me.  When I went back to my own account, I confirmed that I could see the video that Frodo shared with me.

Then, I went to my own sandbox course, created a new page, and embedded this video into the page.  It played fine...as expected.  Then, I masqueraded as Frodo again.  I then went to his Studio library, and I deleted the video from his Studio library.  When I logged back in to my own account, I navigated to the new page I had created with the embedded Studio video, and I was still able to play the video normally.  I also checked my own Studio library screen, and the video was not displayed in the "Shared with Me" area...even though I was still able to play the video within the course.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure if the video will still always work...or if there may be some cache/history stored in the web browser that is still allowing me to view the video.  But, I hope this will be of some help to answer your question.  Take care...be well.

[bec_plumbe]

@Chris_Hofer, that's great testing - thanks for sharing!

One closely related question I have is whether, if a person's account is deleted (inactivated?), what happens to media they may have shared. Does it remain accessible, or do assets associated with that account get deleted too? As someone with limited access, I'm not sure whether Canvas accounts can be deleted, so perhaps this is a red herring...

If accounts can be deleted, a good test would be:

 - as Frodo, make and share another video

- as a different user, use the shared video on a page

- as admin, delete / close / inactivate Frodo's account (whichever is the most strong removal technique available)

- as the different user, see if Frodo's shared video is still available and playable on your page.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @bec_plumbe ...

ok...so you got me curious.  😊  Here's what I did as a Canvas administrator...

1. I created a new "dummy" account in our Canvas environment for Luke Skywalker.
2. I enrolled Luke as a "Student" in my sandbox course.
3. I masqueraded as Luke, and I added a video to his Studio library.
4. I shared that video with me...giving me viewing rights to the video.
5. I stopped masquerading as Luke, and then went to my own Studio library to confirm that the shared video was listed:
   
6. I created a new page in my sandbox course, and I embedded this video on that page.  I played the video to make sure it was working.
7. As an administrator, I completely deleted his profile from Canvas.
8. I went back to my Studio library, and this video was still listed in the "Shared with Me" folder.  This took me a bit by surprise, as I was expecting that this video would have been gone from the "Shared with Me" folder.  But, I wonder if it is still there because I did not first delete it from Luke's Studio library before I completely deleted his account from Canvas?
9. I went to my own sandbox course, visited the page where I embedded the video, and I was still able to play the video just fine.

Again...I have no idea if any of this is because of stored cache/history in my browser as I was switching between my admin account and masquerading.  Not really sure.  Hope this additional testing is helpful to people.

[bec_plumbe]

👏👏👏 impressed!

That's a great outcome - I really wouldn't have expected that videos remained available after an account was deleted.