How can I recover text entry information that was lost because my login timed out?

[aaronaposhian]

I was writing a text entry for a school assignment. I left for a while, came back, and completed my text entry. However, after I clicked submit, I was told that my login had timed out and so my entry could not be submitted. Then my entire entry was gone, to no fault of myself, and without warning. Is there anything I can do to recover the information that was lost? This is a problem that needs to be fixed. I am beyond frustrated. 

[stuart_ryan · Accepted solution]

Hi  @aaronaposhian ,

I apologise, but unfortunately there would not be any way to recover your work, as it is not sent to the Canvas servers until the submit button is pressed. An idea for a https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3419-session-log-out-warning has received support and is on the Canvas Product Radar, so this is something that there is definitely community support for, along with you. You can add your vote on the idea also which is always helpful. 

The only thing I could suggest is for any text-based assignments in future, that you use an external text editor, or even Microsoft Word/Apple Pages and then paste your completed assignment in. This will ensure you always have a backup copy in case anything goes wrong.

Again, I am sorry to hear about your experiences, and I hope this helps in the future.

Stuart

[stuart_ryan · Accepted solution]

Hi  @aaronaposhian ,

I apologise, but unfortunately there would not be any way to recover your work, as it is not sent to the Canvas servers until the submit button is pressed. An idea for a https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3419-session-log-out-warning has received support and is on the Canvas Product Radar, so this is something that there is definitely community support for, along with you. You can add your vote on the idea also which is always helpful. 

The only thing I could suggest is for any text-based assignments in future, that you use an external text editor, or even Microsoft Word/Apple Pages and then paste your completed assignment in. This will ensure you always have a backup copy in case anything goes wrong.

Again, I am sorry to hear about your experiences, and I hope this helps in the future.

Stuart

[Sfeindel]

Use a text editor? Come on, get with the times! Make the application a asynchronous web application.  You should not have to hit 'Submit' to push the change to the server, it should be automatically saved as a draft and once you are done, then you click the submit button.  

[JosephParrish]

This is not a good response. I just lost two hours of work. When I hit the submit button it says that I am timed out and not logged in consequently. All of my comments are gone. I am going to have to sit here for another two hours and do it all over again. 

[ArpanDAHAL]

what if I clicked the submit button and it says page exam not available? Is there a way to recover that ? I did click the submit button and it didn’t submitted with error exam not available. 

[CharlieHedman]

It is 2023 now, this post was made in 2017. Despite you claiming that this issue is on the Canvas Product Radar, users are still facing this issue, including myself. I recognize that it is difficult to fix an issue such as this, however I had clicked "Start Assignment" after my session time was over, without realizing the session was over. If I had been prompted to log in at that time, I would have saved myself an hour and 750 words on an assignment, as well as a lot of frustration after clicking submit, only to realize all that work had been lost. I would be prompted to believe you when you say this issue was being worked on if something had changed or been fixed within the past six years since this original post was made, however seeing as this is still an unresolved issue, that is something I have a hard time believing and trusting. 

Also, prompting users to use an outside text editor is not something I believe any other company would do in good standing. That causes people to spend less time on your site, use less clicks, and make you less revenue. I am sorry if this comes across as disrespectful, but what kind of marketing strategy is that? Teachers might as well ask students to submit assignments through their emails at that point. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Good morning, @CharlieHedman ...

This isn't necessarily an answer to your question/comments, but I understand the frustration that you have described.  I'm not sure if you are aware, but when you are typing text into the Rich Content Editor (RCE) as part of an assignment that you are submitting to your instructor, Canvas should auto-save that text if you navigate away from the page.  I just tried this in my own sandbox course, and it worked as expected.  However, this isn't a guarantee that it will auto-save in all situations as described under the heading "View Auto-Saved Content" in the following Guide:

How do I add and modify text in the Rich Content E... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I agree that first writing your response in an external software like Microsoft Word might not be the most ideal, but it is a workable option at this time.  I might also suggest just the reverse of this... if you were writing your response directly in Canvas first, before you press the button to submit the assignment, copy and paste your text back into a Microsoft Word document and save it to your computer...so that you have a back-up should something like this happen again.

I don't know your instructor, and I don't know the context of your course.  So, I don't know the reasonings why your instructor requires that you use the RCE to submit your assignment.  Depending on what the assignment is, I might make a suggestion to the instructor to use a file submission instead.  This way, you can write your text in a Microsoft Word document and then submit the entire file online.  There wouldn't be a need to paste in the text to the RCE in this scenario.  Your instructor would have additional tools available to him/her to grade your assignment that normally aren't available with a standard text submission assignment.

Anyway...I wanted to give you this information...for what it's worth.  I hope it will help in some way.

[merepottinger · Accepted solution]

This happened to me just a few minutes ago. I thought I was done for and wanted to cry, but if your left click on the back arrow in your browser window up in the top left corner, you can select the version right before the one that asked you to Log in and your page with the page with your text input should show up. It might not work and maybe the prayer I said to Lord God was what saved me, but give it a try. If you end up getting access to your work, just select and copy it just in case you lose it again somehow. I hope I'm saving someone's life here. 

[DylanRothman]

Oh my god, you just saved my life!!! I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH OMG!!!! This works completly

[gangnam_style]

Of course, this didn't work for me, and now I have to start completely over 😄

[KatrionaBriggs]

THANK YOU its 2 am and I was about to loose it I'm so glad I stumbled upon your comment. May both sides of your pillow be cold 🙂

[AlexTBD]

lol that's pretty good

[AlfredoNavarro]

You, sir, are a lifesaver. You have no idea how grateful I am to you.

[nicole99]

Thank you so much for this, this trick just worked for me and I would have ended up crying if it didn't restore the work. Canvas should really save drafts if we are gonna be forced to make text entry posts 😕 

[Chris_Hofer]

Good morning, @nicole99 ...

I know it's been two years since you posted your reply here, but I do have some good news for you.  If you use the RCE (Rich Content Editor) to type in your responses to assignments, that text is auto-saved in case you were to navigate away from the page.  Check out:

How do I add and modify text in the Rich Content Editor as a student?

Specifically, scroll about three-quarters of the way down the page to the section on "View Auto-Saved Content", and you'll find more information and screenshots on how this works within Canvas.

Hope this helps a bit!

[AlexTBD]

Bro idk how old this is or if you know how smart this is. So I was originally logged onto canvas, and I guess after a while it auto logged out, but I was still working. On a text box essay, and like an idiot I didn't save any of it, so when I pushed submit it asked me to log in and after I logged in there was no way I could get back anything. You my guy are an absolute lifesaver I literally spent 2 hours on this and couldn't remember a lick of it, and it was good too. Thank you so much for this, I was massively unsure it would work but my jaw was on the ground when I saw my old work back.

[kmzea]

I am so bummed. I tried this and it did not do it for me. I was so hoping for it to work. It send me to some random open ccc page. Then I tried to msg you here and it booted me out again, but when I came back it said that I have saved loaded text....why the heck do they do it here on our complaints, but not on our text entries...Canvas really sucks!!!!!!! I am so pissed.

[Alyson_M]

OMG HI, Thank you so freaking much!!! I was working on an essay in a text box, and my dumb brain forgot to copy my work before submitting it, and I got logged out. I went back in, and it was all gone. Literally started crying and panicking cause I spent so long on it. Was desperately searching for a solution, and then I found this, and you saved my life. Thank you so much, you are my savior!!!

[jasoncstewart]

I made an account just to say thank you. I was about to lose my mind.

[JamieFox12]

WARNING! yes this does work but only if that was your last draft!!

I had to learn the hard way. I tried this trick and it brought me back to what I had just started to rewrite. But, because my full assignment was not the last thing entered in the text box I had to rewrite either way. So, save yourself and DON'T WRITE ANYTHING ELSE UNTIL YOU TRY TO RECOVER.

[Nizimon1_4]

bro i wish i saw this earlier, this could've saved me all my tears 😭

[EmilyKacinskas]

LITERALLY THANK YOU SO MUCH. I also thought I was done and all my work was deleted, but I did what you said and it got saved. I also made sure to pray to the Lord and THAT IS WHAT SAVED ME TYSMMM

[MeloniSamone]

omg thank you so much!!!!! I was over here having a mental breakdown...

[RafaelWacht]

I accidentally closed out of the tab after signing in! I know I am years late, but what do I do!!!

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello @RafaelWacht ...

Are you a student?  If you were using the RCE (Rich Content Editor) to type text for an assignment in your course, there's a chance that you'd be able to recover the text ... since Canvas can auto-save if you navigate away from the page.  Check out:

How do I add and modify text in the Rich Content Editor as a student?

Then, scroll about three-quarters of the way down the page to the section on "View Auto-Saved Content" to read more about how this works within Canvas.

Hope this will help you out!

[Pjstowe]

It was me. I was crying, and I found your post. You saved my life.

[Jonahh]

Thank you thank you thank you! PS USE THE EXACT TAB your work was on, otherwise it won't show up.

[BrendanMcKay]

you literally saved me. I was about to be so angry at canvas. 

[DylanSantana]

you are a godsend, i was able to save my 6 page essay that way, thank you

[JadaFirenze-Tes]

THANK YOU!!!!!!! I was about to have a meltdown. You genuinely saved my life.

[trannguyen26]

It did work for me, even I messed up with closing the tab, reload it several times. You really saved my life!!!

[GabrielleOcasio]

THANK YOU my goodness this worked. I just wrote out four paragraphs worth of work and it was all gone. Thank you for this

[ArloMcMillin-Ha]

I hope you know you saved my life. Multiple pages were lost but somehow recovered, thank you.

[StellaHammond]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU MY FINAL PAPER YOU SAVED IT AND MY LIFE

[mary_powell]

Why is this marked as solved?  This is not solved.  The left arrow trick doesn’t work if it reload when you log back in through your external school system, and this is bull.  Canvas is a piece of crap and I am so tired of it.  I just lost a long comment on a student essay that took me 40 minutes to write.  And the solution being to write comments elsewhere is ridiculous because I have hundreds of students and an extra couple of minutes for each submission adds up to a huge amount of time.  Canvas fails in essential features over and over.  Their update cycle is laughable.  Ridiculous.

[StacySaunders]

This is so frustrating. I have multiple times spent hours on these ignorant discussion board just to lose all my work with no way to recover it. WE HAVE DEADLINES!!!! This is unacceptable for the amount of money we are spending on this technology. It is supposed to me making our lives easier not more difficult. 

I have tried the suggestion of doing it in word and then copying and pasting when I am finished. That worked a couple times and then it wouldn't convert one day. I am beyond livid at this point!!!! FIX THIS ISSUE!!!!!

[Chris_Hofer]

@StacySaunders ...

I am sorry to read that you are having difficulties with this.  Copying and pasting your content from Microsoft Word is a good idea...especially if you have a lot of content to post to a topic in your course.  Might I suggest, though, that instead of Microsoft Word you use something more simple like the "Notepad" application on your computer.  How to open Notepad in Windows (11 ways) - Digital Citizen  (I'm assuming you are on a Windows computer, but I am sure there is something similar on a Mac.)  Copying and pasting from Microsoft Word into the Canvas RCE (Rich Content Editor) can sometimes bring in some unwanted formatting and a lot of junk code that makes things appear not like you had hoped.  If you use Notepad (or something similar), there isn't a lot of extra formatting you can do (such as bolding, italics, underlining, etc.) ... but it should allow you to copy/paste from that application into Canvas.  Then, once you've pasted it into the RCE, you can apply any formatting you need, and then submit it.

I would suggest that you also ensure that your internet connection is strong.  Have you had any recent issues connecting to your internet at home on other websites?  Maybe your ISP (Internet Service Provider) had an outage which affected your ability to post your comments?

These are just some ideas that I thought of...for what it's worth.  Hopefully they will be of some help.  If not, there's always the option of contacting the Canvas help desk:

How do I get help with Canvas as a student?

Good luck!!!

[gangnam_style]

This just happened to me, and I'm sick to my stomach. I never use text entry because of my fear of this. Because text entry has the "auto-save tool", I assumed it would submit everything I wrote. My heart goes out to you because I feel like throwing up right now. 

[MarkSimos]

Hi - I'm writing this in May 2024 well after this thread. But I've had a similar problem come up when writing replies in a Canvas discussion. I'm an instructor, so I am moving through student assignments listening and then commenting right in the plain editor. Actually I DO save what I write in a WORD doc AFTER I write it but the workflow would be horrific if I had to type everything in an external doc first.

Anyway my problem is that sometimes you will swipe left or right after typing several paragraphs and APPEAR to lose what you've done (it's before you hit submit of course). I googled for a solution and got to this thread, read the replies and basically gave up - found a window and starting typing my reply again. To my surprise and glee, Canvas came back with "There is AUTOSAVED text available for this REPLY - do you want to use that or start afresh?" I said YES and there was my text saved! So it sounds like the Canvas engineers may have actually responded to this problem! - Mark S (Berklee prof)