Submission type changed when copying canvas course

[montgjoa]

I just noticed a weird bug in my Canvas site. I copied my assignments from a previous semester, and it seems as though all of the assignments that were text entry or file upload got changed to text entry only. I only noticed it after the first assignment was due, because instead of submitting files like they usually do, all of my students submitted text with links to their files, making it much harder to grade. 

All of the assignments that were file upload only appear to have stayed that way, so it seems like the bug is that Canvas only allowed only submission type to get copied over from one class to the next. I've always copied my assignments from semester to semester and have never had this issue before. 

[paul_fynn]

Hi @montgjoa, that's interesting

How are you copying the assignments over ? I've just copied using the 'Copy To' function from the source course to the target source without any issues.

This appears to have maintained fidelity with the original - however from previous experience this doesn't work the same as a course import, and 'Copy To' may not take any linked content across and transpose the file destinations, so may not be a suitable solution.

We no longer have access to import assignments in our SIS based assignments, but perhaps someone else on the forum can check whether they have the same import experience as yours.

Good luck !

[montgjoa]

I use Settings > Import Course Content > Copy a Canvas Course, and I select specific content. 

[KatieBiehl]

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to affect courses consistently. Majority of the time, importing and copying the course works with no issue; this time it didn't. Looks like a glitch, but curious if it is tied to a change in Canvas or just on a case-by-case basis glitch. 

[KatieBiehl]

One of our faculty members also had this issue. They had to manually go through each individual assignment and change the submission type back to "file upload" as it set all their assignments' submission type to "text" or "none." As this appears to be a recent issue (OG post was 1/15/25), could this be a new glitch? 

[anjackson]

We also have noticed the same issue and it seems to be hit and miss with which assignments and courses are affected. 

[gardeij]

I have a faculty member who reported the same thing. Several assignments in various classes were set to accept file uploads, but only collect text box entries after being copied into a new shell. 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

If any of you are still experiencing this issue, i'd definitely suggest contacting Canvas support to report the problem if that is an option for your school/institution.  The community here is great for peer-to-peer help and confirmation of issues, but posting here won't really get Instructure to look into the problem.  Canvas support can triage the problem and create tickets for engineers to look into once they verify incorrect behavior.

Hope this info helps.

-Chris

[AnnLoomis]

I just wanted to share an update in case anyone comes across this thread in the future.

I also had an instructor who experienced the issue reported by @montgjoa. The instructor copied over an existing course on 1/19. Assignments that were set for either text entry or file upload in the original course were copied over as text entry only.

I have been going back and forth with Canvas Support about this. Today, Canvas Support finally shared that they had opened an engineering ticket about this issue on January 23rd and corrected the issue on January 27th. It appears the glitch was occurring for at least a week and a half in mid to late January 2025. 

Users affected by the glitch will have to manually fix the affected assignments. However, Canvas Support reports the underlying issue has been resolved and should not recur.