Warn before leaving unsaved page

There is a lot of traction on this request to Auto Save in Rich Content Editor but an intermediate step between here and there might be a warning when you are leaving a page with any unsaved changes. Here is the issue as described by Christine :

...it would also be helpful if Canvas warned you before navigating away from unsaved content. Chrome, Safari and Firefox display a confirmation dialog when you try to leave a screen with unsaved content, but only when editing Pages. It's too easy to navigate away from unsaved content when editing the Syllabus Description, Assignments, Quizzes, etc...

33 Comments
kona
Community Champion

Yes, yes, yes! This would be wonderful to have!

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

This feature idea is now open for voting.

Beth_Young
Community Contributor

I hope this warning would also display if student view interferes with saving or sending something. I lost a complex conversations message once when, in the midst of composing it, I checked student view in another tab, not realizing I'd be shifted to student view in all open tabs. Then, when I returned to the tab with my message and clicked "send," **poof**! It vaporized. A very frustrating experience that led to a different feature idea:

I like this idea even better than my other one, especially if this one would work in that situation, too.

gstassine
Community Novice

Auto-save or warning of the potential for data loss in not a feature, it should be part of the programs structure. When was the last time you heard or read that someone said "I am glad that I lost that paragraph" or "I am glad that there is no auto-save feature"?

How do I vote I did not see a vote button. Does a post equal a vote?

gstassine
Community Novice

found the vote button Smiley Happy

snugent
Community Champion

This is absolutely necessary in discussions.

pryba_1
Community Member

It would be nice if this could be tied in to when you save a quiz question but forget to update the question... which is kind of odd since it's like a double saving that's required to make it work. (I think this might be a separate feature request now that I think about it!)

srauber
Community Novice

There is a warning on the speedgrader, and I find it frustrating that it brings up not just a warning, but also the page which might have confidential student feedback or grades.  Since I use my computer to project an agenda and other information for students constantly, it becomes an issue.

ngee
Community Novice

Why isn't there auto save everywhere.  It's quite inconsistent on Canvas.  Sometimes, you must save, but when doing other functions, there is an auto save.  As a result, I have to memorize when there's a save button and when there isn't and I usually forget at just the most critical moment...

chantal_obrien
Community Novice

I have encountered this problem when drafting grade comments (as an instructor) or responding to grade comments as a student.  I have navigated away from the draft comment to look again at the assignment only to realize a second too late that I just lost my drafted comment.  I'm not sure that the RCE auto-save feature currently being explored will fix that particular problem, because I expect there may be some additional steps that would need to be made to allow draft grade comments to be saved without posting for the student/instructor, but at least a ​​warning would help prevent me from losing my work.