How do I retrieve work that I typed out on text box on an assignment that was locked during the time

Question

I was working on an assignment close to its deadline on the text box of an assignement. I completed it, but pressed submit right as the deadline hit at 3:00PM. That caused my screen to navigate to an "access denied" and the assignment was locked. Please tell me there is a way to retrieve this work so that I can send it to my professor and explain what had happened.

Also, if my professor re-opened up the assignment for me, would my draft still be there?

RachelSalmon · Answer

Unfortunately, Canvas's rich content editor (text box entry) will only retain autosaved content for an hour although I'm not sure if even if the professor re-opened the assignment within an hour, if the content would have been there. For submissions that are longer, it is probably better to type everything out in a Word/Google doc and then copy and paste your response into the textbox. Your work is much safer in a separate document as Canvas's text box editor wasn't designed for writing, editing, and returning to work later; so doesn't have the same saving abilities. You should definitely still reach out to your professor but unfortunately, your work won't be able to be recovered.

adam_c_voyton · Answer

Unfortunately, Canvas doesn’t save the text from the assignment’s text box once it’s locked or access is denied. If your professor reopens the assignment for you, the draft will likely not be available unless it was previously saved elsewhere (e.g., as a draft or auto-saved in another format).

I recommend reaching out to your professor to explain the situation, and they may be able to reopen the assignment for you to re-enter your work. In the future, it’s a good idea to type out responses in a separate document, such as Word or Google Docs, to prevent data loss. Typing in a browser directly is risky as the session could time out, you could hit backspace in the keyboard, or any number of things.