Secure E-learning Courses, Here’s a Quick Guide to Backup/Restore Moodle Courses

When the learning material for each semester is the same, the lecturer does not need to upload material in the course/topic each semester but can use pre-existing material with backup and restore activities in E-learning.

The Course Backup includes all information about a particular course, including lecture materials, assignments, announcements, discussions, and others. Backups course can also take a snapshot of the course status at the backup time, including course settings, registered users, and grades. This article will discuss how to create a course backup in Moodle and restore the course.

Course Backup

The first step to backing up a course in Moodle is to log into the course you wish to back up. After logging into the course, in the ‘Course administrations’ option, click on the backup option to open the Course Backup page.

After opening the Course Backup page, you will see several backup options available. These options allow you to customize the course backup according to your needs. Some of the available backup options include:

  1. Whole Course Backup: This backup covers the entire course, including all files, forums, assignments, and course settings.
  2. Backup with Multiple Options: This backup allows you to select specific types of course content that you want to backup, such as lectures, assignments, or announcements.
  3. Activity Only Backup: This backup includes only activities selected by the user, such as assignments or announcements.

After determining the appropriate backup option, remove the check mark (V) on the include enrolled users menu by clicking the check mark (V) on Enroll Users. Then, klick next.

After the backup course display appears, select next because there are no settings in this section.

The next step is Rename the file name and select Perform backup.

Wait for the 100% backup process. After 100%, choose Continue

Select the recent file, usually at the topmost position.

Download the file that will be restored.

The file will automatically download. Then, save as.

Creating regular course backups is important to keep your course data safe and secure from unexpected data corruption or loss. Course backups can help restore course data in the event of data loss, server crashes, or security threats. Make sure to back up your courses regularly and store them in a safe place to protect your data.

Restore Course

After the backup file has been downloaded, the next step is to restore the file. There are a few things that must be met in order to proceed with this guide:

  1. Lecturers must have an elective course (will be overwritten with the previous backup file) 
  2. Do the backup file upload process if it is not yet available on Undiksha e-learning

The first step, please open the elective course that will be restored, for example we use the course below.

The elective course display picture

Please click Course Administration -> Restore.

On the restore backup page, you will be presented with 3 types of backups that will be restored. If no backup file is stored on e-learning, please import it first on Import a backup file. But if the user private backup area menu has available courses that will be restored, please click the restore menu on the selected file

Then, will appear “restore back up file”  display

Choose Continue without making settings
Image of Restore Course Backup area

On the Restore into this course line, select the “Delete the contents of this course and restore them” menu, then select continue.

Image of Restore into course

On this display, select Next without other settings

Image of Next

On the “Keep current roles and enrolments” menu, select Yes, and Next.

Image of Keep current roles and enrolments

If the activities to be backed up have been determined, please click “Next” to continue.

Next, a review page of the previous restore results will be presented. Please check again according to your individual needs.

Select the “Perform Restore” without making any other settings.

Image of Perform Restore

Wait for the restore process to be 100%. The file restore process is successful with a display like the image below. Then choose “continue”.

Image of Restore File


The process of restoring the backup results of the course to the specified course has been successful.