Instructors often want to re-use the course materials they have used in previous semesters. The way to do this is to “back up” an existing course on the old Moodle server and “restore” it onto the current one.
This page has two sections:
Backup and Download a Moodle Course
- Access the course that you want to backup in the Moodle Archive and open the course you want to backup.
- Please note that you will have limited options to edit the page or change data in an archived Moodle site, but the backup feature will be available.
- To backup content in Moodle 3.11 (2025-2026-summer and earlier), click the gear icon next to the right of the course title and select “backup”.
- To backup content in Moodle 5.1, go to the course home menu > more and select “course reuse” (last item). Then select “Backup”
- Choose “Backup” (it is the only option on an archived Moodle site)
- Set the “Initial settings” as desired – these are the data/content types to be backed up. Usually, the default values are enough (you cannot choose to back up any data types entered by users/students). Click either “Next” to got to the schema page or “Jump to last step” to skip it.
- The “Schema settings” allow you to include/exclude specific resources/activities as desired. Click “Next”.
- On the “Confirmation and review” page you can set the filename and check your previous selections. Click “Perform backup”. Click “Continue”.
- Your backup archive (.mbz) file will be ready to download or restore from in the “User private backup area”. You can access this screen at any time by clicking the course gear icon and selecting “Restore”.
- Please check that your backup archive file is less than 2 GB in size (To confirm this on a Windows computer, right click the downloaded file and choose “Properties”).
- If the file is too large, see the FAQ How can I restore from a course backup larger than 2 GB?
Restore a Moodle Course
- Go to the NEW Moodle site where you want to install the old course content.
- Go to the course home menu > more and select “course reuse” (last item). Then select “Restore”
- Choose “Restore”
- Upload the backup archive file (.zip) you have downloaded and saved on your computer. The file should not be larger than 100 MB. (See: How can I reduce the size of my course and backup (.mbz) file?)
- If your backup archive file is very large, you may see this screen for a long time while the file is uploaded:
- If your backup file is too large, you will see the following screen. In this case, see: How can I reduce the size of my course and backup (.mbz) file?
- When the name of your backup file appears in the box, click “Restore” to start the restore process.
- Choose whether to “merge” the resources and activities in the backup file with any stuff already in the current course, or “delete” the current course content completely and just keep the stuff in the backup file. Usually, it is best to choose “Delete the contents of the current course and restore”.
- On the settings page, deselect any elements you do not want to restore. Elements that were not backed up are indicated by a red x. We recommend not including “Legacy course files” unless you are restoring from Moodle 1.9.
- Now, the Schema Page… Again, you can deselect any elements you do not want to restore.
When you are happy, click the “Perform restore” button.
When restoring from Moodle 3.11 to 5.1, you may see warnings about your quiz questions being moved to one of the new Moodle 5 question banks. Don’t worry, you won’t lose your questions, but Moodle will change where they are stored automatically during the upgrade. For more information, see the moodle documentation on question banks in upgraded sites. Once you have read any warnings, click “continue”.
… and done
- Now you can begin to edit your settings and content. See ADD MOODLE CONTENT