Canvas Course Retention

Canvas courses will remain in Canvas for four years from the date of creation.

By default, courses will become read-only for students shortly after a semester concludes. They will become read-only for all other course users after the conclusion of the following semester. For a list of the default end dates for current and recent semesters, see the chart on the controlling access to your courses.

Instructors can temporarily extend course availability by changing the course end date. Course end dates must be set before a course becomes read-only for an instructor. Regardless of course end dates, after four years Canvas courses will be permanently deleted. We recommend routinely backing up course data to avoid potential data loss.

Official retention schedules for many different types of Emory University records can be found at the Records Management website.