Last updated on June 4, 2026
When copying course content, an automatic warning that states “Importing the same course content more than once will overwrite any existing content in the course” will populate for any content type.
This warning does not mean that any content in your course will disappear. However, if you import the same course content into the same Canvas Course Shell more than once, Can may overwrite the version already in the shell with the version in the imported course.
For example, if you copied copied a quiz from your spring semester shell to the fall semester shell, then decided to add a question to the imported version in the fall shell, the edited quiz with the added question will be overridden back to the original version if you copy the same quiz from your spring shell to your fall shell.
Simply put, if you’re not copying the same course into the same shell twice, there is nothing to worry about. You should only be concerned if you copied content into a new shell, edited that content in the new shell, then re-copied the same content again from the old shell.
For a step-by-step walkthrough of how to properly copy content from one semester to the next, please see our tutorial, Copy a Canvas Course.
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