Replaced / Overwritten files break links on pages
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I have several files stored at the user level that I can then post onto pages in various courses. In some cases, I need to update or change a file's contents and update the version stored on Canvas. When I upload the new version - with the same filename - Canvas asks if I want to replace the old version.
According to past posts about replacing files, this should simply overwrite the older version so that any links I've made to that file on various course pages will now access the newer version. However, that doesn't happen. Instead, the "replaced" file now has a different file ID, which means the links I've already created are broken.
Since there are several posts in years past that indicate that this isn't supposed to happen (that the file is just supposed to be overwritten, without breaking links to it), then what has changed, and how can I make updates to a file while preserving any links I've already made to it?
P.S. I've also checked to see if it was because I was storing the files at the "user" level; it also happens with any files I upload into individual courses.
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I was working with a staff member today who was encountering this issue. We are finding that, as you described, the file ID is updated when the file is replaced. I am seeing that the file IDs dynamically update in links on Canvas pages within the course where the teacher had linked/embedded those files. This does seem to be occurring haphazardly though, she indicated that she discovered the issue because some page links to files were broken after she'd replaced the file with a newer version. Unfortunately, this course is a staff resource set to institutional visibility and direct links to the files in the Canvas course are posted elsewhere (outside of Canvas) for staff to access. Those outside postings do not dynamically update creating a lot of maintenance issues anytime these documents are updated.
Did you ever find out more information about this issue? Did you ever open a support ticket?
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Hi @sneader,
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you. We hope you are doing well and that you’ve found an answer to your question!
As @audra_agnelly indicated earlier, I would recommend contacting Canvas support in an instance like this so they can look at your course directly and see what is going on. I don't think this is intended behavior, so you may have indeed found a bug that needs to be investigated and send to engineering for a fix.
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