TidyUP - Managing Files with TidyUP

1. Open your Canvas course and select TidyUP from the left navigation bar. When you first go into TidyUP, you'll see a Welcome screen and a prompt to scan the course. 

Before you scan the course, you should choose one of the two scan options:

• • The All option will look at all files and folders inside the Files area of Canvas. 
  • The Custom option allows you to specify the type(s) of files you are looking to manage/clean up. 
    

2. Select one of the two scan options, then select the Scan Course button.

In some cases, you may need to create a folder or folders in your Canvas Files that contain files you would like TidyUp to ignore in its scans. For instance, TidyUP does not scan Canvas question banks, so if there are images or files in your course that are used only in question banks, TidyUP will identify them as not being used even though they are in question banks. 

There is no limit to the number of folders you can mark as ignored.

To create an ignored folder and move files into it:

1. Create a folder in the Files area of Canvas. (Canvas - Creating and Deleting Folders on the Files Tab [UW-Madison])
   1. How you organize the files in there is up to you. You can also exempt as many folders as needed. If you need help with this process, contact the DoIT Help Desk.
2. After that folder is ready, go back into TidyUP and select the Scan Course button.
3. Select the Folders tab at the top.
   
4. Locate the folder that you'd like to have TidyUP ignore. Then on the right side, under actions, select the Edit Folder icon.  
   
5. From the Edit Folder window, check the box for Ignore folder contents in TidyUP scans, then select Save. Now, TidyUP will ignore anything inside that folder, including any folders inside that folder. 
   
6. If you would like to add more files to an ignored folder after you create it, within TidyUP, go to the Files tab. 
   
7. From the list of files, locate the file you want to move into your ignored folder.
8. Select the checkbox to the left of the file’s name.
   
9. If you need to move multiple files, you can repeat the previous step for all the files on this page. 
10. Select the Move Selected button. 
    
11. From the Files to be moved window, select the location from the Move To drop-down list. Then select the Move button. A green banner will appear saying that there were x number of items moved. However, the files will still appear in the list. 
    
12. To verify that the files were moved, rescan the course by selecting the Rescan button.
    
13. After scanning is complete, the file(s) should now be flagged with an (Ignored) label in the Used In column of the list. 
    
14. When you use the filter to Show Unused Files, you will not see these files listed.

It is best practice to download files before removing them from the course. This is because TidyUP permanently deletes files, with no way to bring them back. If you do not download files to create a recoverable backup, you won't be able to restore files deleted by accident. Please follow these steps to backup your files before deleting them. 

1. With the Files section open, use the Show … entries drop-down list to make sure 100 is selected. This is because the download process can only download 100 files at a time, so it makes sense to use 100 as the setting.
   
   
2. From the Show drop-down list, select Unused Files. 
   
   
   
3. With the Show filters set, select the checkbox at the top of the file list to select all files on the page. 
   
   
   
4. Select the Download Selected button. The tool displays a list of the files to be downloaded. 
   
   
   
5. Select the Download button to download the files.
   
   
   
6. The tool will prepare a zip file containing the files. This process may take a few minutes. It will then automatically download the zip file to your computer. 
7. Store the zip file in an appropriate location where you can retrieve it later.
8. If necessary, advance to the next page of unused files and repeat this process.

After downloading and backing up unused files, you can now delete them from your Canvas course. Downloading and backing up files is a very important step, as there is no "undo" method for deleting files in TidyUP. 

1. With the Files section open, use the Show … entries drop-down list to make sure 100 is selected. 
   
   
   
2. From the Show drop-down list, select Unused Files. 
   
   
   
3. With the Show filters set, select the checkbox at the top of the file list to select all files on the page. 
   
   
   
4. Select the Delete Selected button. TidyUP lists the files its prepared to delete. 
   
   
   
5. Select the Delete button to delete the files permanently from your Canvas course.
   
   
   
6. If necessary, advance to the next page of unused files, and repeat this process.