Overview

Within Canvas, when you "publish" a piece of media, it ends up in that course's Media Gallery. Conversely, you can remove media from the Media Gallery (or "unpublish" it) in several different ways.

Although there's nothing currently preventing students from publishing to a Canvas Media Gallery, these instructions are likely more applicable to instructors. They're also only applicable in Canvas - not MediaSpace, which has "channels." (That said, the process of unpublishing from a channel in MediaSpace is quite similar.)

Critical Concepts

Things to Keep in Mind

• There are several ways to unpublish media. In the same way that you can publish media to a Media Gallery in several ways, this article presents four ways you can unpublish media from a Media Gallery in Canvas. Depending on what you need to do, one of them might be better to do. One way to think about it is that three of the methods are "push" methods - beginning in "My Media" and "pushing" media out to a Media Gallery - and one is a "pull" method - going to a Media Gallery and "pulling" entries in.
  • Unpublish from the Main List in "My Media":  good if you want to unpublish one piece of media from one or more Media Galleries, or if you want to unpublish multiple pieces of media from the same Media Gallery at the same time
  • Unpublish from the Player Page: good if you want to unpublish one piece of media from one or more Media Galleries
  • Unpublish from the Edit Page: good if you want to unpublish one piece of media from one or more Media Galleries
  • Unpublish from a Media Gallery: good if you want to unpublish specific pieces of media from a particular course without having to find them in "My Media," or if you're a member of many Canvas courses (see "Known Issues" below)

Known Issues

• If you're a member of a lot of Canvas courses, all of your courses may not show up when you try to unpublish. Kaltura has acknowledged a limitation of their service: if you're a member of a lot of Canvas courses, Kaltura can't list all of your courses if you follow most of these methods. If this applies to you, the "Unpublish from a Media Gallery" method is the one you want to do.

Steps to Take

Option 1: Unpublish from the Main List in "My Media"

You don't have to click on an entry to unpublish it from a Media Gallery.

1. Within Canvas, click My Media in the left navigation.
2. Find the video you want to unpublish, and click the checkbox next to the video in question.

Note that you can check boxes next to multiple pieces of media. If they're not all published to the same courses, though, you may find it difficult to complete the following steps. 

3. At the top of the screen, click Actions and select Publish from the menu that appears.
4. Uncheck the checkbox next to the course(s) from which you want to remove the video.

Alternatively, if you want to remove the video from ALL Media Galleries to which it's published, click the Private radio button instead. 

5. Click Save.

Option 2: Unpublish from the Player Page

You can also unpublish a video from the page where you can watch the video, also known as the "player page." You'd get here if you found the video in your list in "My Media" and then clicked on it. 

1. Within Canvas, click My Media in the left navigation.
2. Click on the title or thumbnail of the video you want to unpublish.
3. On the video's details page, click Actions on the right side of the screen (below the player), then select Publish.
4. After your list of courses populates below the radio buttons, uncheck the checkbox(es) next to the appropriate course(s).

If you want to remove the video from ALL Media Galleries to which it's published, click the Private radio button instead. 

5. Click Save.

Option 3: Unpublish from the Edit Page

When you click the pencil icon on a video in "My Media," you're brought to what we call the "edit page." In addition to being able to perform a variety of edits on your video, you can also control the video's publication status. 

1. Within Canvas, click My Media in the left navigation.
2. Find the video you'd like to unpublish and click the pencil icon on its row.
3. Under the video preview, click the Publish tab.
4. After your list of courses populates below the radio buttons, uncheck the box(es) next to the appropriate course(s).

If you want to remove the video from ALL Media Galleries to which it's published, click the Private radio button instead. 

5. Click Save.

Option 4: Unpublish from a Media Gallery

This method can be useful if you're struggling with the other methods because you're listed as the instructor on a ton of courses. 

1. Within Canvas, enter the course in question and click Media Gallery in the course navigation on the left.
2. If you've created playlists for this course, be sure to select the Media tab at the top of the screen.
3. Change the page layout to the "detailed view" by clicking the icon that looks like a bulleted list, next to the "add media" button. (This changes the layout of the items in the Media Gallery and makes it easier to see the icon you need to use in the next step.)

4. Locate the video you want to remove from the Media Gallery and click the X icon in its row.  

5. Confirm that you want to take the action by clicking Remove. Rest assured that this will not delete the video!