Panopto: States of Stored Content

Last updated: June 8, 2023
Audience: InstructorsStaff

Panopto organizes stored content into Active, Media Storage Optimization and Archived states. When you go to copy a recording, you’ll want to make sure that it’s not in the Archived state. Archived recordings cannot be copied.

Active state: Includes recordings that were created in the last 120 days. These recordings are immediately available to creators and viewers.

Media Storage Optimization state: 120 days after a recording is created, edited, or completes its last processing job,the recording is moved to the Media Storage Optimization state.

In this state it can take 1-10 minutes for the recording to become available for editing after the Edit button is clicked. After 390 days with no views or 120 days after a video is created but has no views, the quality levels of a recording will be reduced. In the reduced quality state viewers can still access and view recordings. However, viewers will only have only one lower quality recording available for viewing, which may result in buffering on some network connections. Editing or reprocessing the recording will restore the original quality.

Recordings in the Media Storage Optimization state will copy to a new course when using either course copy or the bulk copy options.

Archived state: In this state, recordings will appear in a separate section of the Panopto folder and cannot be viewed, copied, or edited without being restored. Viewers and Creators can restore recordings. The Archive state can be manually or automatically set.

Note: With the implementation of the UW Panopto data retention policy in June 2023 recordings that have not been viewed in the previous 24 months will be moved to the Archive. Before copying your course in Canvas and Panopto, make sure that you don’t have any archived recordings associated with that course in Panopto. Archived recordings will not copy as part of the new course copy workflow or a bulk copy.