Manage the media library

The media library holds the files your courses reuse: images, video, audio and documents. Uploading here once and picking from the gallery beats uploading the same file into four courses, and it is the only place where you can see what a file is actually used in before you change it.

Find it under Manage → Media.

Uploading

1. Choose Upload files, then drag files in or browse for them.
2. Give each file a display name. This is what people search on, not the filename.
3. Set a category and any tags you want it found by.

Size limits differ by kind of file — images, documents and videos each have their own ceiling, and a file over its limit is refused by name rather than failing silently.

You can also point at a file hosted somewhere else instead of uploading a copy. The library will tell you it is external: if the source moves or removes the file, the asset breaks, and there is nothing this system can do about it.

Finding things again

The list filters by source (uploaded or external), by usage (used or unused) and by status (active or archived), and sorts by name, date, size or recently used. Used in on each asset tells you how many courses reference it, and Unused is how you find what nobody needs.

Give each asset an alt description. It doubles as the accessibility description a screen reader announces, so it is worth writing properly rather than repeating the display name.

Archive, don’t delete

Media used in a course cannot be deleted. The library refuses it and tells you to archive instead. Archiving hides the asset from the course editor gallery so nobody picks it again, while the courses already using it keep working.

The same refusal applies to media held by a saved course version, even when no current course uses it — an earlier version of a course still needs its pictures.

Deleting in bulk follows the same rule: if any selected item is in use, the whole action is refused and names how many, rather than deleting some of them.

Categories and tags

A category is one per asset and carries a colour. A tag is many per asset. Both live under Manage → Media, on the Categories and Tags tabs, and both need the media taxonomy permission, which is separate from the one that lets somebody upload.

Deleting either is safe for the files themselves. Deleting a category leaves its media uncategorised; deleting a tag removes that tag from the assets carrying it. In both cases the media is untouched — only the link goes. The confirmation tells you how many assets are affected before you commit.

If you would rather keep a category out of use without breaking anything, archive it instead. An archived category is hidden from the media library and the course editor but stays on the assets that already have it.

Video and transcripts

An uploaded video can be trimmed, split or have a section removed. Every one of these makes a new asset and leaves the original alone, which is why a video already used in courses cannot be edited in place — duplicate it and edit the copy.

Transcripts are generated automatically for uploaded video, imported from the platform for external video where one exists, or typed in by hand. Captions are built from the transcript’s timings; segments cannot overlap, and the editor will say so rather than saving a broken caption track.

Both transcription and video editing are queued. You are notified when they finish, so the asset will not show the result the moment you close the dialog.