There are certain characters that should never be used when naming files to use with Brightspace. The presence of just one of these characters in your filenames will cause errors and unexpected problems in the system.
- Students naming a file to upload for course Assignments or Discussions must not use illegal characters in the filename.
- Instructors naming a file to upload in a course for Assignment, Discussions, Course Files, or Content area must not use illegal characters in the filename.
Those illegal characters are: \ / : * ? " < >
The following characters are allowed: | ~ # % & + { }
Most Windows computers will not even allow filenames containing any of these “illegal characters” to be created or saved in the first place. However, most Apple/Mac computers will allow filenames containing these characters. Brightspace by D2L may allow “illegally” named files to be uploaded. However, instructors must be aware that trying to access that file will throw an error. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Any file whose name contains illegal characters, attached to a Discussion, will produce an error whenever that particular topic/thread is accessed.
- Any file whose name contains illegal characters, uploaded to Assignments, will produce an error whenever that file is accessed.
- Instructors should be especially aware that the use of illegal characters in the Course Files or Course Content areas will cause similar errors and problems.