Asset Deduplication on Import

Starting in v1.0.65, the platform automatically deduplicates assets during course import. Identical files are stored only once per organization, regardless of how many courses or lessons reference them.

How It Works

When the import engine processes a Teachable school, each asset (image, video thumbnail, document attachment, etc.) goes through the following steps before being stored:

1. Content hashing — A hash of the incoming file's raw content is computed.
2. Store lookup — The hash is compared against all existing assets in the organization's asset store.
3. Deduplication decision
   • If a matching hash is found, the existing asset record is reused — no upload occurs.
   • If no match is found, the file is uploaded and a new asset record is created with its hash stored for future lookups.

Benefits

Benefit	Detail
Lower storage costs	Identical files are stored once rather than copied for every course that references them.
Faster imports	Skipping redundant uploads and processing reduces overall import time, especially for large schools.
Consistent asset references	All lessons that use the same source file point to the same asset record, making bulk updates easier.

Scope

• Deduplication is scoped per organization — assets are never shared or matched across different tenants.
• All asset types handled by the import engine are covered: images, document attachments, and any other binary files extracted from a Teachable school.

Common Scenario

A Teachable school uses the same header image across 30 course pages. Before v1.0.65, each import of those pages would upload the image 30 times. With deduplication enabled, the image is uploaded once on the first encounter; the remaining 29 references are resolved to the existing asset record automatically.

Notes

• Deduplication runs automatically — no configuration is required.
• Re-running an import for a previously imported school will not create duplicate assets for files that have not changed.
• If a file's content changes between imports (e.g. an updated attachment), it will be treated as a new asset and stored separately.