It’s a scenario most teachers will recognise.
A student turns in an assignment, then quietly undoes it, whether to fix a mistake, buy a little more time, or by accident.
Until now, that was simply how Teams Assignments worked: a turned-in submission was never quite final.
Microsoft has just changed that.
A new setting called “Students can undo turn-in” gives educators the choice to lock a submission the moment it comes in, so both the teacher and student know the work is officially done.
The problem it solves
This has been a long-requested change.
When any student can undo a turn-in at any time, right up until a teacher starts marking, “turned in” never quite means finished.
It creates uncertainty around deadlines, makes it harder to know where you stand when you sit down to grade, and can lead to awkward conversations about whether something really was submitted on time.
For assignments where the deadline genuinely matters, coursework, formal assessments, anything with a hard cut-off, that flexibility isn’t always helpful. Teachers wanted the option to make a submission final.
Now they have it.
How it works
The new control sits inside the assignment settings themselves. When creating or editing an assignment, you’ll see a setting called “Students can undo turn-in”.
- Set it to No, and once a student turns in, their submission is confirmed.
- Set it to Yes (the current default), and students keep the ability to retract their submission after turning in, as before.
You can also change the default for all new assignments at class level.
In the Assignments app’s Settings for a given class, look for “Undo turn in” (“Allow students to undo turning in their assignments”), currently defaulted to Yes.
The per-assignment control still lets you override that default whenever a particular assignment needs different treatment.
To try it: create or edit an assignment, find “Students can undo turn-in”, set it to No, and publish. From that point, once a student turns in, their submission is final, with no option to undo.
What students see
With the setting set to No, a student who turns in their work sees a confirmed “Turned in” status, with no option to retract it. The submission is final.
With the setting left on Yes (the default), students still see the “Undo turn in” button and can retract their submission if they choose to.
Where it helps in schools and colleges
For subject teachers, this removes a small but recurring source of friction around deadlines and marking, particularly for coursework or controlled assessments where a genuinely final submission matters.
For curriculum leaders and staff overseeing assessment processes, it provides greater certainty around submission deadlines.
Teams records when work is turned in, and preventing students from undoing that submission means the status cannot subsequently be changed by the student without teacher involvement.
For students, it’s simpler too. A clear, confirmed “Turned in” status removes any doubt about whether their work has actually gone in.
Works alongside your other assignment controls
Locking turn-in doesn’t mean losing flexibility elsewhere. This setting works alongside the controls teachers already use:
- Want students to improve their work? Return an assignment for revision with feedback, so students can revise and turn in again. The teacher stays in control of when a submission reopens, rather than the student being able to undo it unprompted.
- Feedback stays private until the teacher is ready to share it.
- Need to give a student more time? Extend the due date or edit the assignment timeline, rather than relying on undo turn-in as a workaround.
Microsoft’s support article on grading, returning and reassigning assignments covers the return-for-revision workflow in more detail, including how it puts the teacher in control of when a submission reopens.
What to consider before switching this on
Because this is a per-assignment setting as well as a default, it’s worth agreeing internally when submissions should be locked and when they shouldn’t.
A formal piece of coursework might warrant undo turn-in being switched off. A low-stakes homework task might not.
Microsoft has said this update is rolling out to all education tenants, so if you don’t see the setting yet, it should be on its way.
How Cloud Design Box supports this
For schools and colleges already using Cloud Design Box’s Assignment Analytics to track submissions and engagement, a clearer distinction between turned in and not yet turned in makes that data even more reliable.
Leaders reviewing homework activity or submission patterns get a firmer picture to work from, without any extra setup on our side.
Cloud Design Box Assignment Analytics gives leaders clearer visibility over Teams Assignments, homework activity and student engagement. Book a demo to see how it works.
FAQs
What does “Students can undo turn-in” control?
It’s a setting on each Teams assignment that decides whether a student can retract their submission after turning it in. Set to No, the submission is final once turned in.
Is undo turn-in switched on or off by default?
By default, it’s set to Yes, meaning students can undo their turn-in, in line with how Teams Assignments has always worked. Teachers can change the default for a class under “Undo turn in” in the Assignments app’s Settings, or override it per assignment.
Does turning off undo turn-in affect Return for Revision?
No. Teachers can still return an assignment for revision with feedback, which reopens it for the student in a way the teacher controls. Undo turn-in is about students retracting their own submission, not about teacher-led revisions.
When is this available?
Microsoft has confirmed the update is rolling out to all education tenants.
