Can You Still See a Turnitin Report After Dropping the Class? Official Answer

Turnitin's help center states the only way to view a Similarity Report: log into the account the submission belongs to, and view or download it there. If a class is no longer listed on your account, you no longer have access to its reports. Nothing restores that access from your side — the recovery path is the instructor, who may have a copy of the report or can download it from the system for you.

The help center's "no longer enrolled" article describes the mechanism:

"If a class is no longer listed on your account, then you will no longer have access to the Similarity Report."

Dropping a course (or being dropped from the roster, even accidentally) removes the class from your account view, and with it goes your access to that class's reports. The submission itself isn't erased from Turnitin — the report and paper still exist in the system — but your ability to reach them is tied to the class being in your account. Re-enrollment restores the history (the official line from the "My submission is missing" page: "your previous submission history will reappear once you are re-enrolled").

Once the class is gone from your account, the official recommendation is a direct conversation with the instructor:

"You will need to speak with the instructor of the class directly to see if they have a copy of the report on hand or can download it from the system for you."

"Note: Turnitin does not distribute papers to anyone for any reason."

That last line is worth sitting with: Turnitin itself won't send you the paper or report — no matter the reason. The instructor still has system access (instructors can see reports even when the release setting hides them from students), so they are the one person who can produce a copy after you've left the class. Ask for the PDF, not a screenshot, if you need a durable artifact (our guide on downloading a report PDF covers what the download contains).

Even without dropping, a class account expires on its own clock. Turnitin's troubleshooting guide:

"The Similarity Report belongs to a class that expired more than 180 days ago: Turnitin is contractually obligated to make reasonable attempts to store submissions for 180 days after the class end date... there are cases where the submissions may be removed from the database."

So there are two independent clocks: your enrollment (drops you from the account view) and the class expiry (removes access from the system side, around 12 months for the class account plus 180 days of contractual access after the class ends). Both end in the same result — a report you can no longer open. Our retention guide maps the full timeline.

The report PDF you download while the class is still in your account is the one copy that survives both clocks: dropping the class doesn't delete it, and the class's expiry doesn't reach into your local file. The official help page says the only way to view a report is "logging into your account and viewing or downloading it directly" — which means the download is also the only self-service way to keep what you need. Our guide on downloading a Similarity Report PDF explains what you get (a snapshot of the current view, with sources on the final page).

If you need the report later — an appeal, an academic-integrity conversation, a review — plan for it while the class is live:

• Before dropping or the class ending: download the report PDF and save the digital receipt (the Submission ID survives independently of the class; our guide on submission IDs shows where it lives).
• After leaving the class: the instructor is the only path. Ask for the report PDF with the submission date and ID in hand — those details make the request concrete.
• If the instructor is unreachable: the Submission ID can still be used to trace the file through Turnitin support in some cases (the "My submission is missing" page says support requires the ID to trace a missing file) — but access comes back through the instructor, not around them.

A dropped or finished class closes your access to its Similarity Reports: Turnitin's own help page says if the class is no longer listed, you no longer have access, and the only recovery path is the instructor — Turnitin itself does not distribute papers to anyone for any reason. Two independent clocks close the door: your enrollment and the class account's expiry (~12 months + 180 days contractual access). The durable copy is the report PDF you download while the class is still in your account, and the digital receipt's Submission ID is the identifier that keeps working after the class is gone.