> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.goguardian.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fix a Problem with an Active Pear Deck Session

> Resolve issues during a live Pear Deck session: edits not showing, students unable to respond, unexpected archiving, a missing sidebar, and join failures.

These steps apply when your Pear Deck session is already running and something is not working as expected.

## My Edits to the Slides Are Not Showing in the Session

Pear Deck loads your slides at the moment you start a session. Edits made to the source file after the session starts do not appear in the live session automatically.

To show updated slides during a session:

1. End the current session.
2. Make your edits to the Google Slides or PowerPoint file.
3. Start a new session from the updated file.

If you need to make a minor correction without ending the session, the teacher dashboard allows you to hide specific slides from students without ending the session. Click the slide in the session panel and select **Hide from students**.

## Students Cannot Submit Responses

Check the following:

1. **Responses are locked.** If you previously locked responses to show class answers, responses remain locked until you unlock them. Click **Unlock Responses** in the teacher dashboard to allow new submissions.
2. **The session is paused.** If you clicked **Pause**, students see a waiting screen and cannot respond. Click **Resume** to continue.
3. **The slide type does not accept responses.** Informational slides and web slides do not have a response area. Move to the next interactive slide.
4. **Students are on a different slide than you.** In teacher-led mode, the slide students see is the one you are presenting. Confirm you are on the slide you intend students to respond to.

If none of these apply, ask a student to reload their page. A network interruption can stop the response feed without ending the session.

## The Session Was Archived Unexpectedly

Pear Deck auto-archives sessions that have been inactive for an extended period. An archived session is not deleted — it moves to the **Past Sessions** section of your dashboard.

To resume a recently archived session:

1. Go to your Pear Deck dashboard and open **Past Sessions**.
2. Find the session and click **Restore** or **Continue**.
3. Students can rejoin the restored session using the same join code.

If the session was archived while students were still responding, their responses submitted up to the moment of archiving are preserved.

## The Pear Deck Sidebar or Power-Up Is Not Visible

**In Google Slides:**

1. Click **Extensions** in the menu bar.
2. Select **Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on**.
3. Click **Open Pear Deck Add-on**.

If the add-on does not appear in the Extensions menu, it may have been uninstalled. Reinstall it from the Google Workspace Marketplace and reload Google Slides.

**In PowerPoint:**

1. Click the **Pear Deck** button in the ribbon.

If the button is not in the ribbon, reinstall the Pear Deck for PowerPoint add-in from the Office Add-ins store.

## Students Cannot Join Through Google Classroom

When you share a Pear Deck session through Google Classroom, students click the assignment link to join. If students cannot join:

1. Confirm the join link in the Google Classroom assignment is the one for the current session, not a previous session. Each session generates a new join link.
2. Ask a student to try joining directly at [joinpd.com](https://joinpd.com) with the 5-letter join code displayed in your teacher dashboard.
3. If direct join works but the Google Classroom link does not, the assignment link may be outdated. Post the current join code as an announcement in Google Classroom.

## Contact Support

For session issues that cannot be resolved through the steps above, contact Pear Deck Learning support. Include your session ID (visible in the URL of your teacher dashboard) and a description of what you see.