diff --git a/question/type/questiontypebase.php b/question/type/questiontypebase.php
index 5e76deb5fdb..ba8858dea47 100644
--- a/question/type/questiontypebase.php
+++ b/question/type/questiontypebase.php
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ class question_type {
      * If you use extra_question_fields, overload this function to return question id field name
      *  in case you table use another name for this column
      */
-    protected function questionid_column_name() {
+    public function questionid_column_name() {
         return 'questionid';
     }
 
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ class question_type {
      *
      * @return mixed array as above, or null to tell the base class to do nothing.
      */
-    protected function extra_answer_fields() {
+    public function extra_answer_fields() {
         return null;
     }
 
diff --git a/question/type/shortanswer/questiontype.php b/question/type/shortanswer/questiontype.php
index b43e3ee59c6..ff9df64f763 100644
--- a/question/type/shortanswer/questiontype.php
+++ b/question/type/shortanswer/questiontype.php
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class qtype_shortanswer extends question_type {
         return array('question_shortanswer', 'answers', 'usecase');
     }
 
-    protected function questionid_column_name() {
+    public function questionid_column_name() {
         return 'question';
     }
 
diff --git a/question/type/upgrade.txt b/question/type/upgrade.txt
index aaf22130601..acaacd322a1 100644
--- a/question/type/upgrade.txt
+++ b/question/type/upgrade.txt
@@ -38,3 +38,8 @@ $string['pluginnameediting'] = 'Editing a Description';
 $string['pluginnamesummary'] = 'This is not actually a question. Instead it is a way to add some instructions, rubric or other content to the activity. This is similar to the way that labels can be used to add content to the course page.';
 
 The old strings will continue to work, but only until Moodle 2.3 is released.
+
+* If you are using the facilities provided by overriding the extra_answer_fields
+  or questionid_column_name methods, then you must change these to be public
+  methods. (This is required so that backup and restore can be made to work
+  automatically. MDL-24408, MDL-25617, MDL-30562)