[ARCHIVED] Id Already in Use Error

[jackie_baker]

I manually added a new student to Canvas and I realized I had a mispelling in the username.  I deleted the student record, but now when I go into add it again, I get an error saying that the Id number is already in use.  Any idea how to get beyond this?  Do I just need to wait a while for the system to recognize it's gone?

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi  @jackie_baker  

We discovered the hard way, a long time ago, that user IDs never go away when you delete the user. It is best to simply edit the user account to correct a misspelling.

You can try searching for the user's ID, but if that fails, you will need to contact Canvas Support and ask them to delete/restore the original account so that you can move forward.

Kelley

[jackie_baker]

Thanks for the input.  The field I made the typo in wasn't a field that it would let me fix .  I've sent an email to support, hopefully I'll hear back soon.

[kmeeusen]

Were you following this guide https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12628-421473700 

If so, then you can easily edit the student name.

[jackie_baker]

We were able to fix it.  We created a user.csv file with only that one record in it and manually imported the file.  The appears to have overwritten the SIS id.