[ARCHIVED] This file contains HTML and cannot be previewed. Please download to view.

[jmattern]

I'm getting a handful of student submissions that, in Speedgrader, show the following message: "This file contains HTML and cannot be previewed. Please download to view."  However, when I try to download the file, I am unable to.  I had a student share her screen with me to see if there was some kind of user error (uploading the wrong kind of file, or perhaps pasting the url of their Google doc instead of the file itself), but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  While this is only affecting a small number of my students, I've had another teacher report that about 30% of her student submissions look this way.

I've looked for an answer, but all I've seen are a couple unanswered posts (including one where a moderator closed the thread because there wasn't much discussion on it).

[thomsks]

I'm going to second this one. I'm a controller at my site and I don't know what to tell teachers. This is new to me.

[BarbBedwell]

I'd like to "third" this topic (if that's a thing!).  We are getting it randomly from students in the class - there doesn't seem to be a particular pattern to it.  Students get it when they need to upload a file - usually from their Google Drive, but it could also be a screenshot.  Its very frustrating for the students.  Help!

[jmattern]

I will say that since I switched to using the Google Cloud Assignment tool, I haven't had a problem, so perhaps that can be a temporary workaround while we wait on Canvas to work out the glitches.

[dmkjazz]

I am having the same trouble. The problem started with submissions from Friday. Submissions from the beginning of the week opened without a problem.

[e06735]

We are having the same issue...  I haven't found any resolution yet.  Has anyone else?

[BarbBedwell]

For our district, the issue was arising with documents being submitted from Google Drive.  Interestingly, when students upload a file for an assignment, there are THREE different Google Drive tabs AND a Google Doc tab to choose from.  I ran some experiments with my students and found that the "First Google Drive" tab or "the Google Drive on the left" worked the most reliably.  I gave my students some quick & easy points for participating in the repeat submissions - they seemed to like that part.

Your mileage may vary!

[jmattern]

Just as a way of trying to contribute to a workable solution (because I have yet to see any official response or fix), in addition to switching to the Google Cloud Assignment (which has it's own drawback, as I haven't seen Canvas mark assignments with no submission as "missing"), I had one student attach a pdf of his work as a comment on an assignment, and I was able to view his work that way.  Another teacher that I work with changed all of her assignments to "text box entry" and had students copy and paste from their docs into the text box Canvas provides.

I admit to being frustrated by this process, as we have been using file uploads for Canvas work for years with no problem until this year.

[kathrync_pappas]

I am glad I am not alone in seeing this problem crop up. This is my 6th year using canvas, and I have not encountered this problem until this year. It seems to be becoming more prevalent as the weeks go on. 

[aschroeder2]

My district is also having this problem. Teachers are reporting 5-6 student submissions per class are showing this error. File types are .HEIC .JPG and .PNG. A response would VERY much be appreciated. 

[ashlekl]

We have been having this problem for the last two days.  In the past, it would be just an occasional event for a few students but since yesterday, I've received 18 student submissions with this "HTML..." message.  Our tech people say there is something going on between Canvas and our district but no one seems to know what!  Most of my assignments have a google doc that the students make their own copy of and then do a file upload for an online submission.  I have added the "text box" option for submission to see if that helps, but no one seems to know of a solution and reason for this sudden problem.

[shustwit]

I am having the same issue.

It is a student uploading photos from an iphone.

He was using the google drive upload button.  I also had him use the plain file upload button, and do an insert into a rich text editor.  None of those work.

He was able to email me the photo and I was able to see it.

I wonder if it is a moving photo.  I know my android takes short moving photos, but if I say...upload them to facebook...it just shows one image, not the moving one.

[shustwit]

Just stumbled across this discussion of the issue as well.  They seem to think there might be an issue with share settings, though I'm not sure that would fix my issue
  https://support.google.com/edu/assignments/thread/14695613?hl=en

[maleah_dhenin]

It's now almost November 2020, and I'm having the same issue. My students are frustrated enough with distance learning, and now that this is happening, I have literally had a student crying out of frustration and stress over her grades. Is there going to be a fix for this any time soon?

[lindsey_zmolik]

We are still having the same issue as well.  In fact, we are helping a frustrated student as we speak who is trying to submit a Google Assignment to her teacher.  

[saraha]

I am seeing this too! We are using Kami to annotate PDF and Google Doc files which are saved in their Google drive. When I have students use the Google LTI tab, I sometimes get the same result. Today I had them use our other (left) Google files/docs tab and voila! I can see their submission in Speedgrader. My tech admin is stymied! I am beginning to thin that since this is a problem in the Google LTI tab but not the other Google tab it is an issue on the Canvas end of things?

[vancej]

What  do yo mean by "Other left Google tab?" Are you referring to the GoogleDrive  Navigation  button/link? My student can access her  googledrive through there, but I am still receiving the  error message.

[leigh_morgan]

Students are submitting a word document and when they do the teacher gets the message in speedgrader this file contains html and cannot be previewed.  Suggestions?

[jmattern]

I'm sorry, but whoever marked the solutions in this thread must have done so erroneously.  Both solutions marked as "solutions" say, essentially, "We're seeing this problem, too."  Other people agreeing there's a problem is not a solution.

My hope in posting this is to draw attention to this issue, as I have yet to see a solution (or see anyone else mention one), and for Canvas or whoever is moderating this forum to imply that the above are solutions is a mistake at best and disingenuous at worst.

If someone has seen a solution to this problem (or an announcement that the issue has been fixed), please feel free to reply with a link.

[Quanzimodo]

I am having the problem with PDF files as well. Whether screenshot, PDF submission, or Google Drive submission, some students are consistently having problems. However, it seems to be different students for different assignments. Is there actually someone moderating this thread that has the ability to address these problems? So far, it doesn't seem like that is the case. It's been months and this problem is continuing. Canvas has basically been forced on teachers in my district as this great platform that was going to make virtual instruction soooo easy, but this is actually making my life more complicated. What's the deal???

[vancej]

Is there any update from  Instructure on this because students are being impacted?

[jmattern]

Hi all!

I just received news that our district has elevated a support ticket with Canvas and is trying to work with Canvas and Google (evidently both are pointing the finger at the other for the origin of the problem) to see if they can collaborate on a solution. I will try and update this thread if a solution is reached.

[mmmmm]

I had this problem once or twice before Canvas updated the RCE. After this update, I'm seeing it on almost every assignment. This issue has clearly not been adequately addressed. I really loved Canvas for my first few years of teaching, but it seems to have gone downhill in this last year. 

[BethCrook]

I had almost a dozen students reporting this issue yesterday!

[clay_elmore]

Definitely need some guidance here because the issue is worsening by the day. At first it was just a few Slide decks and now I'm getting the error on entire classes of simple Doc submissions.

[BethCrook]

I just talked to Support and they said all of our submissions that this happened with are google files. The current workaround is to download the file and then upload into the submission from the computer until Google and Canvas gets things worked out.  "Something changed in Google files formatting."

[GSimons]

I set all of my assignments to file submit and limit to .docx files - so students download as Microsoft Word (.docx) then submit. I'm still seeing this issue - I have had some success by simply asking students to resubmit - most of the time this works, but not 100%. 

[patti_eaves]

This is still occurring.  Is there a solution?

I'm getting a handful of student submissions that, in Speedgrader, show the following message: "This file contains HTML and cannot be previewed. Please download to view."  However, when I try to download the file, I am unable to.  I had a student share her screen with me to see if there was some kind of user error (uploading the wrong kind of file, or perhaps pasting the url of their Google doc instead of the file itself), but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  This is occurring more and with more students daily.

[BethCrook]

Please make sure you are clicking on the ? on your Global Navigation menu and submitting a ticket to Canvas support every time it happens!  It only takes a min and the more it's logged with support, the more urgent the issue becomes within escalation.   They closed out my tickets last week, so I thought they found the issue and the fix, so perhaps they didn't or it's crept back up...whatever it is!

[ashlekl]

Our admin had us ask the students to resubmit their work as pdf files - this worked for most but not all.  We were then told to have our students go to their google drive and do something called "clear the cache".  This does seemed to have worked as for the last week, I have been able to read the students' submissions as docx or pdf from their drives.  I didn't send any "tickets" on this at the end of January as I didn't know it was recommended and I would have had about 30 in in 3 days; however, if this recurs, I will explore that option.  

[LisaHaertel]

In the 2020-21 SY, our students started using Chromebooks.  Their drive is connected to the district Google account.  However, our dual enrollment student use Canvas on the Chromebooks and we are constantly running into issue because Canvas wants to open items in the community college Google account, so they must switch accounts when working in Canvas, then switch back to the district account to do assignments in the high school's Google Classroom.

I have seen this HTML error message is several assignments this year.  I attributed to something happening with the different drives, but have never figured it out.

[JeramiaPessetto]

I think I might have a solution - The files causing this "HTML/cannot be previewed" error  are likely ".docx" files. (You can tell by a blue box next to the document name when you open it in Google Docs.) These were Microsoft Word files that were uploaded to Google Drive. 

To fix this:

Go to the document, hit "File" then "Save as Google Doc". This new document, when uploaded, will not give the "HTML/Cannot be previewed error" in the Speedgrader.

(Side note: This does create a new file, so make sure to update the links your students use!)

[CoreyMcNeill]

I have some school districts that are experiencing this issue with Google Doc Assignments. Did anyone find a solution? 

[JeramiaPessetto]

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@CoreyMcNeill wrote:

I have some school districts that are experiencing this issue with Google Doc Assignments. Did anyone find a solution? 

---

Hi Corey,

Are the Google Docs experiencing this problem saved in .docx format? (You can tell by opening the doc and looking just to the right of the title.)

If so, I posted a solution for it on this thread, but I'll also paste it here for convenience's sake:

"I think I might have a solution - The files causing this "HTML/cannot be previewed" error  are likely ".docx" files. (You can tell by a blue box next to the document name when you open it in Google Docs.) These were Microsoft Word files that were uploaded to Google Drive.

To fix this:

Go to the document, hit "File" then "Save as Google Doc". This new document, when uploaded, will not give the "HTML/Cannot be previewed error" in the Speedgrader.

(Side note: This does create a new file, so make sure to update the links your students use!)"

[jmattern]

I find it hard to believe that this is a "Word vs. Docs" problem when I create word-processed assignments exclusively in Docs and students open, complete, and submit these assignments using their Chromebooks.

Last I heard from our district (which, admittedly, was in spring) was basically that Canvas said it was Google's fault, Google says it was Canvas's fault, and the sides were working on a solution which clearly hasn't manifested, given the fact that I'm still getting this error.

[cagrawal]

It is Winter 2021 and we still have this error. Can someone advise as to how to prevent this and advise students?

[sjones11]

Almost Spring 2022 and same thing here.  I'm going to suggest that students download to their laptop as pdf and then submit form there.