Canvas Inbox (Conversations) Error for just me or everyone?

[smathews]

Multiple instructors are receiving error messages when creating Inbox messages. Is this just my instance or is it widespread? As the field admin for my instance, I submitted a help request to Canvas Support, who said that engineering is working on it, but I have not been given an ETA yet. Is there any public status link for this issue? 

[chriscas]

Hi @smathews,

I'm not seeing any errors around this with my institution's Canvas instance.  I was able to create and send an inbox message successfully.  If this is a very localized issue, my guess is that it won't appear on the status page just based on my prior experience with incidents like that.

-Chris

[AngelaBBurgess]

We aren't receiving error messages. However, when trying to send, the message pops back up again, so the teacher (or student) clicks "Send" again, rinse + repeat - sometimes the sender repeats the cycle 4 or 5 times,  not realizing that the message is sending each time. I am just about to enter a ticket for my district as well.

[Minta_UCSC]

While I was able to send a message using the Inbox/Messages without issue, we've heard that it is glitching for for multiple teachers and students. Specifically, the issues they report include: After drafting a message and hitting send, the inbox seems to freeze and not send the message, sometimes giving an error that the message wasn't sent, other times not, leading to multiple attempts at sending. Later it seems the messages were sent and the multiple attempts at sending lead to users receiving multiple copies of the message. As there was a Canvas access error issue reported on the Canvas Status page yesterday, we've asked users to clear cache and make sure they are using an updated version of Chrome in the hopes that resolves the issue.

[carol_braun]

I've been experiencing exactly this problem for a couple weeks. As a result, I keep receiving the same message many times from the same student because they keep hitting send.

[dbrace]

Hi @smathews

I have not experienced any problems with the Canvas Inbox, nothing has been reported to me, and I see nothing in our Canvas Support Admin Console.

You and I (you are at RACC and I am at LCCC) are in the same AWS region (us-east-1) but using different Canvas clusters (I am cluster99 and you are cluster43).

1. https://statushistory.instructure.com/racc.instructure.com
2. https://statushistory.instructure.com/lccc.instructure.com

I wonder if the problem is at all related to which Canvas cluster we are using.

-Doug

[Chris_Hofer]

...and just to add on to what @dbrace stated...  the overall status page for Canvas can be found at:

https://status.instructure.com

[smathews]

Thanks, @dbrace. I did look at this and the overall Status page for Instructure. It is often at or nearly 100%, which is great. But I don't know if "uptime" is the same thing as specific errors or known issues that the engineers are working on. I even checked the known issues page and filtered by Canvas Inbox, but nothing is known at this time, although I was told by L1 that the engineers are aware and working on it. I haven't heard recently from students are faculty so it may have resolved, but it's not clear if that's the case or even what the issue was. I'll be sure to run this by the CSM when we meet next. 

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Known-Issues/tkb-p/issues?label=Canvas%2520Inbox&sort=&status=

[mjennings]

I just received a similar report (copied below) from a faculty member.

"Recently I have been getting error messages when trying to send email to my NUR 743 students via Canvas. The message does not show up as being sent and does not "disappear". Any thoughts?"

[NeeleyD]

I am getting an error at both colleges where I teach. If I am composing a message using Inbox and it takes me more than a minute, then when I click to send, I get an error. This has been happening for a couple of weeks. I end up copying the message, hitting cancel, refreshing the screen, and then pasting the message quickly and hitting send. Then it works. It's almost as if it times out while I am composing a message. Sadly, it doesn't happen every time so it's hard to figure out what is going on and why it's happening. 

[dbrace]

Has anyone reported to this to Canvas Support? What have they said or are they continuing to look into it? Has anyone with the appropriate authority at their institution contact their Canvas CSM?

-Doug

[mjennings]

@dbrace The original post mentioned contacting support. I directed my faculty to call and report the issue since I have not been able to replicate it myself. I have not heard back from them at this time.

- Matthew

[smathews]

@dbrace On Monday I sent a help request and L1 replied on Tuesday with: 

------

Thank you for sending us the requested information.
I have checked and it looks like currently we have an ongoing issue where users are receiving the "error occurred while creating conversation" message in when creating messages in their inbox.

Our engineering team is already working towards a solution but I cannot provide you with an ETA about when the issue will be solved. 
I will be attaching your case to our ongoing incident and you will be notified when the issue is resolved.

Until then if you have any other questions or concerns please let us know and we will be happy to assist further."

[dbrace]

Thank you @smathews.

-Doug

[lenz]

Does anyone have any idea WHY I can't send any messages TO MY STUDENTS through CANVAS (yesterday and today) AT THE BEGINNING OF FINALS WEEK?????

This is beyond frustrating!!!  Is  even CANVAS even working on this???  ARE THERE ANY UPDATES???

I have things I NEED TO SEND related to their FINAL EXAMS.  Yes, I know I can go through OUTLOOK (not helpful!), but I don't know how many of them will look there since I NEVER communicate with them that way.  Plus, I have access to their assigned university email only, which they rarely if ever use.   Perfect!!!

Thank you CANVAS for again being a giant time suck at absolutely the worst possible time.  I'd LOVE to know who sold this crap to our university (AND who bought it).

Chérie L-H

[AngelaBBurgess · Accepted solution]

I also reported the problem and received the following message: "My name is Jeremy and I am with the Advanced Support Team. I understand you are seeing an error message when sending inbox messages. I was able to find an open engineering ticket for this behavior. I have attached the case to our open engineering ticket so you will be notified with updates as they are available." 

I have let my teachers know and encouraged them to tell their students. 

Chérie, if you check your Sent messages, you may see that your message actually did send (perhaps multiple times). Otherwise, I would suggest reaching out to Canvas Support (if you have that access through the Help button) or your university's Canvas Admin (who can contact Canvas Support).

[lenz]

THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING!  I will check my sent mail and see if anything happened.  Meanwhile, I sent via Outlook, so if in fact all the messages went through, my students will once again think I'm a moron....

Thanks again for responding.  I'm furious at CANVAS (ALWAYS), but very grateful to YOU for being out there on a Saturday night and taking the time to try to help a (crazed) total stranger.  🙏🏼

Chérie

[lenz]

I did check my sent mail and found that I had sent the same message TO MY ENTIRE CLASS 8 TIMES.  Thanks so much for suggesting this as who knows how many more times I would have done this.  As it was, I sent the message through Outlook as well, so I have by now, I'm sure, pretty well convinced my students that I have completely lost my mind,  

The interesting thing is that this explains the multiple copies of student emails I have received over the quarter that I had written up to mid-term stress, etc.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.  Would have been cool if someone at my own university had let folks know this was happening...

Gratefully,

Chérie 

 

[carol_braun]

I've been using this as a workaround too. That said, it's an annoyance that's been going on for weeks now, and it feels very unprofessional on the part of Canvas. I hope they find a genuine solution soon.

[smathews]

@carol_braun I have a faculty member reminding me daily about the issue. It's frustrating!

[dbrace]

Hello Everyone!

I understand the frustration that you are experiencing, especially because of the time of the semester in higher education and because not everyone is experiencing the problem.

There are two recommendations/work arounds:

1. consider using a Canvas announcement in the course instead of the Canvas Inbox
   
   1. you might even find that announcements are better to use than the Inbox because you have full access to the Rich Content Editor and you can copy the announcement to another course (meaning that you do not need to type it again or copy and paste)
   2. you might want to consider showing recent announcements on the "Home" area of your course (regardless of what it is set to) so that the announcements are easier to see
   3. if you have previously hidden the "Announcements" area, make sure to set it as visible
   4. if you do create an announcement make sure to delete the announcement if/when you copy your shell or use the "Select specific content" option while copying/importing and select everything except any announcements that are not needed again
   5. for the faculty at my institution, I typically recommend course announcements over Canvas Inbox messages
2. use your institution's email system

I know that these are different communication methods than what you might have done the rest of the semester but they are the best options to use under the circumstances.

-Doug