Canvas Inbox Update Issue

[frank_oneill]

I love Canvas, but I am definitely not enjoying the update to the Inbox.  Is it me, or is it very difficult to scroll down and select a course from Favorite Courses?  I have a long list of course sections, and it now takes me 3-4 tries to get to the course that I need.  It may seem like a minor issue, but it is frustrating when a product actually gets worse with an update.  

I would love to hear that it is something that I am doing wrong.

Thank you in advance.

Frank

[olsona]

Hello,

I had a couple faculty report this issue to me as well. I was able to recreate the problem of not being able to select a course consistently while masquerading as them. It appears that it is a matter of the time; 35 -50 seconds in my trials. I assume this might take some longer if they have more courses. I'm able to select my courses from the Inbox drop down menu without any problem on the same computer.

I know this is not ideal, especially if you are working on different computers, but a work around would be to create bookmarks for each course you want to be able to email.

1. Select the course while in your Inbox; not from the 'Compose a new message' window.
2. After waiting whatever amount of time it takes for the course lists to populate so you can click on the courses, select a course.
3. Bookmark the URL.
   You will notice that the URL is specific to a course; the number in the URL is the same number in the URL when you are in the course.
   1. Give it a meaningful name such as the course prefix number and section.
   2. Select a folder (click More) to create ‘New Folders’ such as ‘Inbox’ if need be.
4. As long as you don't refresh the Inbox, you should be able to select other courses without the wait & add a bookmark for each one.
5. Then use the bookmarks instead of clicking on the Canvas Inbox.
6. Click on the ‘Compose a new message’ icon.

One other possible work around, but maybe not as good. You can create an assignment and use the Message Students Who feature.

I totally understand the frustration, so hopefully something can be done to speed up the click-ability of the courses.

Thank you,

Andy

[frank_oneill]

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out, Andy.

I will give this a try.  I do think the best solution is for Canvas to "unfix" whatever they did.  It had worked perfectly fine until they updated the Inbox.  We all should be able to admit when we have made a mistake

Frank

[mwgriffinseal]

I completely agree that it takes too many tries to select course I want to email in Canvas.  Very irritating!

Mary Seal

[Renee_Carney]

 @olsona  

This was a great answer you gave! Thanks for being so helpful to your fellow community members, especially in these difficult times. Please check your direct messages for a small token of our appreciation. :0)

Thanks again for all that you do and keep up the good work!Technical Support Andy

[beerline_n]

I have this issue too. I have to attempt 3-4 times before I can select the actual course that I want. It is very annoying, and I do not see what the update adds in terms of functionality.

Thanks,

Nora

[erinhmcmillan · Accepted solution]

Hi, Frank,

On Saturday we have a change coming that should help speed up the time it take to load the Inbox. It's part of our deploy notes here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26657-canvas-deploy-notes-2020-04-18#jive_content_id_Conver... 

If you have access to the beta environment, you can try out the behavior there and let us know if that helps remedy what you're experiencing.

Thanks,

Erin