Canvas Inbox - mark message as unread

[mcchauvi]

There has been a change in how "unread" applies to a message.

When an inbox message is clicked on, the button should change from blue to white, meaning it should be marked as "read". Then I can change or mark it "unread" if needed. 

Now, this does not happen. When I click on a message, it is not marked "read", however if I refresh the page, the message is marked "read".  

This is a problem because there are some messages that I need to immediately mark as "unread" but can no longer do this until after the page is refreshed and then I have to hunt for the message. 

The last upgrade created this problem. Spring 2022 semester the Inbox worked properly, now there is a problem with marking a "read" and "unread" with messages I have not responded to.

Please review and correct this issue. 

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4/13/2023 This problem has not been resolved. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @mcchauvi ...

I see what you mean...as I've been able to replicate much of what you describe in my own sandbox course and the Inbox.  But, I think I have some good news for you.  Let me back up just a bit, though, to tell you what I tested in my own sandbox Canvas environment...in which I had three unread messages.

• When I click on any of the three messages to read them, the filled in circle (mine is orange) does not go away.
• With the message still selected on the left side of the Inbox, I can click on the orange circle to mark it as read.  I then navigated away from the Inbox (clicking on the Dashboard, for example) and then saw that the indicator on the Inbox said I still had three unread messages.  I clicked on my Inbox, and sure enough...the orange circle was filled in again after I had already read the message.
• Next, in the Inbox, I tried first clicking on the orange circle on one of the messages *before* selecting the message to mark it as read.  Then, I clicked on the message to read it.  I navigated away from the Inbox back to the Dashboard.  This time, the number indicator on the Inbox icon said I had two unread messages.  When I clicked on the Inbox again, I saw only two unread messages...just as I had expected.

So, for now, if you were to use the process I tried in my third bullet point, you might have some better success.  But...I think I have some even better news for you.  I am curious to know if you follow any of the Canvas Release Notes or the Canvas Deploy Notes here in the Community.  Here is a link to the entire archive for Release/Deploy Notes: Canvas Release Archive - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).  As you can see, in some of the most recent Release/Deploy Notes, there have been some improvements made to the Inbox.  In addition, I am not sure if you are familiar with the "beta" environment that Canvas has.  If your school has a paid Canvas environment (not a Free For Teachers environment), then you should have access to a "beta" environment.

• What is the Canvas beta environment?
• How do I access the Canvas beta environment as an instructor?

When you go to your "beta" environment, try testing out messages in your Canvas environment.  In my own testing (again, with those three unread messages), I was able to click on any of the three messages (not the orange circle) in my Inbox, and the orange circle changed to the orange outline ... making it a read message.  I then navigated away from the Inbox and returned back to the Inbox, and those messages remained as read...which is what I wanted.

So, I think if you can hold on for about ten more days (October 15th is the date of the next Canvas Release), I *think* this will be fixed for you and for everyone else.

Apologies for the long explanation, but I hope this helps to answer your question.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this.  Oh, and be sure to log out of "beta" before returning to your main Canvas "production" environment (this is the environment you are used to logging into on a daily basis).  How do I log out of Canvas as an instructor?

[Ron_Bowman]

@mcchauvi -

What @Chris_Hofer supplied is good information.  This issue came up in a previous post 2 or 3 or 4 weeks ago.  It was confusing to the user, because it used to be that when you clicked on a message the dot would go from colored to uncolored.  Then while you were reading it, you could click on the dot to leave it marked as unread.

Now when you click on the message the dot stays colored - making you think it is marked as unread - you don't get the read status until the inbox is reloaded.  The other poster was mad because  they saw the dot was colored and clicked on it.  then when they reloaded the inbox, the message was showing back up as unread.

As Chris stated, hopefully the next update will fix this issue.

I noticed the issue and just adapted to it once I figured out what was going on.  

[ffeldon]

No here it is, months later. And the problem persists. I open my mail. There are several messages marked Unread. Good. I read them all. I manually mark them all as Read. The circle changes from green to clear (or white) for them all. BUT as soon as refresh my browser or navigate away, say, to the Dashboard, I get the alert that I still have messages--the SAME messages I marked as Read--that I have Unread messages. I mark them AGAIN as Read and, navigate away over and over. It insists I still have Unread messages. Drives me crazy! I need those messages to be marked Read when I say they are! 

[Ron_Bowman]

@ffeldon -

Read my message directly above your response.  Yes it is still an issue, but you can ignore that affect by just reading the message and not clicking on the dot.  when you reload the inbox, the message will be marked read.  Not ideal and not the way it should operate, but definitely not too difficult.  You just have to readjust your thinking about it(I had to do that initially when it first came up).  I have learned to ignore the dot when I am reading and responding to messages and if there is one that I want to leave as unread, I'll star it and click on it then make sure when I reload that it is marked unread.

Ron

[bsr]

Wait, what? "Not the way it should operate, but ... you just have to readjust your thinking"??? This is a double-plus-unhelpful response to someone who is frustrated about a basic feature that previously worked as expected and is now not working properly. 

Or, then again, maybe it's brilliant. I spend hours upon hours applying graphic and universal design principles to build my Canvas course sites such that they are as easily navigable and accessible as possible for my students. Maybe I should just stop trying to make things work well and tell my students to adjust their thinking!  Sure I'd get sh#tcanned in my evaluations, but if I could just adjust my thinking about that, I'd save a lot of money on managing my stress-related health conditions!

[Ron_Bowman]

@bsr -

I understand your frustration.  My response was solely one of explaining what is currently happening.  is it inconvenient - yes.  I just checked the known issues and there is nothing noted for inbox.  Therefore, this issue has not been reported/recorded as a known issue that needs to be resolved.  on your Canvas home page, you should have a help icon on the left.  Clicking on it should provide a link for reporting a problem.  I suggest you do that.  At this point, that is the only thing I know that you can do to try and get the issue resolved.

Ron

[mcchauvi]

Thank you for your response and the "work around" however this does not solve the problem.

It seems a simple thing, that when a message in Inbox is clicked on, the radio-button for read/unread becomes clear. Then I can choose to mark it unread if needed. If I have clicked on a message, I need to know immediately.

This is how it worked last semester.

I use the filter for "unread" because I have numerous sections and over 400 students. To use the suggested work-around, I must use the filter "Inbox".

This issues seems to be a malfunction, if a message is click on, then it should be marked "read".

Thank you,

MC Chauvin

[bsr]

Agreeing with @mcchauvi here: it isn't okay to have messages still marked as unread until you re-load the page, and it is especially not okay to have the message pop back up as unread after reloading if you manually marked it as read. I may need to sit down and work through 20 messages at a time, and I need to see which ones I've already read and which ones are still waiting, without having to reload the page after every one! 

It's February, and it's still happening, so whatever may have rolled out on 15 October didn't fix the problem.

[mcchauvi]

Why is this marked SOLVED? 

The problem still remains and the workaround does not "work".

Please correct how a message responds when it is click on or read.

[Ron_Bowman · Accepted solution]

@bsr @ffeldon @Chris_Hofer -

a few weeks ago I sent in a bug report to Canvas and explained what all of us were seeing.  I explained that it had changed around October 22.  We went back and forth on some apsects of what was happening and I sent them a video showing them the phenomeon.  I received the following message from them yesterday:

"Hello, We've deployed a fix for this issue in our Beta environment. If all goes well, it will make it to the live Production environment on May 10, 2023. This ticket will remain in an "On-Hold" status until then. Admins and instructors: Feel free to try out the fix if you have time. As a reminder, your normal login should get you into Beta if you simply add ".beta" to your institution's Canvas URL (i.e. "canvas.beta.instructure.com"). Keep in mind that the Beta environment has outbound notifications disabled (it's for testing only). Apologies to any students who are receiving this message; testing in Beta is most often disabled for students at various institutions. However, rest assured that we are working to have this issue addressed soon. We will notify you of any changes to the status of this fix. We appreciate your time and attention - if you have any questions about this message or this fix, please feel free to contact Support. Keep Learning! Support Panda Notifier of Things"

I just checked in my Beta environment and it is working in it, so with fingers crossed, we will see it in production on the date above.

Ron

[mcchauvi]

I think I might understand what happened in the code for this.

Scenario 1

Click on a message to read it, the radio button remains filled in "unread". 

After reading the message and responding, the radio button remains filled in "unread". 

Must refresh the page to clear the radio button "read".  

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Scenario 2

Click on a message to read it, the radio button remains filled in "unread". 

After reading the message and responding, the radio button remains filled in "unread". 

Click the radio button to clear it. 

Refresh the page and the radio button fills in again "unread". 

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It appears that somehow the code was changed or reversed. 

It's been many years since I have worked with code, but it seems this should be a simple fix. Refer to the code previous to the last Inbox-update.

Thank you,

Catherine

[mcchauvi]

Hello Canvas developers and techs,

Thank you for fixing the Canvas Inbox read/unread button! 😀 👏 

It is very much appreciated. 

Sincerely, Catherine