Canvas with Outlook

[ruchtic]

At BYU-Idaho, we use Canvas as our LMS and it is linked to my BYU-Idaho Outlook email account.  This is my second semester of using these programs together.  In the past, I could respond in Outlook to a message that a student sent me through Canvas.  Usually when I checked my email account (Outlook account) and found a message that was sent through Canvas, I could just hit reply to send a student a response to an email, type a message, and then hit send.  However, today it is not working.  Outlook acts like it doesn't recognize the email as a valid email address and it won't send.  For example, it says that the email is supposed to be sent to "John Smith via Canvas Notifications", but nothing else is included.  In the past there was usually some kind of code that followed "John Smith via Canvas Notifications".  When I hit send after typing the email, the program does nothing.  In addition, it says the person is outside of my organization, but it is a student in my course who sent me a message in Canvas which was automatically forward to my Outlook email account.  In other words it appears that Canvas and Outlook are not communicating.  I have not experienced this problem until today and I cannot figure out how to fix it. The only way I can respond to my students who send messages through Canvas is to either go back into Canvas and send it or to find the student's official BYU-Idaho email address and send it to that address through Outlook.  I cannot use the Canvas features in Outlook as I have been able to do before today.  I cannot send any emails in Outlook in response to Canvas notifications as I have been able to do in the past.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you!

[stuart_ryan]

Hi  @ruchtic ,

That is definitely a conundrum! I have had a look and there doesn't appear to be anything (that I can see) in the recent release notes for Canvas that might have affected or changed this, so let's see if we can dig a little deeper.

When you press reply to an email, does the TO address go yellow with a question mark around it? (That is the first thing that usually indicates to me there is an issue)? I know you mentioned Outlook appears to do nothing, so I am going to assume that it doesn't actually send or move out of the inbox. I had this similar issue with Outlook the other day after it was upgraded (not related to Canvas I might add) and restarting my computer seemed to get it back on track, you could try that but your mileage may vary.

Another little testing technique I use is to press reply (to the original email you received), right click on the TO address, click copy, and paste it into a word document and it expands it out further. Is it possible for you to let us know what the expanded version is when you do this please? (Obviously, obscuring the name with John.Smith like you did is great practice if you post the expanded version here too). That will let us see if something has gone astray in the reply to email that might be causing this.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Stuart

[ruchtic]

Thank you for looking into this for me. When I press reply, the to address does not go yellow with a question mark around it. The TO address simply says, "John Smith via Canvas Notifications". If I click on the address, it turns red. I actually tried to restart my computer today to see if it would fix the issue, but unfortunately it did not. I was able to right click on the address and copied it just as you suggested. The expanded version of the email address is John Smith via Canvas Notifications

<reply+rand-rand~rand-rand@notifications.canvaslms.com>. Hopefully this helps to determine what is happening. Thanks again for your help.

[stuart_ryan]

Hi  @ruchtic ,

Thanks for that, I took a look at the email address and then redacted some of the specifics. The email address looks good, I also copied that and then pasted it into Outlook and it recognised it as a proper address with no issues.

In the mean time, I also tested this on my Canvas instance (and with Outlook 2016 on a Mac) and it seemed to work without issue, I also use Office 365 for my email account that I used to test.

I am wondering if there might be a configuration issue on your machine (or possibly something your institution has changed on their email configuration) that might be causing this issue. To that end, I would recommend reaching out to your School's technical support services via Information Technology (I managed to locate the details for you). They can have a look at your local machine to see if anything has gone astray or what might be causing this.

Apologies I can't be of more assistance.

Stuart

[pmcclanahan]

I too have run into this issue - am running Outlook 365 - I can type a response, but the Send button does nothing. I was working on Saturday, from my home computer (Ubuntu Linux 16.04). When all of a sudden I could NOT reply to Canvas emails anymore.

I have tried various browsers - but no go. I AM able to reply via the Outlook app on iPhone, so that is a positive.

I too have tried various solutions, copy and paste the email address - but the Send button just does NOT respond.

Patrick McClanahan

Professor of Computer Science

Science and Math 252

San Joaquin Delta College

Stockton, CA

[stuart_ryan]

Hi Cynthia,

I wanted to link you through to a new thread that might have a little more detail, seems like you are not alone and this may be a Microsoft issue --> Outlook 365 Web Mail Broken?.

Were you using the web version or desktop version?
Cheers,
Stuart

[rgibson1]

 @ruchtic ‌ We're seeing exactly the same problem as of today. Something has broken in MS Outlook 365 webmail and the ability to respond to students. The desktop client continues to function, but it really screws us up because we have remote academic coaches.

[pmcclanahan]

So, this is definitely a Outlook 365 issue - desktop Outlook and Outlook phone app work fine....I just don't have desktop Outlook off campus.

Pat

[rgibson1]

I tried to open a ticket with Instructure, but they turned around and closed it within minutes. They have no apparent interest in helping resolve this. I can't believe more campuses are not being impacted. This is sort of a big deal...

[stuart_ryan]

Hi Rob,

While I have not experienced this myself, it certainly sounds from what people are reporting here that the issue lays with Microsoft, not with Canvas. If that is the case support may have their hands tied (as Microsoft would need to fix this). What was their response that they provided?

Cheers,
Stuart

[rgibson1]

How is Microsoft going to know? It costs $900 just to open a ticket with them. We don't have that kind of money. Vendors work with one another all the time. Why not on this?

[lfrerichs]

We had original reports of problems in Outlook but have only been able to replicate it in Outlook Web Access (OWA) using multiple browsers.  

[Stef_retired]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion regarding the recent problem with notifications. Our Partnerships team has reached out to Microsoft about this issue, and our Product team is aware of it as well.

[lynda_baginski]

Thank you Stephanie,

DeVry University Professors are also experiencing an issue replying to Webmail Notifications.  For us the issue started Monday, October 28th.

[dholik]

Hello,

I've only been able to get one user so far working with this but what I found is that the repetitive use of the email address added a contact to webmail for the notifications@instructure.com email address. I had the user delete it from their webmail and it worked successfully.

I don't know why this is only now showing as a problem and I just found that there is also a contact record in our global address list which I'm working to get deleted on my side as well.

Thanks,

Dean

[pmcclanahan]

Canvas and Microsoft seem to blame each other for this problem… The issue came up with both of their upgrades. It does appear to be a Microsoft issue, as replying to Canvas conversations works with the old Outlook Web Mail Application version. Outlook 365 was upgraded quietly on everyone.

Here is a workaround that has been shared in the Canvas community forums that you can try:

·         With Outlook open in your browser, open another/new tab and access the old Outlook Web version using this link (not sure the URL works for everyone - works at our school)

 https://outlook.office.com/owa/?path=/fb.  Reply to the Canvas message in this window.

[lynda_baginski]

A few professors have confirmed that the Web Mail reply is working again.

[Naomi · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone!

We reached out to Microsoft based on your reports and heard back from them that they were able to resolve the issues. We’re happy to hear it seems like it is working again for you. As always, let us know if and when something doesn’t seem to be working correctly. Thanks for being a part of the Community!

Naomi

[ebennion]

What was the solution? I've had the same problem starting Spring 2021 even though I had been able to reply using Outlook in the past. 

[AliceMarrah]

Hello this is my first time to use canvas how can i access my asssignment

[Chris_Hofer]

@AliceMarrah ...

If you have specific questions about how to access your assignments in Canvas, you will need to reach out to your instructor directly.  We here in the Canvas Community do not have access to your Canvas course(s) or your school's Canvas environment, so it would be difficult to help you with specifics about your assignment(s).  You can contact your instructor by following the steps in this Guide:

How do I get help with Canvas as a student?

Hopefully you'll be able to connect with your instructor soon.  Good luck to you!  Keep us posted if you have any additional questions about this...thanks!

[adasilva9]

The 'View solution in original post' link does not appear to be active. What is the resolution they proposed?

[Chris_Hofer]

@adasilva9 ...

I know this is a rather late response to your question, but I happened to be in this topic for a different reason, and I saw your question.  When someone's response is listed as a "Solution" here in the Community, it is marked with a green outline.  In addition, a copy of that person's response is added immediately below the question that was asked by the original poster (OP)...in this case, @ruchtic.  So, when you are asking about the "View solution in original post" link, all that link does is takes you to the location in this topic where it was within the entire topic thread.  In this case, @Naomi's response is slightly more than 3/4 down the page...and so the "View solution in original post" takes you to that location on the page.

I hope this helps to clarify things for you.  Sing out if you have any questions...thanks!

[LeeSebel]

Where is the solution?  The green link leads to a message that says Microsoft has supposedly addressed the issue, but there is no information on how to fix it.

This implementation cost me dearly when my laptop bricked and I attempted to respond to students via Outlook on my phone.

[Chris_Hofer]

@LeeSebel ...

Unfortunately, I am not sure what to tell you.  The posting from @Naomi was from November 2019.  Things *may* have changed significantly since then.  Sorry I don't have a better response for you at this time.