Edit window and content disappears - Urgent help

[LB_Teach]

In Canvas, I recently copied over a course from another course. I hit the edit button on a page in the newly created course to edit content (see screenshot #1 in attachment) and when I click into the edit area the content disappears except for the page title (see screenshot #2 in attachment) - the entire window with the functions to edit and all my content disappears. 

This is happening to various pages within two of my Canvas courses. I have tried various browsers, different computers, done google searches and it says to clear cache and turn off add ons which I have done, but nothing fixes it, and I have tried incognito mode. I have 2 classes starting on Monday so this is incredibly URGENT.

See attachment for screenshots showing the issue.

Thank you!! 

[YE5]

I had the same issue today. Publishing the page allowed me to edit it! 

[LB_Teach]

Thank you so much for your immediate help and response. So far this seems to be working. I will not mark as resolved just yet, as I am still editing pages, just in case it happens. So grateful to you!

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @LB_Teach ...

That's really quite strange.  Do you know if there is anything in the HTML code of the page that looks abnormal?  How was the page originally designed?  Was there any content that was copied/pasted from something like Microsoft Word (or another external source) that might make editing the content not possible?  This, of course, is purely speculation on my part, but it was the first thing I thought of.  There is a HTML "allowlist" of tags that are acceptable in Canvas, and you can read more about that at Canvas HTML Editor Allowlist.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing back from you on this.

[soread]

I am having the same problem. It is only happening in copied pages, not anything I create new. I am going to try the workaround posted earlier about publishing and then editing.

[LB_Teach]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I received word back from the instructor support folks that this is a known issue and the engineers are looking into it - not sure if it will ever be solved, but the more folks that report it to them the more likely it might get some attention.

Send your issue to support@instructure.com 

[LB_Teach]

I will look more into this - it was copied pages from a prior course and it is possible that some of the content was copied from MSWord. Thank you for sharing the helpful list. 

[cweber3]

I am experiencing the same issue. Publishing the page seems to work. However, this is a strange issue I've never encountered in all the years of working with Canvas. 

Thanks for the advice to publish the page! Very helpful. 😊

[LB_Teach]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I received word back from the instructor support folks that this is a known issue and the engineers are looking into it - not sure if it will ever be solved, but the more folks that report it to them the more likely it might get some attention.

Send your issue to support@instructure.com 

[LB_Teach]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I received word back from the instructor support folks that this is a known issue and the engineers are looking into it - not sure if it will ever be solved, but the more folks that report it to them the more likely it might get some attention.

Send your issue to support@instructure.com 

[LauraCira]

I can also replicate this issue, as I have been helping an instructor with his page. To my knowledge, his page was brand new (covering recent events) and not a copied page that he was editing. It is simply a page listing of uploaded PDFs with no html involved. It happened while he was attempting to create the page this weekend in Safari, and I was able to replicate the issue while helping him on Firefox. Publishing the page DID however help.

[KorinaFigueroa]

I reported this same issue to Instructure support on Friday and was told then that it's a known issue the engineers are working on. I'd also echo that the more folks report the issue the more attention it's likely to get. 

These are the details I've found through my testing in case it helps anyone else who finds this thread:

• The issue occurs on both Mac and Windows computers and in both Chrome and Edge browsers.
• The issue occurs most consistently when deleting a link that was inserted (I've tried with external URLs and document links.) Pages with just text have let me edit them successfully during some tests.
• Any page (created new or copied) can encounter the issue when editing.
• A newly created page is not impacted before it's saved for the first time. Going back to a page that was just created and saved to edit it results in this behavior. 

I hadn't tried publishing pages before seeing this thread. While that appears to be working it's not a solution for the faculty member who first reported this to me since their pages are meant to be unpublished until after their class session. We also have some faculty who wouldn't want their students getting notified about pages being published if they're still making edits to them. I'm hoping the engineers are able to find a fix for this soon!

[SeanBuxton]

Thanks for these helpful notes. We are also experiencing this issue, and whilst I can confirm the workaround [publish then edit] does help allow editing, we're also in a position where these pages are not intended to be published to students. Hope Canvas can find a fix to this asap. 

[oneilllj]

We have been experiencing this same issue across multiple courses. I also reported the issue late last week to Canvas support and was advised engineering was looking into it. Initially I thought it was just one page that was the issue, but as I was duplicating an existing page (with no known issues) and trying to edit this seemed to be a flag of a deeper issue. Even if I recreate a page exactly as we always have, unless I do it in one go, i.e., make the whole page and don't click save until it is completed the RCE collapses each time you try to re edit.

As per other suggestions, please log a ticket with Canvas support so this matter is reviewed.

Thanks

Jen

[oneilllj]

UPDATE - I have just received feedback from Canvas Support and confirmed myself, this matter appears to be resolved. Have others been able to confirm this?

[LB_Teach · Accepted solution]

I too received word from Canvas support that the issue was resolved. I have tested the pages having the issue (unpublished the pages and tried to edit) and they are working now.

thank you to everyone who helped raise this issue to get attention on it!

Best!