Files/documents preview won't load, is there something I can do?

[dcarns0610]

All of a sudden files and documents submitted by my professors, in the modules, will not load their preview. The blue wheel just spins and spins. I have to download every document to look at it. Did I disable something, maybe? 

[Bobby2]

Hi  @dcarns0610  Thank You for your question.

This sounds frustrating.

I'm wondering if it is your browser needing to be updated. If so here is how to update Chrome https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95414?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en 

If you aren't using Chrome I can talk you through others, just let me know.

Sing out if you need a hand. 

[hanalei]

I'm also having this issue. I'm using the latest version of Chrome

[gt7535]

I am also having the same issue; I am using the latest version of Chrome. Please advise.

[Bobby2]

Hi gt7535, and  @hanalei , this looks like more than a browser issue if a few of you are experiencing it in the the correct and updated browser.

I will reach out to some experts and see what I can find out.

If you find a solution in the meantime please add it here so we can all learn from each other. 

[hanalei]

I was able to use the file preview successfully on firefox and microsoft edge, but it still doesn't work on Chrome, which is extremely incovenient for me

[dguillot]

Same problem here with an updated Chrome when trying to inline preview a file uploaded to the course. Just checked Edge and that also works for me. I've run into this problem with .pptx, .docx, and .pdf files. The first two have been troublesome before, so I hadn't thought much of it, but when I just tried a PDF, which has never given me any troubles, and it didn't work, I got concerned. I did have success using External Tools and using Google Drive to embed the files instead, but that's less convenient.

[julie_mccarty]

Having same issue. This is concerning because online classes are expected to start in a month and a lot of the materials I provide students are in uploaded file form. Further, not being able files submitted by students during the summer semester is making my online grading much slower. 

[bkenney]

A student at my institution is reporting this same issue. Are there any updates on a resolution?

[finnxthomas]

I have been having this problem for over a month on my Windows 10 computer. I have tried updating chrome, and also uninstalling and reinstalling it, neither of which helped. A fix would be greatly appreciated as it is getting quite tedious to download ever PDF I need to see onto my computer, especially since this number of documents has increased due to online learning. Thank you.

[James]

I'm surprised I didn't see this thread before now.

If you're using Chrome, then the working theory is that there is a browser extension that is causing the problem. Adblocker Plus, Ghostery, and Honey are all known to cause problems. There are some others that I cannot remember right now. It seems to mostly be apps that can "read and change all your data on the websites you visit."

One way to test this is to open up an incognito window in Chrome (Shift+Ctrl+N). Then log into Canvas and try to view the content. If it works now, then it is most likely an extension causing a problem.

Disabling the extension isn't enough in some cases. Disabling Honey worked at first, but then the problem showed back up later in the day and my wife had to completely remove it.

Here are some links to other threads where this has been discussed. I may have missed some others.

• Files aren't loading
• Speed Grader won't charge pdfs (Google Chrome) 
• PDF Preview broken on Chrome 
• I am trying to use speed grader but it will not show the student's work? 
• Why has Speed Grader stopped loading files? 
• Ghostery prevents speedgrader from showing submitted documents 
• Docviewer is not opening automatically for annotation? 
• Speed Grader Not Working in Chrome 
• PDF not opening in viewer 

[finnxthomas]

Thank you!! This fixed my problem

[jbed]

So what do I do if I still can't load previews under incognito mode?

I'm on a new computer with no extensions (other than Google products and Adobe)

[James]

@jbed 

When I first started describing this issue to people, I used to throw in that it was likely an extension or a cookie problem. When some many of the people having the problem came back with disabling extensions fixed it, then I stopped adding the cookie part.

Before doing other things, I would try disabling Adobe products within the browser. I have the Acrobat extension that comes with Creative Cloud and didn't like the prominence that it took or how it acted. I'm sure that others like it there, the point was that not all extensions are disabled in incognito mode and sometimes it's the things we don't expect.

The second thing is that I would try with Firefox and see if it works there. If so, then we know it's something related to Chrome or what you're using there and not just an issue with the particular file you're trying to load. Well, at least mostly we know that. It could be a network glitch at the time you were trying to use Chrome that resolved itself by the time you're trying to use Firefox.

When I first had problems with things not working in Canvas, it was a third-party cookie issue. I normally have my security set to a higher level of privacy when possible, but it can cause problems with things not loading properly. Mine was Google Apps and students were submitting things I couldn't see. Right now, in the community is there is an eyeball with a slash through it on the right of the location bar in Chrome. That means that cookies are getting blocked. Six of them, in fact. If I click there, I can eventually get to a list of things that are blocked (it's addthis.com on the community site). I look through the list and if it appears to be instructure-related or something that seems legit, like canvas-user-content.com, then I will allow it. I can't show any pictures to help as I've already reached my 1000 image limit with the content they copied over from the old site.

Another thing I'll do is open up the developer tools for the browser (F12) and watch the console and network tabs when I load the page to see what the problems are. If there are calls being made that are getting rejected with errors in the 400s, then that's a place to look. There is also an issue with same-site cookies. Canvas says they're fixed, but I still see too many warnings about it to believe that.

Generally, waiting a long time won't fix things, although there were a few days within the last week where load times were terribly slow for some people. That seems to have been resolved for now, but it was taking 30 seconds for some of my PDFs to load.

[cs1203]

Same here. I've been having this issue since May and I have been forced to download all my documents. I have tried to disable all my Chrome extensions to no avail. I have also left it loading in the background for hours, but nothing changed :/.

[aweso10]

I have also been having this issue for the last couple of months, and I am on the latest version of Chrome. If anyone comes across a fix for this it would be greatly appreciated.

[c_murphy]

We are having exactly this problem too. Frustrating!

[atazzam]

We had the same issue on a quiz which required the Respondus LockDown browser. About half-way in there were many students who could not load PDF files embedded in to Text questions on a graded quiz.

[julie_mccarty]

Disabling Tampermonkey extension fixed the issue for me.