Inbox: Why Do New Replies to Archived Conversations Stay in Archive

[ryan_cloyd1]

I'm wondering why after archiving a conversation thread and receiving a new response the thread and new responses also remain in the archived section rather than getting pushed back into the Inbox. I feel that even if at the very least the new message by itself should be pushed forward into the Inbox.

[Chris_Hofer]

@ryan_cloyd1 ...

This is interesting, and I can see why moving a message out of the "archive" back to the main "inbox" would be beneficial.  I'd suggest that you submit this as a new idea here in the Community so that people might be able to vote on it down the road.  Maybe there is a chance that others will want to see something similar!  Here's a link to some Guides on how to create your idea:

Instructure Community Guide - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

You'll want to look at the "Ideas and Themes" section.

Hope this helps!

[joaocaram]

The fact is that this was not the standard behaviour some weeks ago. Only in mid-june this started to happen with the archived itens, and it's been VERY troublesome to communicate with this students this way. It's not a request for some new feature, instead it looks more like a bug report for something that stopped working.

[KimTByrd]

Wholeheartedly agree!  I had the exact same experience.  Ditto to all!  The bug needs to be fixed.  It is hindering effective instruction for sure.  I concur!

[Chris_Hofer]

@joaocaram and @KimTByrd ...

Thank you for this feedback.  If you both feel that this is a bug, then I highly suggest that you report it to the folks at the Canvas Help Desk so that they can log your concern and update you if/when it is fixed.  To do this, you can follow the instructions in this Guide:

How do I get help with Canvas as an instructor?

Please keep us posted here in this thread...thanks!

[KimTByrd]

Hello All,

My university tech team already submitted a ticket directly to Canvas Support on 6/24/2024 and we have not heard any updates on this issue.  I called the university tech team today and let them know now it is other instructors having this issue as well based on the Canvas boards here.  The Canvas team does need to prioritize this issue as I am sure most instructors don't even realize this is occurring since there is no way of knowing unless you are actually looking for the issue. 

[KimTByrd]

Chris,

The tech team is indicating the Canvas team had a series of new releases and this may be a release change.  Do you know of a way to verify this information.
The "archived" messages are not consistently doing this and this is why I think it may be a bug possibly. For instance, intermittently, a conversation I archived between a student and myself will populate to my inbox if the student responds again to the archived conversation. This has occurred since 6/12/2024 at least twice in my Canvas messages. Then, on the flip side, several of the archived conversations I archived between the student and myself will NOT populate my inbox if the student responds again to the archived conversation. It is happening both ways. Can we confirm which is the correct approach given they Canvas may have changed how the archives function with the new release? Is there a site I can view to check this on my end. If they did, the only option for instructors is to keep all messages in the "inbox" just in case a student ever responds to us. That is a extremely overwhelming for instructors  if that is the case.  If I can find out if the new release did change the archived messaging approach that has been in place for several years where any new messages and/or responses to any conversation (archived or not) went to the inbox for easy review, that will be super helpful for me to then direct my concerns to their team. There are several other instructors with the same concerns. Kim

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @KimTByrd ...

I don't work for Instructure...I'm a fellow Canvas user like yourself.  So, I don't have any inside knowledge on whether or not this feature was changed recently.  The best thing I can point you to are the Canvas Release Notes and the Canvas Deploy Notes...where you can see what has been updated/changed.

Canvas Releases - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Also, there is a Canvas Change Log - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com), but I'm not sure if this will be as helpful.

I hope these links will provide some help and insights!

[cynwolf75]

@Chris_Hofer, this is not a new feature request.  

Echoing what @joaocaram said below, this is a new problem.  Our institution has had Canvas since summer 2013, and replies to archived messages ALWAYS came to the inbox and generated a notification to our institutional e-mail if we had that feature turned on.  Until mid-June, it worked flawlessly.  

For record keeping purposes, I archive rather than delete student messages, and this bug is such that the only way to know if a student has replied to an archived message is to search through all archived messages.  Since new messages don’t come in chronologically and bump the thread to the top, this is time-consuming and, really, just impossible when teaching hundreds of students.  I *really* hope that Instructure priorities fixing whatever they did to cause this problem.  I can’t possibly keep all student messages in my inbox because of a programming bug, and this current failure is such that my instruction is impacted by inability to respond to my students as quickly as they expect.  

[Chris_Hofer]

I understand your concern, @cynwolf75.  Looking at the summaries of the Release Notes and Deploy Notes listed on this page, Canvas Releases - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com), I do not see anything referencing a change in how the Inbox works related to archived messages.  I guess it's possible that they inadvertently forgot to add a note somewhere within the Release Notes or Deploy Notes that this was going to be a change...if it was indeed intentional (I do not have any insights on this).

As I had suggested a few days ago (see my above post from July 1st), people can reach out to Canvas Support to report this (if you do believe this is a bug that needs to be fixed).  They may already have record of this and would add you to the existing open ticket in their system so that you would be notified when things have been fixed.

How do I get help with Canvas as an instructor?

Please keep us posted...thanks!

[cynwolf75]

Thanks, @Chris_Hofer!  I spent some more time digging into this, and it looks like it was something that got broken when they were working on something else?  Anyway, it’s now a known problem with, unfortunately, no known solution.

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Known-Issues/OPEN-Replies-to-Users-Who-Archived-the-Conversation-...

*sigh* 

[KristinL]

@cynwolf75 - Thank you for sharing the link to the Known issue! That will help others who search the Community regarding the same problem.

[cynwolf75]

@KristinL, of course!  I’m glad that I found it and am happy to share.  😊

[KimTByrd]

Super helpful!  My IT team thought I was losing it I think because I insisted this was not the expected behavior.  I just sent this their way!   Awesome sleuthing!  Appreciated!

[cynwolf75]

@KimTByrd, thank you for your kind words.  I had good luck with our Canvas liaison as he was able to reproduce the problem when I described it.  He said that, when he spoke to Canvas support, they told him that our version is “misbehaving” as replies to archived messages should still return the message to the inbox (just like they always did).  I’m really hoping they fix this soon as it’s super disruptive.  I posted announcements letting my students know about the issue and asking them not to reply to messages, which has made it a bit better for those who actually read their announcements.  😂 

[KimTByrd]

I just noticed another glitch in the Canvas messaging system as well. Now, when you utilize the search bar option by student name, you have to search the inbox, sent box and archived box each separately to locate a message you may have sent or received from a student. This has NOT been the case in the past. In the past, if you utilized the search bar by student name any and all messages (whether in inbox, sent box, or archived box) would appear for the instructor to review and respond/use/view. Another frustrating bug for instructors. I only discovered this because I knew I had sent a message to as student last week and the functionality has now changed for the search option. Sigh! I will post to the Canvas forum as well. I am not sure if Canvas is aware the inbox is bugging on all levels, but it is!

[cynwolf75]

So, this morning, I logged in, and it appears that they really are working on things!  I’ve gotten a bunch of replies to archived messages, despite asking students to send new messages because of this problem, and of course, they are replying to old messages.  It still shows on the Instructure page as under investigation, but this morning at least, it’s working the way it’s supposed to work.

Incidentally, when I was looking through their support pages, I saw that the 7/20 release is going to incorporate the ability to add a signature block to Canvas messages (aside:  Who actually wants this?  We want a rich text editor in e-mail, and they are doing a signature block instead? *facepalm*).  I’m guessing that, while messing with the code to add the silly signature block, someone messed up the code for replies to archived messages.  It should be an easy enough fix, I would think. Anyway, I just wanted to report some positive movement from my side of the keys.  Happy Thursday!

[lrussell]

Several days ago I asked this same question.  Indeed, in the Archive folder, Canvas fails to notify me that it has placed a new email to a thread that I've since archived.  It is very frustrating as students send several emails with the thought I have received notification, but I haven't.  

[KimTByrd]

Agreed!  This was not happening in the past to me in Canvas messaging, but is now as of mid June.  In the past, I would be notified of new messages regardless if they were brand new messages from a student or in response to a prior conversation that was archived.  Now, all of a sudden, archived conversations are not showing as new messages and I have been missing student communications.  Archives did not work like that in my prior experience.  When a student would respond to an archived message, I would see it in my Canvas inbox and I would receive an emailed notification to my school Microsoft account as well so I was sure to know a student communicated with me.  I did check my "notification" settings and they are all set in Canvas to immediately email me at my school Microsoft account for any new messages, so that is not the issue.  I did not make any changes to my Canvas settings for this change to occur.  It just started happening around mid June and no one on the school's tech team can figure out why this changed.  Is there a setting instructors can change to have any new message (brand new messages or responses to archived messages) be placed in the inbox and for us to know if a student needs assistance or support? It is greatly hindering student communications in the current format.  I tried to reach out to the Canvas team directly about this issue and they never responded to my request for assistance.  It has been extremely frustrating.  The other element making this more difficult is the archived area is not listed in date order, so in order to locate a "new" communication from a student, I have to scroll through the archives for several pages to see if any student from a past conversation responded.  It is very time consuming.  Keeping all messages in the inbox vs archiving them really keeps the inbox cluttered and again, can cause a message to be missed.  Archiving helps organize the messages, but if we are not notified of new responses once archived now, instructors need to be made aware of this change. 

[joaocaram]

I have noticed exactly the same. We've been using Canvas in our courses since 2020, but this strange "archived behaviour" started to happen only a few weeks ago.

[cynwolf75]

And that’s the way it ALWAYS worked until whatever patch they deployed in mid-June.  This is just awful and so bad for students.  

[KimTByrd]

Hello All - I received word from my university tech team that the Canvas team has fixed this issue.  I have tested it as well and it does appear to be back on track and working now where any new message (brand new or from an archived conversation) will appear in the inbox and will notify your external email (Microsoft for me).  Awesome news!