Replying to Inbox messages via e-mail has long delay.

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PaulNagami
Community Contributor

I am an instructor in multiple Canvas courses. When a student sends me an Inbox message on Canvas, I receive it via e-mail. 

If I reply via e-mail, the reply will eventually show up in the message chain in Canvas Inbox. However, this can take many hours. It is unclear when the students are seeing these messages. Refreshing Inbox does not show the sent message. A few hours later, it is a toss-up as to whether the message will show.

Waiting 24 hours will cause the message to appear in my inbox as a reply, but that is far too long a delay on communication with students.

Any clarification would be appreciated--thank you!

EDIT: Example: A student messaged me at 10:19 AM via Canvas Inbox, and the message was forwarded to my e-mail. I replied to the message via e-mail at 10:47 AM. As of 1:44 PM, the reply still had not gone through, and the student sent me another message. However, if the previous patterns hold, when I check my messages tomorrow, it will have gone through then.

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1 Solution
chriscas
Community Coach
Community Coach

Hi @PaulNagami,

I am fairly certain that if you don't see the message in your Canvas inbox, that the student will not see it either.  Being able to reply to inbox email notifications is very fast and convenient, but I would honestly recommend that you reply from Canvas itself if there are urgent messages you need students to see ASAP.  Emails replies could be delayed for a number of reasons: the email itself being delayed in transit, the number of emails Canvas is receiving globally, etc...  With this being the beginning of the year/semester for most schools in the USA, my guess is that the volume of email has increased significantly, causing some delays as the system processes the queue of messages.  You could still reply to most messages via email as long as they aren't urgent, but for the urgent ones taking a few extra steps on your end to reply from Canvas instead of email will probably help the students out a lot!

Hope this helps!

-Chris

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