Features Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2025-06-21)

[InstContentTeam]

Looking to discuss these features from the 2025-06-21 Release Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

New Features

• Account Navigation: Canvas Apps
• Canvas Apps: Monitor Tab- LTI App Usage
• Dashboard: Interface Updates for Instructure Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey
• Files: Redesigned Files Page [Delayed as of 2025-06-20]

Other Updates

• Accessibility Updates: Enhanced Structural Clarity
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Error Feedback
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Visual Clarity and Semantic Structure
• Accessibility Updates: Streamlined Navigation and Keyboard Accessibility

New Feature Previews

• Differentiation Tags
• Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader

ADD FEEDBACK FOR THESE FEATURES IN Q&A TOPIC

• This topic is for feature discussion only—Please share use cases, best practices, questions, clarifications, etc. regarding this feature.
• Please thread replies as possible to keep posts organized. This will help everyone to track discussions and to participate.

ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK—WHERE TO POST IDEA SUGGESTIONS AND SUBMIT BUG REPORTS

• Idea requests for the Product Team to consider should be submitted in ideas.canvaslms.com . This is the best way to ask for additional or alternative functionality than what is included in the release. Linking to the related idea here so others can find it is encouraged!
• Bug reports should be submitted to Canvas Support. This way, cases can be connected and uniform updates can be provided to those involved. Bugs will not be triaged in this thread

[bergs]

Through quick testing of the redesigned Files page, I see that using the "select all" checkbox only selects the 25 items on the current page of files shown, and not all files within the current directory. When navigating to the next page of 25 items, your selection on the previous page doesn't persist, so it seems like it is only possible to download or move 25 items at a time with the new view. I believe users would prefer if the "select all" checkbox truly selected all files and wasn't limited by the pagination. 

When selecting multiple (but not all) items, it would be more user friendly if the selections persisted when navigating between the pages of 25 so that users can select and perform bulk actions across items that appear on different pages.

Additionally, the numbers on the bottom for navigating between the pages of 25 items only show "1 2" at first, even if there are many more pages of files in the course. If you start clicking through the pages, then additional numbers in this page number navigation list appear. There should right away be some visible indication of how many pages of files there are in the course in this navigation area.

[venitk]

I've also experienced what @bergs did. I would like to see how many pages are in a folder without having to click through them all. In other words, if I open a folder and there are 4 pages, I would like to know that when I open the folder. 

I would also like to download all the files in a folder into one zip folder rather than four folders (in this scenario). Currently, I'd have to download the files for each page separately, resulting in 4 folders. 

Ideally, there would be a that fairly common UX option available of "show all files," where I could choose whether or not to paginate. 

so my question is: is that possible?

[KataKeri]

Hey @venitk and @bergs,

Thanks for your feedback! These all make sense. I already forwarded these to our team and started discussing possible solutions. 

[TiffanyStull]

The “Change Benefit” stated in Release Notes for the changes to Files is the following: "This update offers a cleaner, more intuitive interface that simplifies file organization and management. Improvements like pagination, sorting, and streamlined selection tools enhance usability, especially for users working with large file sets." How does moving away from familiar design paradigms used in many applications like moving files by dragging and dropping them and using Ctrl+A / Cmd+A keyboard shortcuts for selecting all items make the interface "more intuitive?"

If the rationale for removing these features is that they are not usable or accessible to users of assistive technology or certain devices, I disagree with that approach. If a feature currently requires a specific type of interaction (e.g., mouse click) or device (e.g., computer with connected keyboard and/or mouse), it should not be removed. Rather, the feature should be modified such that it works for users accessing the system with other modes of interaction or devices, or an alternative method to complete the task that is equally effective should be added to support those users. It is possible to integrate accessibility into interfaces that offer drag-and-drop functionality, for example, as described in this blog post from the Paciello Group (TPGi): The Road to Accessible Drag and Drop.

Additionally, removing features that users have used for years with a relatively short timeline between the announcement and implementation of the change makes it difficult or impossible for institutions to do change management and warn potentially affected users.

[KataKeri]

hey @TiffanyStull,

Thank you for your feedback. We'll discuss this with the team - these changes were applied because of the pagination we've introduced, but I'm sure we can figure something out so we can make these options work with pagination present. 

We usually have a 1 month interval between beta and production release so our users can adjust to the changes - what is your suggestion on the ideal timeframe? 

[TiffanyStull]

@KataKeri I think the preferred timeframe should depend on the change in question. If you are removing features that people have used for many years, especially if it might make their work less efficient, there should be a longer timeframe before implementation to inform users and make them aware of potential issues they may encounter. Making major changes with what users feel is little or no warning, especially if the rationale for those changes is not clearly articulated or understandable to the users, can erode customer confidence in an application or service.

[theJBRU]

---

@InstContentTeam wrote:

Other Updates

• Accessibility Updates: Enhanced Structural Clarity
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Error Feedback
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Visual Clarity and Semantic Structure
• Accessibility Updates: Streamlined Navigation and Keyboard Accessibility

Please provide the same level of detail about these updates are you do for the rest of the items in these release notes. In particular, having screenshots similar to what you provide for other changes would help us determine if the changes you are making will impact any of the customizations we may have in place. That would allow us to adjust to them before they have an impact on our users. Accessibility updates deserve at least as much attention as you are given the other items in these release notes.

[EmilyCottrell]

@theJBRU Keep fighting the good fight. Maybe at some point we will eventually get more explanation about what all that means instead of it just feeling like an obligatory "we are doing stuff for this too" -- our team is also heavily invested in increasing our site accessibility but have no idea what this means for us in terms of progress towards that goal. 

[EmilyCottrell]

As it seems the new changes to "Files" are presenting cause-for-pause and significant changes to typical functionality Canvas users have come to expect when dealing with Files, will the "Switch to Old Files" be available once this releases into production? If not, our team has a lot of faculty and staff to notify because this change is significant and will need to be taught to all past users ahead of time to reduce panic. I need to know how much work this is going to put on our team. 

I am not seeing any documentation created by Canvas to ease this transition--if that exists, I would love to have access to share with faculty to prepare them for this change. Or I would love to know if Canvas will build that before releasing it into Production (to save our team the task having to build all the documentation ourselves). This is not an intuitive change for many of our users, so we are going to need a transition period. 

[RobDitto]

Building on @EmilyCottrell's questions above, I want to ask a clarifying question:

• How long should we expect Switch to Old Files Page to remain available to end-users?

[KataKeri · Accepted solution]

hey there,
yes, the switch back option will be available in production too, this is how we'd like to support the transition period - we want to make sure that everyone has a chance to review the changes and accommodate to it. We're keeping the switch back option until we fix reported issues - as we expect more to come after prod release.
For Canvas features documentation is provided by production release - that is also on our radar and will be available on Saturday, when the release is scheduled for. 

[TiffanyStull]

@KataKeri will a user's selection of the "Old Files" option be "sticky" in any way? For example, if an instructor switches to the "old" experience, will it be "remembered" in their account that they want the "old" experience in all their courses? If it will not be remembered in the user's account, will the setting at least be stored in a local browser cookie, so it won't get eliminated right away while they're still working in the same course and session?

Or will the view reset to the "new" experience every time the page refreshes? This would be significantly less helpful for a user who is trying to revert to "old" files to continue using keyboard shortcuts or other commands that have been removed.

[kailey]

@TiffanyStull This was something I tested last week. A user's preference is sticky. The release notes also mentions, "A temporary toggle allows users to switch between the new and original interface. This preference is retained across login and logout sessions."

[TiffanyStull]

Thanks @kailey ! I missed that in the release notes because I scrolled down too far to where the workflow description/images were located.

[RobDitto]

The Files redesign is a sweeping change, even though it solves problems such as incomplete "lazy loads" of folder contents and accidental drag/drop on the left-folder pane.

Was (or is) there any consideration of a feature flag to help institutions roll out this change thoughtfully, with more advance notice?

[KataKeri]

a feature flag won't be provided, as this is not an optional change. we need to roll this out as the only option to use over time. until then, users can switch back to the old version if they encounter issues. 

[dbrace]

I agree with a lot of what my peers have said related to the changes happening in the "Files" areas (for courses, groups, and users).

Would it be possible to have the default be what the current UI/UX is but with the option for changing to the new UI/UX?

That way (1) institutions will have less challenges related to the change (which is happening in the Summer, when less users are using Canvas but also one less thing at the beginning of the academic year and only a few weeks away after it is rolled out) and (2) Instructure could analyze how many users have (on their own) changed to the new UI/UX.

-Doug

[KataKeri]

I understand your concerns. Our aim is to show this change as a default so users experience it and provide feedback in time, and this is one way they will notice it right away. They will have an option to change back to the old one for a while if they encounter issues or want to test later. 

[kailey]

@KataKeri Below are some my concerns regarding the Files Redesign.

1. Separation of “Manage Permissions” and “Manage Usage Rights”: Although the release notes claim the separation is to improve clarity, this actually causes more inconveniences. Currently, choosing either of these options allows instructors to easily set both usage rights and permissions all at once in one window. Soon, completing both tasks requires more clicks and in separate workflows. Also, if an instructor accesses Manage Permissions first, adjusts the file visibility, and click Save, they encounter an error instructing them to set usage rights first. This adds confusion and frustration to what was once a simple workflow. 
2. File Preview Responsiveness: When previewing a file in the old/classic view, the preview adjusted responsively to browser size. In the new view, the preview disappears entirely if the window is resized below a certain threshold. For me, it disappears even when the browser window still displays over half of my laptop screen. I’ve filed a ticket for this. 
3. Public Course Files Unavailable: When the Canvas course visibility is set to Public and a user is not logged in, they are unable to access the Files page. They encounter a Page Error message. However, when logged in, but not added to the course, the user does have access to the Files tool. Currently, Public course files are visible to those logged out of the system.
4. Loss of Sharable File Preview Links: Although it does not come up much, I do periodically share File preview links with instructors or students. Now that file link sharing is no longer available, I don't seem to have a way to directly point a user to a specific file when they write to our support team. I was told by Instructure that this is due to the introduction of pagination. Introducing new functionality should not be at the expense of existing functionality. 
5. Loss of Drag-and-Drop: It’s very disappointing that drag and drop is no longer available. Moving files and folders now require many more clicks than before. But I do admit that it would be more difficult to drag-and-drop once the tree structure is removed. 
6. Select All only includes the max of 25 items displayed on the page, not everything in a folder. It’s not a huge deal for nested folders because users can go to the parent folder and download the entire folder. However, for the highest level, there is no way to download all items at once. 
7. Pagination: As others mentioned, the pagination should always have some sort of indication with regards to how many files there are within a folder, without the need to click page by page. 

I also have two questions:

1. Others have asked the same - how long will the toggle to switch between the old and new view be available? This information is critical for communication and documentation purposes.
2. Could you provide clarity what the following statement means, “Preview links are no longer shareable outside the platform”? I submitted a ticket for this, and am awaiting a final response.

These are some pretty big changes. It would be appreciated if we had more time to prep training resources for our users. Thanks.

[kailey]

I also just discovered that I can no longer drag & drop from my computer directly into the Canvas Files tool. When I read the release notes that states, "Moving files or folders by dragging them into other folders is no longer supported" and "Drag-and-drop functionality for uploading files into the upload files modal remains available", I took that to mean users cannot drag existing files into existing folders and that I can still drag from my desktop into the Files tool directly, the way I can in the old UI. However, that's not the case. Users must now click Upload and then drag & drop into the pop-up window. Instructure really needs to stop adding extra clicks to workflows that already worked well. 

[dbrace]

Hi Kailey,

I have been able to duplicate the experience that you have described and I have reported it directly to Canvas Support (12408599) in order to find out if it is the intended experience.

-Doug

[kailey]

Hi @dbrace. I heard back from Instructure this morning. They're saying it's not expected behavior and have escalated to engineering. Can you confirm you heard the same? Thanks!

[dbrace]

Hi @kailey,

I reached out to Canvas Support over the phone. The agent that I spoke with needed to escalate to the next level and I requested that they follow-up with me via email. I have not heard back from them yet.

-Doug

[kailey]

@dbrace In case you didn't get an update, this is now fixed on Beta. You can drag and drop directly from your desktop into a folder. 

[dbrace]

Thank you for that update, @kailey. I have not heard back and have not been able to check in beta.

-Doug

[KataKeri]

Yes, we added back the drag and drop functionality and now it is available on beta.
Thank you for the feedback! We're looking into the items you've listed. 
Just to note: switching back to the old files page will be available until we fix the major issues users are reporting. but I'd like to emphasise that the new files page will be the only option after a while. I'll post a note about the exact date in time so users have time to adapt if they haven't already. 

[kailey]

@KataKeri Do you/Instructure plan to address all the reported bugs by the time this is released to Production or are you going to release to production on 6/21, knowing there are all these existing issues what will impact all Canvas uses? 

[kailey]

Another bug with the New Files UI: When using Student View and navigating to the Files tool, there's no option to view files in the new UI, only the old UI. 

[KataKeri]

looking into this, thanks for the report. 

[cdoherty]

Why does every tool redesign always make things worse for the end user? It is quite perplexing. Instructure seems to be completely out of touch with its customer base.

[KataKeri]

We understand that a major UI change can be frustrating at first, but we did this change for a reason. The old UI had multiple frictions, was very outdated and it had several accessibility issues, and load times were also a problem. We are aware that the new version has some issues and we're on to fix them. Please let us know if you have any specific problem in mind outside what has already been reported. 

[cdoherty]

If you are forcing users to see the new UI when you know it is full of bugs and poor design (the pagination is a disaster, not being able to download all files of a large set is terrible), then saying it's ok because the user can go back to the old version (making them take extra clicks), that is just unacceptable treatment of your customers. This happens repeatedly and the functionality that gets taken away and the confusing workflows rarely get fixed (Grade Posting Policy, Discussion Redesign to name a few). Just because you fix some issues that need to be fixed does not make it ok to take away functionality that users need or make workflows more cumbersome. A redesign should be an improvement only. Why can't Canvas wait to release new designs until the main issues are fixed? Why must you constantly force your users to do QA?

[marthazumack]

My team's feedback regarding the Files redesign is in bold, for each sub-section

Interface & Navigation

• Large sets of files include pagination.
  • Pagination doesn't seem to work properly. In my Sandpit, it initially shows 2 pages for top-level folder, but when I go to the second page, there are actually 3.
• The folder tree view is removed.
  • The folder tree was more useful than annoying. Could this be optionally hidden rather than removed completely?
• The All My Files button opens to a landing page instead of a folder tree.
  • Doesn't really matter as doubt many people use this view often, but would also prefer to keep the left navigation for this.

File Management Enhancements

• Column headers support sorting.
  • This is listed as an enhancement, but this was already possible.
• Manage Permissions and Manage Usage Rights open in separate modals for improved clarity.
  • Having managing usage rights and permissions in same modal was helpful. Confusion was due to having separate buttons that opened slightly different versions of those options. Would prefer just a single 'manage rights and availability' button that allowed you to do both.
  • Having a dropdown for the availability is more annoying that radio buttons, as requires two clicks to select. You also have to click to see the options in the first place. Would prefer to go back to radio buttons for this. Radios for visibility would also mean fewer clicks, but less important as that is changed less frequently.
• The View button is removed.
  • Fine, was pointless anyway and confusing when you could select multiple files and still click View, but it would only show one of the files (but what else could it do?).

File Interaction Changes

• Moving files or folders by dragging them into other folders is no longer supported.
  
  • Drag and drop moving is a helpful feature, why would this be removed?

Selection Behavior Updates

• A Select All checkbox and Individual file selection checkboxes are available.
  • The Ctrl+A / Cmd+A shortcut for selecting all rows is removed.
  • Ctrl+Click / Cmd+Click to select individual rows is removed.
  • Shift+Click to select a range of rows is not supported.
    • These are all useful features, so not sure why they have been removed. Checkboxes are OK as equivalent of Ctrl+click, but slightly more annoying. Shift+click can be helpful and there's no equivalent.
• Users can bulk Download, Delete, Move and Edit Permissions and Manage Usage rights.
  •  These were all possible already, so not an improvement.

Link Sharing

• Preview links are no longer shareable outside the platform.

• • This one probably is helpful - is that fixing the issue of private file links being indexed by Google?

[dbrace]

Thank you for your extensive experimenting and documenting.

[KataKeri]

Thank you for the detailed feedback, we really appreciate it. We are looking into these!

[leward]

Just poking around in the new Files UI in some courses that have large numbers of Files.

• I agree with others who have voiced that the pagination could be more robust.  Ideally it should show the first few pages and the last page, so users have an idea of how many pages they're dealing with, 2 or 20 or 200.  It would also be nice if it were possible if the number of items per page were selectable from 25 to perhaps 200.  When working with large numbers of files, the ability scan and select from a larger number per page would increase efficiency.  The current approach to pagination reminds me of what's available in the Instructure Community site, which has always irritated me.  
• Some of our users have very heavily nested folder hierarchies  The new interface makes it impossible to quickly find and navigate to a deeply nested folder.  If the Search feature could include folders in addition to files, that might help, assuming the user remembers what they named them.  Might it be possible to add a separate view that allows users to navigate among folders for those who need this capability--maybe something similar to the Move To view, but withe the ability to navigate to the folder rather than move selected objects?

[KataKeri]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for all the detailed and honest feedback. We really want to make this a smooth change, so we will delay the production release to July 19th - by that time we should be able to fix most of the major issues which were mentioned (especially pagination, keeping selections persistent, keyboard navigations). We'll also consider the rest of the feedback too, however they might be fixed after the production release only, interatively. 

We're still planning to keep the option to switch back to the old version for a while, possibly for an extended time so teachers who get back to school have time to adjust to the new UI and workflows, and/or if you want to update your documentation, etc. I'll communicate the timeline on that one accordingly so you can prepare when only the new version will be available.  

[leward]

Thank you for postponing.  We were just about to post a global announcement about this change.  Glad I saw your announcement before we went public with it.

It would be nice, as a general rule, if Instructure would not commit to a firm release date for major changes until the community has had a chance to weigh in, particularly changes that don't sit behind a feature option flag.  One month is not nearly enough time to gather and address feedback, particularly if there are major bugs or usability issues.  

[RachelSalmon]

Hello,

Did the Apps page Feature option get delayed? It was not listed in production this morning but is not showing up as delayed in the Release Notes. I wanted to check since I was looking forward to that.

Thanks!