Attachments to Inbox from External Email

[tfreund]

Did you know that while Canvas Inbox allows you to forward your email to an external account that if you answer the email from the external account and add an attachment, that will not show up in Canvas Inbox?  Seems that file attachments in this situation go into a unknown land never to be seen!  So if Canvas allows you to forward inbox messages to your external account (in my case my official college email account) then why not have access to full features of standard email? What sense does it make to have the forwarding happen if replies can't have full functionality?

For an instructor, this adds an unnecessary layer of complexity to what should be a simple activity.  If a student emails me a question via Canvas Inbox and it is forwarded to my standard school email account (we use Outlook Mail) then I should be able to answer that student from my regular school account and attach a file and have the student receive it where ever they are reading their email.  Canvas Inbox or their school email account.

Add functionality that allows attachments to come through with an email reply from designated external email accounts or forwarded to their accounts fully intact!

🔎 This idea has been archived. While this idea isn't open for comments, it is an important part of Instructure’s idea conversations and development process. Contributions like this are valuable as Instructure prioritizes work on new or existing features.

[mark_kerfoot]

I bet the no attachments from external email accounts has already caused a million problems in our current 100% online Covid learning environment, and it hasn't even been a month yet. If we can use external email with Canvas, please give us full functionality.

[CMWilson]

I agree. I thought it was a given that this was the functionality. How can it not be? That is why no one votes for it. They are all in disbelief!!

[rcobia]

Email attachments from Outlook when responding to Canvas questions in Outlook need to work and attach and not be lost. I have spent so much time sending attachments and now have to go back and re-do in cavas because the students did not get the attachments, even though I see the attachments and I can forward to other people and the attachments show up.

[ingela_ostlund]

As I teacher i would like to have Ability to attach files in response from outlook to conversations

[mark_kerfoot]

I am periodically reminded of this issue every semester when I have a back and forth with a student about "not getting the attachment." Then, I remember "Oh right, Canvas Inbox kills attachments . ."

Is this necessary? I wish I didn't need to remember this . .

[aasmund_kvamme]

This lack of functionality creates ever new frustrations in our staff. Is there no way to shake the dust of this topic?

[PeteMartini]

How is it possible that there's no movement on this issue in 6 years?!?!?!

For SIX YEARS this vital functionality has just been something that isn't worth Instructure's time? As an instructor, it does NOT make my life easier to move back and forth between the Inbox tool and my Outlook account. Instead, it makes me unbelievably angry at Instructure for dropping the ball...for SIX YEARS. 

I do not like the Inbox tool on Canvas, it does weird things with paragraph spacing (An additional space between paragraphs is so large you need a passport to get from one paragraph to the other). Responding from my email client is easier on my phone and on my computer. Please FIX THIS...six years late is still better than just ignoring this as an issue (that never should have existed in the first place). 

[KristinL]

Our Product Team reviewed some of our oldest feature proposals recently, and this thread was identified as one that they would not be able to include in their current or future plans. While we appreciate your proposal, we also want to be transparent about the likelihood of something like this making it to production.

The Product Team currently focuses on the Discussions Redesign as a prioritized response to customer feedback. As such, they don't have plans to make updates to Inbox within the next year. With the transition to data-driven design, we are in the VERY early stages of investigating improvement opportunities and have noted this feedback. We will continue documenting/researching trends/patterns for future updates.

[PeteMartini]

Translation: This is too hard, we'd have to work with other companies, and we just don't wanna. 

Cool. But then could you at least fix the Inbox tool so that it is a better communication experience? Fix the garbage spacing issues and include things like signatures so instructors can at least use it more like email? Because that's how it's being marketed and that's how it's being used (and how we're increasingly being asked to use it).  

[aasmund_kvamme]

Definitely not good news.

I'm tempted to suggest that you reduce the funcionality in the Inbox. Drop attachements, no forwarding to email outside of Canvas, no "Sent" or "Unread" functionality. Then students and staff are forced to use a proper e-mail service, and will not be confused.