File preview showing incorrect file contents

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hasti
Community Champion

I'm having an issue with the file preview feature of Canvas not showing the correct contents of text files.

Here's an example:

On a Canvas Page, I have linked several text files (which I have uploaded to the Canvas Files area):

272992_pastedImage_1.png

If I now click on the file preview for world2.txt, I see:

272996_pastedImage_2.png

Similarly, if I click on the world2.txt link, I see:

272997_pastedImage_3.png

However, when I download the file and open it up, I get:

272998_pastedImage_4.png

The downloaded version is correct (compared to what I uploaded to Canvas Files).

There are two issues with the preview versions:

1) The preview is adding a period (.) after some of the numbers which are not present in the existing text file. This is annoying, but the purposes of what I am doing in my course, ok (since 4 and 4. represent the same number in the program my students are using)

2) The preview versions are missing some lines and show a line that is not in the file!!! Specifically, the preview has

4. 4

5. 6  <--- line not in the actual file!

6. 4

while the actual file contains

4 4

4 5 <--- missing from preview!

5 6 <--- missing from preview!

6 4

This is a much more serious problem. What's going on? How can I make Canvas' preview show the actual contents of my text files?

1 Solution
hasti
Community Champion

This is a bug in Canvas. I have reported it to the extent that my institution allows me to.

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