Discontinuing the Attachment button in Discussion and Announcement

[TamasBalogh]

Update: Due to raised concerns about limited user quota for uploaded files through RCE, we have decided to postpone the removal of the “attach” button in Discussions and Announcements until we have a solution suitable for the current use case of the attachment button. No new date is decided upon at this time.

To streamline the user experience and create consistency across all Canvas features, the dedicated “attach” button in Discussions and Announcements will be removed on July 19th, 2025. Users can continue to upload images, videos, and files via the RCE toolbar.

This change applies to file attachments for both initial posts and subsequent replies within discussion topics and announcements. All previously uploaded files using the “Attach” button will remain accessible, and no action is required on your part. To attach files after this update, simply use the tools available in the RCE. 

Here’s an example of the “Attach” button that will be removed from Discussions and Announcements on July 19:

Going forward, users can add images, videos, and documents using the existing RCE toolbar:

This change reflects our confidence in the RCE’s robust media and file handling capabilities. The RCE offers a more flexible and comprehensive way to embed and manage content, including documents, images, and video.

All files that have been previously attached to Discussion posts and Announcements using the legacy attachment button will remain accessible to users. No action is required from users to ensure the continued availability of these previously uploaded files. Users are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the file upload and media insertion features of the Rich Content Editor prior to the discontinuation date to ensure a smooth transition. As a reminder, here are Community user guides that demonstrate how to use RCE icons to attach files:

• How do I upload and embed an image in the Rich Content Editor?
• How do I upload a document in the Rich Content Editor?
• How do I upload and embed a media file from my computer in the Rich Content Editor?

Thank you, and happy learning!

[hesspe]

@TamasBalogh  Please comment on how and whether this impacts on quotas.

According to this document

"Images and other files uploaded to the Rich Content Editor count toward user quotas." (emphasis added)

whereas:

"Attachments added to graded discussion replies do not count against user quotas. "

[chriscas]

I have the same question/comment as @hesspe...

Quotas in discussions/announcements have always been confusing because of the multiple attachment methods.  This will clear up some of the multiple method confusion, but is still problematic because I also have the understanding that anything uploaded through the RCE counts against the user quota.

A discussion, whether graded or not, is most generally thought of like an assignment,  In assignments, submissions don't count towards quotas so students can get all of their coursework done for however many courses/assignments they have.  With discussions, they are often forced go go back and delete things (or we as admins have to raise quotas, which isn't great for storage).  I know this is probably super complicated to fix (and the fix should apple to text-entry assignments too), but uploads to those areas really should be treated like submissions and exempted from any quotas.

-Chris

[NickChevalierUT]

@TamasBalogh - thanks for this update! 

Is any consideration being made to allow embedded images/media in the RCE to come through in announcement email notifications? We have several non-academic departmental courses for majors/minors where the course facilitators will send out internship opportunities, for example, and that announcement might have an associated flyer or video detailing the internship. Many of the students aren't active in these courses and rely on receiving the email notifications from those announcements. Since embedded images/media in the RCE don't come through in the announcement email notifications, our guidance to these facilitators has been to attach the images/media using the attachment function.

Unless there are plans to allow embedded images/media to come through in these announcement email notifications, the loss of the attachment function is going to cause widespread frustration for our facilitators and faculty. I hope this is being considered prior to the sunset of this feature.

Thank you!

[TiffanyStull]

While consistency in experience is nice, I feel like this change will increase confusion rather than improving the user experience, especially for less technically-inclined users. The lack of an attachment or upload button in the Syllabus tool has proven challenging for instructors as we migrated to Canvas from other LMS systems, all of which included an "upload" or "attach" option in their equivalent tools. Our team created a help article: How do I upload a file to the Syllabus tool? to try to address the confusion.

Using familiar design patterns improves a system's usability, rather than lessening it. Attaching files to emails and posts in online discussion boards is a familiar process to many users, and I can't think of any other major discussion, chat, or email application that lacks such a feature. Additionally, interacting with a single attachment button is likely much more efficient for users of assistive technology than having to navigate through the options in the editor bar to upload a file.

Were any users or institutions using Canvas consulted about whether this change was desirable from a user perspective before Instructure decided to implement it?

[stimme]

@TamasBalogh Please reconsider taking away this classic, longstanding Discussions feature. The dedicated Attach button in discussion replies makes it very simple for students with all levels of Canvas proficiency to add one file to their reply. Students have much less occasion to master the RCE's insert / upload workflow than teachers have. It is hard to imagine that many students find the presence of the Attach button inconsistent or clunky, and if they do, that should not outweigh its value in making it simple to attach files.

Please do not prioritize simplicity above usability.

[ProfessorBeyrer]

I started to write a comment asking about the podcast feature, but I did some searching and see that it no longer uses the attachment button and now requires the Record/Upload Media Comment tool in the Rich Content Editor:

How do I enable a podcast feed for a discussion in a course?

In my teaching experience, the students who attach files the old way are less likely to get meaningful engagement from their classmates. The RCE media/file process includes overlay and inline previews, which makes it easier for other users to access the attached files.

[pray4]

While this will not substantially impact our operations, I feel it would be remiss of me to fail to remind our Canvas partners that we need substantial lead time on these changes to communicate them out to all impacted parties at our schools and integrate that communication with our existing schedules, term starts, curriculum committee meetings, etc.

Two months may seem like a lot on the dev side of things, but on the academics side -- it isn't quite as long as you might imagine it is. 😉

[dbrace]

I agree with everything that my peers have said and I am chiming in because this seems to be a rush decision and will lead to more complicated questions/scenarios/circumstances related to quotas at the user level.

We have Canvas "courses" that are used by clubs at our institution. I have worked with countless advisors and student leaders that manage them and tell them that they should be creating "Graded" discussions worth 0 points instead of "Ungraded" discussions because if a member of the club replies to an ungraded discussion with an attachment, it will impact their own user quota (which we limit to 100 MB and the default is 50 MB and user quotas cannot be increased for individual users without increasing it for everyone).

We also have a Canvas "course" that everyone is enrolled into as a student that we use for announcements about activities and offerings and (unless disabled by the user) sends them email notifications. We regularly include attachments to the announcements because email notifications do not include images.

Please reconsider.

-Doug

[cms_hickss]

@TamasBalogh, 

• Will Student attachments (documents) now be saved to the read-only "Submissions" folder?
  • What about videos and images that are embedded?
• If a teacher uploads an item (to topic) will it automatically be saved in the course files, counting against course quota? Or, will it automatically be saved to the user's files area, counting against their individual quota?

[ruvi]

+1'ing the concerns expressed.  The two that stand out are

Quotas - Counting these uploads against the user quota is very problematic.  Like many institutions, we offer our students file storage options (Dropbox, gDrive, OneDrive, etc.) and we keep the Canvas user quota low because we don't want students using Canvas as yet another data storage solution. 

Unless things have changed, user quotas are set at the institution level (with no option for individual quota expansions).  Based on this change we would have to expand individual user quotas for ALL users, based on the heaviest users of this tool.  

Adding Complexity - you are moving from an intuitive and easily visible [Attach] button to expecting our users to search for and find 3 different sub-menu items - depending on the type of upload (image, media, or document). 

They will also need to remember to set access permissions - else their files will not be visible to others.  Many likely won't realize this because they will upload and see their images/media, and won't know that there is a problem until other users complain that they cannot access the uploads. This will result in many new service tickets and a poor user experience.

Please reconsider this change.  

[paul_fynn]

I'm neutral on the removal of the attach button, however I do also feel that we should not be having to rely on students or staff to reach their quota level before they start to use bandwidth and storage more economically.

I have commented on this previously with regards to the warning message that appears when a large file is presented in Speedgrader.

Image resolution in particular is frequently much higher than it needs to be, and there is currently no incentive to reduce or compress images until a quota limit is reached.

Impacts of unnecessarily large files include - student storage, load and download speed, load on institutional and area networks, unnecessarily large bandwidth consumption, more server farm capacity, more server energy requirements.

• Can Instructure please consider warning messages, potentially based on the file type, for staff and students at the point of upload wherever they occur (assignment uploads, discussion attachments / RCE etc.).
  • Precedent for this is in the opportunity to toggle on the copyright statement

[tmalone1]

Like many before have said ...

- User Quota is an issue. 
- We only have 50 MB for user storage. 
- Our user storage is Microsoft - not Canvas
- Students HAVE to use Attach in Discussions since they do not have enough user storage
- If you removed Attach, you will have to allow the RCE options to store in the course, and NOT in User Storage
- July isn't enough time and should only be changed if the Attach feature is replaced with something better (not the RCE that saves to user storage).

[TamasBalogh]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your inputs and raising your concerns.

We understand that the quota is not sufficient for your students to upload files to your graded discussions. We are currently checking how to solve the situation and will update you once a great solution is found. I'd like to assure you, if we would not be able to solve the quota issue in time, we will not proceed with removing the button. 

I'll keep you updated on our findings.

[jsowalsk]

Thank you, @TamasBalogh. Much appreciated.

[DrTerriC]

@Greyhound  We need to check on the RCE enablement to make sure all courses and sub accounts.  have these features turned on by default by July 19th.   We will have to educate faculty on this change because they may be uncomfortable and may need to change their directions.. 

[Greyhound]

@DrTerriC The file and image upload drop-downs in the RCE menu work correctly.  I did have an instructor request to remove all upload options from the Text Box but the only setting that can be disabled is the dedicated 'Attach' button that appears will be removed July 19th.

[Susan_Hicks]

@TamasBalogh 

While I applaud you for recognizing that there will be an issue with quotas for student-graded discussion assignments and where those uploads need to be stored.

It appears that the change is still scheduled for July 19th, unless the issue can be resolved. Do you have a specific date by which you will notify us if this change will happen or not? We may need to inform our students and faculty about this change regarding (duscussion) assignments during our Summer sessions. Withdrawing the change from the release the night before would only lead to confusion, as we need to communicate this information before the change takes effect.

[cms_hickss]

@TamasBalogh 

While I applaud you for recognizing that there will be an issue with quotas for student-graded discussion assignments and where those uploads need to be stored.

It appears that the change is still scheduled for July 19th, unless the issue can be resolved. Do you have a specific date by which you will notify us if this change will happen or not? We may need to inform our students and faculty about this change regarding (discussion) assignments during our Summer sessions. Withdrawing the change from the release the night before would only lead to confusion, as we need to communicate this information before the change takes effect.

[TamasBalogh]

Hi all, 
Due to raised concerns about limited user quota for uploaded files through RCE, we have decided to postpone the removal of the “attach” button in Discussions and Announcements until we have a solution suitable for the current use case of the attachment button. No new date is decided upon at this time.

[mwolfenstein]

@TamasBalogh thank you for your attentiveness to the feedback here on this post. It's very reassuring to know that Instructure is looking at the quota issue with files/images in discussions as it's been one of the top issues that we wind up supporting students on since increasingly even faculty outside of the arts are asking students to periodically use images in graded discussions.

I suspect that most of us are hoping that the solution will involve a way for files including images not to count against individual user quotas in discussions (at least graded ones), but the one other thing I wanted to mention is that it would additionally be helpful if the Google and Microsoft integrations could work to display/preview media files stored on Google Drive and OneDrive/SharePoint. I recognize that this is a whole other lift, and since it wouldn't support users universally is less urgent, but I mention it in case there's a technical implementation that's relatively easy to implement with your partners at Google and Microsoft.

[mbmacdonald]

@TamasBalogh - thanks for your communication on this. I for one HATE that attach button. And I now see that perhaps my institution is unique in that ungraded discussions far outnumber graded discussions. So attaching files to ungraded discussions is the #1 most common way that students are hitting their user quotas, and as @ProfessorBeyrer mentioned, it's not really a very engaging way to use the discussion boards. I do not think that most students take the time to download and open their peers' attachments.

But a bigger point: I wish the file quota rules were not so difficult to understand. I have spent way too much time poring over that resource document. I also think that I found a loophole. In the RCE, there are 2 different menu options: Upload Image and Upload Document. There does not seem to be anything stopping a user from uploading an image, video file, whatever through the Upload Document interface. I believe that if a student does this, it actually does not count against their user quota, regardless of what type of file it is and how large it is.

I have also noticed that there is some confusing with the terminology in these menus: both "insert" and "upload" are used for the same action and both "document" and "file" are used for (ostensibly) the same object.

[TiffanyStull]

To follow up on @mbmacdonald 's comment regarding ungraded discussions, I think user quota should not come into play for any activity (directly graded or not) within a course.

It's very common for students to have issues with ungraded discussions. Students who have an assignment that involves the creation of Pages have also experienced issues with their user quotas preventing them from uploading files they must embed in the pages. For Pages, there is no easy workaround available, as instructors cannot make them directly "graded".

Eliminating the interaction between user quota and all course activities would solve many problems for students.