Disappearing Graphics

Discussion created by Panda Giant on Feb 23, 2018
Latest reply on May 7, 2020 by Corinna Jobe

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Hi, My Follow Pandas,

I know it is a known issue but it kept coming back and haunting my courses. My course banners sometimes won't display, neither do some of the embedded pictures in the pages. I have double checked, the link is definitely correct and no file is corrupted. I know it because these disappearing graphics will reappear, the only thing you don't know is when they will.

Have the Canvas tech support solved the disappearing graphics glitch? Or is there any fix to tweak this problem?

I cannot replicate the problem since it is so random. I don't know which graphic will disappear and reemerge. If my impression is not mistaken, JPGs with comparatively larger size tended to be a victim.

By the way, some pages loaded quite slow after the recent updates, am I the only one?

Scott Dennis Seth Johnson

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scottd@instructure.com Feb 26, 2018 8:19 AM
Greetings and Salutations Giant Panda,
The symptoms you are describing do not sound to me like they would be caused by any currently known about issues. Images that disappear and then reappear sound more like what we have heard about people experiencing with local Internet problems such as described in this post. That being said, if you haven't already, please submit a help ticket. Our techs would love to see some screenshots and example page urls so they can investigate further.

Cheers,
Scott
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Nicholas Jones Feb 27, 2018 7:25 AM
I have experienced the same issue across multiple devices across multiple networks, and have had faculty periodically ask me about the same behavior. When I contacted Instructure's phone support, I was told that the problem was that I was using Safari, and that it was expected behavior that I would have to periodically clear my browser caches. I've done tech support for years, and I know that is... bull. If it was a device issue, how can I load other sites I haven't visited before and see their images? If it was a network issue, how can other devices on the same network load Canvas without issue?

To be fair, clearing your browser caches will fix the issue in my experience. However, I am absolutely certain that having to manually clear out caches for their website was not an intended part of the user experience designed by Instructure. No website has it built into their user interactions that we're expected to do something like clear caches, a task I know many of the faculty I work with would not understand.

I don't think Instructure actually plans for users to clear out caches. I do think that they are not addressing an issue that cannot totally accounted for by isolating the problem to the user side. I guess I'm a little salty about this because in almost every other way Canvas has only delighted me.
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- scottd@instructure.com @ Nicholas Jones on Feb 27, 2018 12:36 PM
  Hey Nicholas,
  Would you please DM me more about your support interaction such as ticket number, etc?
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Mark Fuson Mar 5, 2018 12:36 PM
I find it is always safer to download an image, GIF, whatever, and then load it into Canvas and the disappearing act is significantly reduced.
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Kimberly Smith Mar 19, 2018 1:36 PM
This issue (see links below to related conversations from October 2017-January 2018) has resurfaced recently. In my case, all of my images have been downloaded and then saved to my Course Files before embedding them in courses and quizzes.

The problem is intermittent; it occurs across multiple browsers, different computers and networks, and clearing cache, etc. does not resolve the issue. It seems that the temporary fix for this issue (deployed in January) may no longer be holding? Or perhaps a recent Canvas update may have not included the fix to this problem? Some have reported that images in their Canvas Quizzes are not showing up. One indication that this 'quiz image problem' could occur for students may also surface in other places as well. For example...
My HomePage is now sometimes appearing like this: Instead of this:

If you are running into a problem with images disappearing, PLEASE help by submitting a Problem Report to Canvas. I have reopened my Problem Report ticket from December, and I anticipate that it will be making its way to engineers. However, the more that this critical issue is reported, the quicker it will make it to the Canvas Engineers' radar for fixing. In case you are unfamiliar with how to submit a Problem Report... Once you login to your Canvas LMS, click on "Help?" from the Main Menu on the left. Then select "Report a Problem" from the 'dropdown box' that opens.
Some may find it helpful to view the conversations related to "disappearing images" at the links below:
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- Jennifer Carpenter @ Kimberly Smith on Jan 9, 2019 1:43 PM
  I am having trouble with this today. I've made a picture to go with a class, upload it into my files and embed it into content. However, when I get out of edit mode, the picture is gone. When I go back into edit mode, the picture is there! Suggestions?
  
  Screenshot NOT in editing mode:
  
  Screen shot in edit mode:
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gailc@cciu.org Mar 15, 2019 11:29 AM
My course images are disappearing as well. I have seen this happen before but now it seems to be occurring much more frequently. It is getting very frustrating - I see the images, then when I invite someone to the course they seem to disappear or they see them once come back and they are gone. I have changed browsers, refreshed screen, logged in and back out.

Is this a browser issue? File type? Magic????

Any and all suggestions to this issue would be appreciated. This also seems to be an ongoing conversation in the Canvas community.
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- Kimberly Smith @ gailc@cciu.org on Mar 15, 2019 11:56 AM
  Hello gailc@cciu.org ,
  I totally sympathize, and don't really understand why Canvas continues to have this issue. I use images in some of my exam questions - and students can't answer the questions if they can't see the images. My own images have been okay for about 6 months now - but I still worry that they will just start randomly disappearing again. When you submit a ticket, the first response you will likely receive will be to change browser, clear cache, etc.. In my experience, this seldom actually fixes the problem. I wish I had a better answer for you, but it seems that all you can do is submit a ticket and try to work your way up the chain (past the "clear your cache" type responses) until you get to someone who can drill down on what is happening. I think you may find the conversation at Images embedded in Pages disappear/reappear at random? helpful.
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  - Dave Otway @ Kimberly Smith on Apr 20, 2020 2:54 PM
    Omg yes. This keeps happening to my students too. And all I see is reload. Clear cache. But that cannot be the right approach. Class of 250 students. 95 percent see the images. It’s a chemistry class. It’s full of graphics and iMages and Chem formula (which, don’t get me started, have to be images). Why do some students randomly not see the images? And this is in final end of year stressful Online time dependant exams :-( Help please
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    - Nicholas Jones @ Dave Otway on Apr 21, 2020 1:54 PM
      In another part of this thread I think someone posted that it comes down to a specific setting for your institution's instance of Canvas. I know that this was a major problem for me when we first transitioned to this LMS. But it hasn't happened for a long time now. The point being that the fact it stopped happening for me reinforces that it can be fixed at the level of your institution's configuration.
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Corinna Jobe May 7, 2020 12:40 PM
One of my course shells is currently doing this disappearing graphics thing. All of my other course shells at this campus are fine though... I cleared the cache as few times, tried restarting, tried re-uploading the pictures-- nothing is fixing this. This means that even pictures the students uploaded themselves into discussion boards aren't visible, and things I have uploaded also aren't visible. I don't know what to do. This issue used to come and go, but it seems to have come without showing any signs of going now for 3 days.
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