User Cannot Access Canvas

When a user (especially a new user) reports that they cannot access Canvas or a particular Canvas course, it is usually a not a Canvas problem. It is usually one of the following:

• The user's FSU account
• The Canvas course is unpublished or otherwise unavailable.

To assist the user, please take the following trouble-shooting steps:

User Cannot Log into Canvas: Likely User Account/Credentials Issue

1. Determine if the user has an FSU Account. Almost all users should be provisioned with an account in Canvas automatically shortly after their FSU account is created in Banner (see exceptions below). There are a few ways to determine if the user has an FSU account, but you should probably start by asking the user. One surefire way is to log into Canvas with an administrator account*, click on "People" in the account navigation menu on the far left (below Courses) and search for the user's name. If the user does not have an FSU account, advise them to wait up 24 hours and then contact the registrar's office. If it is an emergency, they can contact the registrar right away.
   1. Exception: Users who are neither students nor faculty may not automatically be provisioned with a Canvas account, even if they have an FSU account. Contact ETO (eto@framingham.edu) for such situations. One group that often falls into this category is temporary employees.
   2. Exception: non-matriculated students, particularly individuals who have signed up for "Professional Development for Educators" (PRDV) course through DGCE. These users will not be automatically provisioned with a Canvas account after their FSU credentials are created. They may be able to log into FSU portals such as myFramingham, but when they attempt to log in to Canvas, they may see this message: "Canvas Does Not Have an Account for this User." They will likely have to wait until their course registration is processed, which is done manually through the Registrar's office. They may need to wait until approximately 2 weeks before the course start date.
2. Determine if user is able to log into any FSU portals (such as myFramingham). If yes, then their username and password are valid.
3. Determine that the user is logging into the correct place. The URL for FSU's Canvas instance is https://framingham.instructure.com/. The login portal can also be accessed from myFramingham.
4. Guide the user to reset their password following the steps described here: How to activate or set up my password
5. If the user has followed the instructions described in step 4, but are still getting an error message, the ticket may need to be escalated. There are a few unique scenarios that must be dealt with individually, or a PIN Reset may be necessary. If you are able to do a PIN Reset yourself, try this, and remember that users should wait 30 minutes after a PIN reset before attempting to log in.

User Can Log into Canvas But Cannot Access a Certain Course

1. Determine if course is published. There are 2 ways to do this:
   1. Guide user to log into Canvas, click on "Courses" in Global Navigation Menu (Far left), then select "All Courses". In the the All Courses List, there is a column on the far right for "Published." If the course is not published, it will say "No" in this column,
   2. Log into Canvas with an administrator account* and search for the course. A green checkmark will appear in the "Published" column in the list of courses). If the course is not published, advise the user to contact the instructor.
2. Determine if user is actually registered for the course by guiding them to check myFramingham. If they have just registered recently, it may take some time for the course to appear in Canvas (usually less than 2 hours but possibly up to 2 business days). 

Additional Troubleshooting Steps

1. Check whether you can log in to Canvas, using your regular FSU account (not an administrator account). To be extra sure, try logging in from an Incognito/Private browser window. Ask others around you to do the same. If no one else is having trouble logging into Canvas, then is definitely not a problem with Canvas.
2. Check https://status.instructure.com/ to see whether Canvas is actually down or performance is degraded.

*Canvas Administrator Account: ITS Student workers have access to a Canvas administrator account with limited permissions. The login page for admin accounts is different than the one you would use for your student account. For admin accounts, log in at https://framingham.instructure.com/login/canvas. If you do not know the credentials for the ITS Student worker account, reach out to ETO.