Troubleshooting Canvas Issues for Instructors

I can't sync my roster at all.

If you are a teaching assistant (TA), it's possible that your Canvas permissions do not currently allow access to student email addresses, which you will need to sync a roster.

If you suspect this may be the case, most likely, you will need to ask another instructor or an admin in your course to make some account and/or permission changes. Here's what to ask them:

Solution 1: Ask an admin to change the permissions for your Canvas role to allow you and anyone in the course with the same role to "view primary email addresses." Your admin should be able to do this on their Permissions page in Canvas. For more information, you can also direct them to the following Canvas article for admins: How do I manage the Permissions page? Once your permissions are changed, an admin or another instructor may need to re-sync the roster in Gradescope.

Solution 2: Ask an admin or another instructor to change your Canvas role to "instructor" and then have them resync the roster in Gradescope.

Solution 3: If your role or permissions cannot be changed, ask another instructor to sync the roster or post grades in Gradescope for you.

I can only sync part of my roster.

If some members of your course can’t be synced with the rest of your roster, it is likely because they do not have an email address associated with their Canvas account. To fix the issue, either ask the course members or your Canvas admin to add the email addresses to the accounts in Canvas. Then re-sync the roster.

After unlinking a Canvas course from Gradescope, the initially synced roster remains on the Roster page even after linking a new course.

Please contact help@gradescope.com to have the excess students removed. Alternatively, if there are no assignments within the course, you can delete it and create a new one to link with Gradescope.

This icon on the roster indicates that the student has not been synced with your LMS/integration.

If a student record has been added to Gradescope manually, and the roster has not been synced, then this is expected.

However, if the roster has already been synced and this icon next to the user remains greyed out, please take a look below for the next steps.

Make sure that the student’s email address in the LMS/integration matches what is on the Gradescope roster; if it does not, then this record will remain unlinked.

If you have synced the roster and the records (email addresses) match, then the record should become linked: 

If the record remains unlinked even after reviewing the email address and details in both Gradescope and your LMS, please contact help@gradescope.com.

Tip: Preventing users from signing up to courses using the enrolment codes, when using an LMS, and instead only allowing them to be added through the LMS, can help minimise the risk of linking issues (as some users may sign up with an alias or alternative email than one listed in your institution’s LMS.

I can't post grades from Gradescope to Canvas.

Solution 1: Re-sync the roster. Click Post Grades to Canvas again.

Solution 2: If you are a teaching assistant (TA), it's possible that your Canvas permissions currently do not allow access to student email addresses, which is necessary for syncing a roster and posting grades. If you suspect this may be the case, most likely, you will need to ask another instructor or an admin in your course to make some account and/or permission changes. See the first row of the Roster-syncing issues table above for more info.

Solution 3: Your Canvas course may have concluded/ended. To allow grades to be posted again, check and update the Canvas course settings’ start and end dates (or the term start and end dates) to include the current time.
If your Canvas courses have concluded, even though the term start and end dates have not passed, you can contact your Canvas admin to confirm the term associated with the Canvas courses and when the term is set to end. Alternatively, you can change the Participation to Course, enter the start and end dates, and post the grades.

Gradescope doesn’t appear in the embedded window when I use the Safari browser.

To use Gradescope in an embedded window within Canvas, select Preferences from Safari’s settings and then ensure Prevent cross-site tracking is unchecked.

Gradescope doesn’t appear in the embedded window when I use Chrome in incognito mode.

Third-party cookies may be blocked, which will prevent this functionality.

To temporarily enable third-party cookies, select the eye icon on the right of the URL address bar when you attempt to launch Gradescope LTI. A modal will appear where you can select "Site not working?" and then Allow cookies. This setting will reset when you restart your browser.

To permanently allow third-party cookies, go to https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647. Select Privacy and security, and then Cookies and other site data. Here you will be able to allow all cookies. This setting will remain unless you return to the settings and disable it.