Canvas@Illinois, Problems with Email Notifications from Canvas

This article describes suggestions to troubleshoot issues with not receiving emailed notifications from Canvas. You should first review your account- and course-level notification settings, and then review your contact methods to verify that your email address is not suppressed.

Review Account-Level Notification Settings

By default, the most important notifications are enabled on all new accounts (for example, Announcements and Inbox/Conversation messages are set to "Notify immediately" by default). However, each user has the ability to change this if they choose. If you find that you’re not receiving notifications, you should review your Account-Level Notification Settings:

  1. In your Global Navigation Menu, select Account.
  2. Select Notifications from the tray.

Your overall account settings will now display. If you are concerned about receiving email notifications and announcements, make sure the following are enabled in the Email column (and set to either Notify immediately, Daily summary, or Weekly summary):

  • Announcement
  • Conversation Message

Optionally, if you would like to receive notifications to confirm that announcements or inbox messages were sent by you, you should also enable the following:

  • Announcement Created By You
  • Conversation Created By You

For example, in the screenshot below, the account-level settings are displayed. Announcement is set to immediate notification (indicated by the green bell icon in the Email column) as well as an immediate notification to the Canvas mobile app (indicated by the green bell icon in the Push Notification column). For extra confirmation, Announcement Created By You is also set to an immediate email notification but no mobile app notification is enabled because it is unsupported (indicated by the gray circle with a line through it).

Screenshot of Account-level notifications with a red arrow pointing from Announcements to the immediate notification icon under the Email column

Review Course-Level Notification Settings

Similar to your overall account settings, you can adjust notification settings for specific courses. It is important to note that your course-level settings will override your account-level settings for that specific course. This means that if you turn off your announcement notifications at the course-level, even though you have announcements enabled at the account-level, you will not receive announcement notifications for that specific course.

To view your course-level notification settings:

  1. In your Global Navigation Menu, select Account.
  2. Select Notifications from the tray.
  3. Under Settings for, select the drop down menu and select your course.

Screenshot of Notifications settings page with "Settings for" drop down menu expanded and a purple, dashed arrow pointing toward an example course available to be selected.

Similar to the account-level settings, ensure that the following settings are enabled for email notifications for your course (either Notify immediately, Daily summary, or Weekly summary):

  • Announcement
  • Conversation Message
  • Announcement Created By You (optional)
  • Conversation Created By You (optional)

Error with Email Notification Preferences

If your notification settings are set correctly and you're still not receiving emailed notifications, review your contact methods in account settings by doing the following:

  1. In your Global Navigation Menu, select Account.
  2. Select Settings from the tray.
  3. Under Ways to Contact, you should see your Illinois email address with a star icon.

If, however, you see a red exclamation point next to your email address, this means your email notifications are suppressed and this is the reason you are not receiving notifications. This issue may happen if an email notification sent by Canvas bounces back because the email address is incorrect or due to temporary issues with Instructure's/Canvas' servers. This icon means that you are on Canvas' suppression list (in other words, you won't receive notifications) for two weeks from the initial bounce unless you request to be removed from the list. 

Screenshot of user's settings page with red arrow pointing to the red exclamation mark on the right side next to the user's email address, indicating that the account is on the suppressed email list

How to Fix a Locked Account

To correct the red exclamation point issue, you can contact Instructure’s Canvas support directly by clicking the Help icon in the Global Navigation Menu (either using the chat feature or calling the hotline number). If you contact Instructure’s Canvas support directly, they will be able to assist in removing the lock on your account.

You can always submit a ticket to the Technology Services Help Desk (at consult@illinois.edu) but the issue will need to be escalated to the vendor and cannot be resolved by the Canvas team at the university. Contacting Instructure’s 24/7 Canvas support directly will be the fastest way to resolve this issue.



Keywordscanvas, email, notification, settings, suppressed   Doc ID130499
OwnerCanvas C.GroupUniversity of Illinois Technology Services
Created2023-08-22 09:46:36Updated2023-08-28 08:29:51
SitesUniversity of Illinois Technology Services
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