dsmith
Did you actually report a problem to Canvas support? Have you clicked on Help and then Report a Problem?
This community is filled with volunteers, like @mvogt1 , who use Canvas but don't work for Instructure and cannot speak for Instructure or Canvas. There are a few Instructure employees here in the community, but asking about something here is not the same as reporting it to tech support so they are aware of the situation. Telling your principle about the problem doesn't mean that it got passed on to Canvas, either.
When certain people have issues and others don't, the troubleshooting process involves looking for the common thread among people having the issue. This is what Canvas support does. When you report a problem, it lets them know that you're using (for example) Chrome 75 on Windows. If all of the people reporting the problem seem to be using Chrome or outdated versions of Chrome (75 is no longer supported), then it helps them get a clearer picture of what's going on. Here in the Community, you just said it doesn't work, but didn't supply any of the information like browser, operating system, etc., that would help narrow down the issue. That leaves us to offer suggestions that may or may not help when it's really Canvas Support that needs to know about the issue. Even if Mike has seen it several places (and not just one user), Mike may not have the time or ability to track it down. Even then, Mike works for one institution. Canvas Support can see the bigger picture and more data makes it easier to figure out what's going on.
The inability to set tokens could be an issue on Canvas side. It might be related to having multiple accounts and getting confused. It might be a free for teachers (FFT) issue that doesn't affect the paid users. Those are all things that Canvas would have to fix.
On the other hand, it could be a browser issue and that's something that you can check. There are some known (at least in the Community) issues right now (viewing PDFs in Chrome with certain extensions loaded and seeing images with Safari) that are browser specific. Safari has had a lot of problems with people who haven't updated their operating system.
Have you tried using a different browser? If you're using Chrome and it doesn't work, try Firefox. If you're on a Mac using Safari, then make sure your operating system is updated.
Have you tried clearing your browser's cookies? In Chrome and Firefox, this is Shift+Ctrl+Del and then remove the cookies. That clears out all of your cookies and you will have to log back into some sites, include Canvas.
Some browsers are set to block third-party cookies. I value privacy and don't like people tracking me so I normally block as much as I can that is not related to the site and I run adblockers to prevent additional tracking or malware from entering my system. I had a lot of issues with students using the Google integration until I went through and unblocked certain cookies that it was unable to set. Now the Google documents that my students embed work. Again, I'm not saying that is the cause here, but it might be.
One thing you can try to get around the cookie and extension issues are to open an incognito window in Chrome (Shift+Ctrl+N) or a private window in Firefox (Shift+Ctrl+P). Then log into Canvas and see if the problem still exists.
You can check for blocked cookies in Chrome and Firefox by looking near the location bar with the URL. In Chrome, there is a crossed-out eye at the end when third-party cookies are blocked. When you click on it, you get something like this image.
When I follow through to learn more, I see that the blocked cookies on this particular site (not Canvas) are from Twitter. I do want to block Twitter cookies, so I leave them blocked. However, if they were from something that looked related to Canvas, I would turn them on.
As a final note, one issue with providing help through electronic communications is that troubleshooting gets technical in nature. A trained person can often spot things and resolve an issue quickly. Some people may not feel comfortable or get frustrated with the hours or days it may take to troubleshoot online. It may be completely beyond some people to fix the problem and they need to call in someone else to look at it.
Here's an analogy. I can see the symptoms and know that my air conditioning isn't working in my truck [cannot log into Commons]. I can put R134a refrigerant in it [try a different browser] but that doesn't fix the problem [still cannot log into Commons]. I can even add R134a refrigerant with special chemicals that are supposed to seal a leak [check the cookies on my browser] but that didn't fix it either. I can even Google the issue and watch videos on YouTube about how to fix the air conditioning on the truck. That's when it really hit that I am beyond my ability and it's a bigger issue than I can solve by myself (I might be able to, but I have better things to do and I don't have the right tools to do it). I have to make a choice. I can keep adding refrigerant every time I want to drive the truck (not environmentally friendly or sustainable and just not the right thing to do), decide I just won't use the air conditioning on the truck [don't use Commons], or call in someone else to take a look at the issue. This might be a mechanically inclined friend [local tech support] or it might be taking it to the mechanic [Canvas support].
Making a post here in the Community is like announcing on Facebook that I'm having trouble with the air conditioning in the truck. I will get lots of empathy and advice from people. Some will even say they knew someone who had the same problem (perhaps even with the same model truck) or that they know someone who has an uncle who is a mechanic and will ask them (but then never get back to me). Until someone knowledgeable comes and looks at the truck or I take it to my mechanic, the truck still won't have any air conditioning.
Sometimes the issue takes a while to diagnose and resolve and you might need to involve someone else than who you originally went to. I did take my truck to my mechanic and he couldn't find any obvious leaks even after putting the dye in. Perhaps I need to go to a specialist with a leak detector rather than just a dye detector?
This discussion post is outdated and has been archived. Please use the Community question forums and official documentation for the most current and accurate information.