[Admin Tools] Admins need "clear user's cache"

[S9300807]

The Canvas support team has a link on a users profile that "clears the user's cache".

So far this has fixed issues when the items don't display on the course navigation or courses do not display in the Inbox to message.  Recently we had several teachers who could not view the PEOPLE item in the course navigation and they could not view courses in the InBox when trying to send a message. We suspect several user issues can be resolved if we have access to this cache clearing tool. 

We requested to have access to this magic tool as it clears the users Canvas cache which often is an issue.  Let's vote it up that admins have access to it. I entered a ticket for our admin to have it but it was denied. 

Support has a link on the profile as indicated below. 

[clouviere]

Has there been any follow-up to this? Maybe it could be an on/off feature on root level "settings" or an on/off feature assigned by the account role. This would help a multitude of issues faced by root-level admins that typically take a call to Canvas.

[IanGoh]

2022 - still no feature for admins.

[eric_hybner]

July 2022 - still not available to admins.

[ChrisMedina]

This is needed by admins. the time spent getting to this point where the Instructure suppose understands that this is the step needed is too long. I spend too much time waiting for the tech to come to this conclusion when we should be able to have this feature. the delay could lead to students dropping classes cause they see this as being too much of a bother if they are going to have issues accessing their classes. 

[wboswell]

We 100% need this as admins. It would streamline support to students and ensure they stay in class and are successful. 

[blong]

This is long over due and requested for a long time.  While we have the option of suspending accounts, this option is great for short term options.

[tamara_becker]

👍

Attn: Instructure Feature Request Reviewers

Please remember that Canvas Administrators are highly out numbered by faculty and students, so the whole voting up isn't apples to apples in numbers of votes.

Clear User's Cache would be a magnificent tool for Canvas Administrators.

The result would be less escalated tickets to Instructure and lower troubleshooting time in cases.

[DeletedUser]

Yes please on this request, thanks!

[sallie_davis]

This would be so helpful for supporting students remotely. Please give us this option!

[NielsPostma]

Hi all,

For all ending up here after a google search:

I've had a look at the source code of the software (which is open-source), and found out that when you don't see that link, it is because your Canvas environment (the IT infrastructure) does not have caching enabled.

So, any issues you or your students are experiencing, are not due to 'server cache'. It could be a local browser cache issue however. But this can only be resolved in the user's browser, not remotely by an admin.

If you run a pretty large Canvas environment, you might want to get in touch with IT Department, or whoever hosts the software, and see if they can enable server caching. This will improve the site's performance.

I hope this helps other admins who are looking for this function..

Niels