Are you experiencing missing/broken images in Canvas (Pages etc.) since 6 November 2024 ?

[paul_fynn]

As with other Canvas users we have experienced past issues with images in Canvas Quizzes and Quiz Banks, particularly associated with copying and importing to alternate Canvas courses. We understand that this has been under investigation by our Canvas colleagues since the summer, and that a resolution was in hand.

• Our impression is that a fix may have been deployed over the last few days, and that the fix has had adverse impacts on embedded page images
  • For context, we store our navigation icons in a central 'institutional access' Course and Fileas area, and disseminate these via template pages (sample below)
    • ie the images are not localised, but are previewed from that central institutional access course and files area
  • The fix seems to have simultaneously affected our live, Test and Beta environments

As of Wednesday 6th November 2024 +/= 1700 GMT (UK) we have selective broken links in our landing pages (per the before and after images below). These icons were set up in 2021, and on checking the storage location we find that the images on which the icons are based appear to have been deleted from the course page.

We have passed the details to our IT Support, and Canvas, and are awaiting their advice - in the meantime is anyone else able to confirm that they are experiencing similar issues ?

[jhammonds]

Yes, I have one teacher is experiences this but it is still within her quizes. She is always missing one image in a quiz. 

[paul_fynn]

Thanks @jhammonds - have you tried tracking back to the original quiz to check that it isn;t an external link, nor stored in her personal files area or a different course area ?

[CarolBuehrens]

Hi Paul!

Yes, we’ve been encountering some incredibly frustrating issues as well, even in courses that were previously running smoothly — some for over two years and others for just a few months. We’ve seen images disappear from surveys (original quizzes), and videos inexplicably replaced with duplicates across multiple pages. We’re finding programming inconsistencies, like data-api-endpoints directing to the wrong course and data-media-ids pointing to the wrong videos. Image IDs have also been changing unexpectedly, resulting in broken references. Plus, whenever we "replace" items in the files area, the ID updates, which disrupts the connections to our course pages.

On top of this, the ongoing issue with Discussion replies and the fix button not working as it should has left us beyond upset. With hundreds of courses and thousands of students impacted, we’re absolutely floored by these challenges!

[paul_fynn]

Thanks for your input @CarolBuehrens - we haven't yet encountered further issues on Quiz images, but have had previously. A further previous issue (which seems to have been recently resolved) was image updates not pushing through to the app.

We have now resolved our icons issue (per my original post) with some fiddly work. In some cases our missing images had been deleted, and a simple undelete put them back where they should have been. In other cases the undelete brought back a much older version of the image. We then had to re-upload the latest version of the image as a replacement.

Looking at the API documentation, it appears that there is a chain tracking mechanism that allows Canvas to keep track of the versions (see below) - my speculation is that there has been some programmatic action taken to resolve the old Quiz image issues that has involved manipulating this. I don't recall being advised that any solution was available to test, and if this is what happened then it has certainly had some unwanted effects. 

https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/files.html 

• replacement_chain_context_type

  string

  When a user replaces a file during upload, Canvas keeps track of the “replacement chain.” Include this parameter if you wish Canvas to follow the replacement chain if the requested file was deleted and replaced by another. Must be set to ‘course’ or ‘account’. The “replacement_chain_context_id” parameter must also be included.