Canvas experienced an unknown error  Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, that temporarily removed course listings for some UNF faculty and students. 

ITS released the following update shortly after the error occurred: 

“Unfortunately,  an unknown error had removed some students from their Spring 2021 Canvas courses after midnight last night,” the statement read, “The Help Desk is aware of this issue and is actively working to resolve it. You will receive an email the moment your courses have returned to your account.”

The same day, rumors began to float around campus that Canvas was hacked. Spinnaker reached out to ITS to see if those rumors were true, and figure out exactly what happened to Canvas.

“No, there was no hack,” UNF Assistant Director of ITS Gunner Lake said in regards to the hacking rumors. 

According to Lake, the missing course error was caused by users logging into their Canvas as the campus portal was being updated from Single Sign-On (SSO) services to Microsoft Azure late Wednesday night.  

“Everyone was pleased with the results, but a new setting conflicted with a refresh process that ran overnight, causing Canvas users who logged on in the early hours of Thursday not to see their classes,” said Lake, “The Canvas and Security teams were on the issue first thing in the morning and fixed that setting conflict. After that, they re-ran the refresh process, which restored affected users’ classes by 11 a.m on Thursday.” 

For more information on Canvas or help with other IT related problems, students and faculty can contact the ITS Help Desk by visiting this website.

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