Canvas app on Mac OS

We have had several students download the Canvas v8.0.1 app onto their Mac computers. Most things have worked fine for them however, when they go to open any MS office documents, all they see is jibberish. PDF documents display fine. We have instructed them to use a web browser for the time being and that is working fine for them. The documents open fine that way.

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue. If so, have you figured anything out to make the office documents display properly .

Thanks

Neil

Screenshot 2025-08-29 at 8.26.20 AM.png

Find more posts tagged with

All Users

Accepted answers

All comments

DanielleLentz

Hey! Users have reported issues with opening MS Office documents (such as .docx and .pdf files) in Canvas on Mac computers, where files either appear blank or do not display properly. These issues are often related to browser compatibility, out-of-date browsers, or the absence of necessary applications (e.g., Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat) on the Mac. Solutions suggested by the community include ensuring that the browser is up to date (especially Safari, which updates with the macOS), trying alternative browsers like Chrome or Firefox, checking Canvas browser requirements, clearing cache and logs, and verifying that the required software to open the file types is installed on the Mac. If issues persist after these steps, I recommend contacting Canvas Support for further assistance.

nweaver

Thanks @chriscas and @Chris_Hofer. The students are now using web browser instead of the app on their Mac computers and are happy with that. Take care!

- Neil

Unanswered Questions

How can I bulk download rubrics from multiple reviewers?
I assigned the first draft of an assignment. Each student got rubric comments from me and from one peer. The Speed Grader view gives me a "Select Rubric" menu, allowing me to toggle between my comments and the peer comments. But the Gradebook's "Bulk Download Rubrics" command generates a CSV file with only the peers'…
Classic Quiz Fill in the Blank: Not all possible correct answers are being graded against
Hi all, I'm looking to see if this has happened for anyone else. A student completed a Classic Quiz and one question was counted wrong that should not have been. In the quiz settings, the instructor entered 9 possible answers for this question. The student entered one of these answers. However, that particular question was…
Partial Credit in Alternative Format Questions
Looking for the addition of partial credit for alternative format questions in Canvas, like ordering and category/matrix. We can only do it in close drop down, matching, and multiple response.
Course Analytics not currently reporting all data ?
Has anyone found gaps in their course analytics ? I'm currently seeing missing last view date, last participation date, and participations at overall course level, even though the same data is present at individual week and student level. Am also seeing truncated asset counts ie we are seeing only the global header counts,…
Allow Observers to View Instructor Comments
It would be very beneficial for observers (parents) if they could view instructor comments. If they had access to this information, they could better understand the grading of individual assignments and better understand the errors that their student made.