Canvas Release Notes (2026-01-17)

Upcoming Canvas Changes

2026-03-25

Deprecation: Removal of Unauthenticated File Access

For more information, please see Instructure Enforcements, Deprecations, and Breaking Changes.

Release notes outline upcoming customer-impacting changes that are expected to display in beta and/or production environments. Please note that features considered for future development are not included in the notes.

Unless otherwise stated, all features in this release are available in the Beta environment on 2025-12-15 and the Production environment on 2026-01-17.

All Resources | Features in this release may be included in product blogs and other content areas.

Institutions are responsible for conducting thorough evaluations of their custom CSS/JS with each release and deploy to assess potential impacts.

Subscribe to the Canvas release notes to be notified of updates.

New Features

Canvas Apps

Availability and Exceptions [This feature is currently delayed in the production environment and will be available in the next production release.]

Affected User Roles: Admin

Feature Option to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	Yes
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Account level settings-manage LTI registrations-manage
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Apps

Summary

Root account admins can manage LTI 1.3 tool availability from a single location within the root account. This management includes the ability to grant access to specific sub-accounts or contexts, or conversely, to make the tool available everywhere except for specific contexts.

Note: To ensure proper permissions, availability exceptions set by the root administrator at the course level are excluded during the course copy process.

Change Benefit

This feature provides a clearer, more efficient way to manage LTI 1.3 tool availability within Canvas.

Feature Workflow

In the Apps page, click the desired App link.

In the Availability and Exceptions tab, click the Create Deployment button.

Click the Add Exception button.

In the Add Availability and Exception modal, select the desired subaccount or course [1]. Then, select availability [2] and click the Save button [3].

Note: Courses can also be searched by course code.

In the Availability and Exceptions tab, admins can view LTI availability of a course or sub-account [1]. Click the Edit button [2] to make changes or the Delete button [2] to remove the exception.

Click the History tab [1] to view when an update occurred [2], who updated it [3] and which fields were affected [4]. To view more details related to the change, click the Affected Fields link [5].

Feature Video

https://community.instructuremedia.com/embed/111c1f15-fc4e-4164-bd04-03792230991e

Embed Code:

<iframe width="560px" height="320px" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay *" title="Release Screencast: 2026-01-17 Canvas Apps: Availability and Exceptions" src="https://community.instructuremedia.com/embed/111c1f15-fc4e-4164-bd04-03792230991e" frameborder="0"></iframe>

New Quizzes

Native Canvas Integration available in the Beta Environment

Affected User Roles: All Users

Feature Availability	Beta availability environment only on 2025-12-15. Production environment availability will be announced in a future release.
Feature Option to Enable	New Quizzes See the Canvas Feature Option Summary to learn more about Feature Options.
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	Account (Disabled/Unlocked)
Subaccount Configuration	Yes
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	No
Affected Areas	New Quizzes

Summary

The New Quizzes experience is moved out of its isolation layer (iframe) to run natively within the main Canvas page.

Notes:

The architectural block (iframe) is removed, but some third-party tools may not work immediately.
Providers may need to update their tools to interact with the new New Quizzes structure.
Proctoring solutions may require updates to work seamlessly with the new architecture.
New Quizzes remains a secure external LTI tool.
The change only affects the presentation in the browser (iframe removed). There are no other interface changes.
LTI protocol continues to handle secure communication, grade passback, and authentication. Existing LTI limitations still apply.

This update is planned to be made available in the production environment in February to allow partners additional time for testing and adoption, and will be announced in a future release.

Change Benefit

This architectural change improves accessibility, enhances compatibility with assistive technologies, and lays the foundation for additional feature support in New Quizzes.

SpeedGrader

Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader Feature Preview is Concluded

Affected User Roles: Instructors

Feature Option Name to Enable	Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader See the Canvas Feature Option Summary to learn more about Feature Options.
Feature Preview User Group	Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	Account (Enabled/Unlocked) Course (Enabled)
Subaccount Configuration	Yes
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	SpeedGrader
Mobile App Support	Not available
Free-for-Teacher Availability	Available

Summary

The Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader feature is no longer in feature preview, and the feature option is enabled by default for all institutions, but can still be disabled if needed.

This feature provides foundational improvements to SpeedGrader's backend, delivering faster load times and enhanced stability. Additional updates include:

A streamlined interface for the Section drop-down menu.
A clearer, more prominent No Submission alert.
An improved interface for courses without content.
Submission Status updated to a drop-down menu.
Rubrics automatically display in the traditional view.
Media attachments and submission comments are repositioned, and the delete icon has been updated.
A Comment Library filter.
Support for moderated grading
The Assignment Comment Editor supports images, math, and course links.
A Multi-Select Sections filter.

Note: The Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader user group will close for participation on April 17, 2026. After this date, current members can continue to view information in the group in a read-only format.

Change Benefit

This feature enhances performance for a faster, smoother experience for users handling larger courses or complex assignments. Upgrading the backend technology improves SpeedGrader's ability to manage high-demand tasks more efficiently and reliably.

Feature Workflow

The Sections drop-down menu is redesigned for a more streamlined and user-friendly interface.

The No submission alert is enhanced for better visibility and clarity.

Courses without content display a streamlined interface.

Instructors can edit the submission status using the updated Status drop-down menu.

Rubrics automatically display in the traditional view.

Note: When the Enhanced Rubric feature option is enabled, instructors can choose additional rubric views.

Feature Video

Not Available

Other Updates

Conferences

BigBlueButton Raise Hand Placement and Reporting Updated

Affected User Roles: Admin

Summary

The Raise Hand button is relocated for improved access. For educator accounts, the list of active hand-raises is integrated directly into the User List. See the BigBlueButton guides for more information.

Note: BigBlueButton functions as a third-party integration. Development cycles and feature releases for BigBlueButton are independent of the Canvas LMS release schedule and may not align with specific Canvas update dates.

Developer Keys

Canvas Apps Link [This feature is currently delayed in the production environment and will be available in the next production release.]

Affected User Roles: Admin

Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Name of Permission relevant to feature area
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Developer Keys
Related Ideas	None

Summary

In Developer Keys, the Show Key button is removed for LTI Keys and replaced with a View in Canvas Apps link. The Show Key button remains available for API keys.

Change Benefit

This change streamlines the Developer Keys page by replacing an unused option with a direct link to Canvas Apps, making it easier for admins to manage integrations in the appropriate location.

Feature Workflow

To open the Canvas Apps page, click the View in Canvas Apps link.

Feature Video

Not Available

Deprecation of Limit Argument

Affected User Roles: Admin

Summary

The limit argument is deprecated and removed from user.comment_bank_items_connection. Please use the standard GraphQL connection argument first instead, which provides the same functionality and ensures a consistent experience across all connection fields.

Change Benefit

This change increases stability and predictability across Canvas integrations by adhering to GraphQL best practices.

Deprecation of user.comment_bank_items_count Field

Affected User Roles: Admin

Summary

The user.comment_bank_items_count field is removed. This field previously returned the number of available comment bank items for a user.

A more flexible method is available for retrieving these values using user.comment_bank_items_connection.page_info.total_count. This approach provides a consistent structure for counting items across supported connections, including comment bank items.

Change Benefit

This change improves API consistency and flexibility through standardized counting, simplifying development efforts for applications retrieving user data.

Infrastructure/Platform [Added 2026-01-05]

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Affected Users: All users

Affects User Interface	No
Affected Feature Areas	Canvas Infrastructure
Related Resources	Improving Canvas Infrastructure with a Content Delivery Network 2026 API Change Log

Summary

Most Canvas instances are fronted by the AWS CloudFront CDN. This change does not impact Canvas appearance, domains, or functionality.

A small number of instances receive API GET requests with a body instead of query parameters, which CloudFront does not support. These instances have until April 18, 2026 to update request behavior.

All other instances are included in a gradual rollout during the first two weeks of January and are expected to transition seamlessly.

Instances excluded from the January rollout display a notice on the Developer Keys page.

Change Benefit

Serving Canvas assets through a CDN improves page load performance, network resiliency, and security.

User-Agent Header Enforcement [Production Delayed as of 2026-01-09]

Affected User Roles: Admin

Related Resource	Enforcing User-Agent Header for Canvas API Requests

Summary

To strengthen API security and governance, all HTTP requests must include a User-Agent header. Requests without this header are rejected in Beta as of October 1, 2025, and in Production on January 17, 2026.

Change Benefit

This change improves API security, governance, and platform stability through better identification and management of integration traffic.

Change Log

2025-12-17	Added Conferences BigBlueButton Raise Hand Placement and Reporting after initial publish of release.
2026-01-23	Updated SpeedGrader user Group link
2026-01-20	Production Delay Canvas Apps: Availability and Exceptions AND Developer Keys Canvas Apps Link
2026-01-09	Delayed User-Agent Header Enforcement See the Canvas Platform Breaking Changes for more information.
2026-01-08	Added This update is not currently available in the production environment. to New Quizzes: Native Canvas Integration
2026-01-05	Added Infrastructure/Platform: Content Delivery Network (CDN)
2025-12-22	Added Video for Availability and Exceptions
2025-12-18	updated User-Agent Header Enforcement production date. Added Upcoming Changes

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Canvas LMS Release Notes

Comments

KNGoh

Please confirm if the date for User-Agent header enforcement is 17 Jan 2026.

Canvas Release Notes (2026-01-17) - Instructure Community	Enforcing User-Agent Header for Canvas API Requests - Instructure Community

Heather Ahern

Hi @KNGoh yes, the enforcement is 1/17. The typo has been fixed.

paulamiranda

Hello, I seem to recall there is a way for institutions to opt out of the enforcement of Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader (i.e. not have the feature flag enabled on January 17). We've inquired with our CSM but I also wanted to ask here if that option is still available? January 17 will be two weeks into our Winter term and not ideal for a major upgrade on a feature that involves student assignments and grades.

dbrace

Hi @paulamiranda,

According to the release notes above for Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader, the feature option will be enabled by default at the Account and Course levels and it will be unlocked.

This means that, by default, instructors will be able to disable if it they would like to and that LMS admins will be able to change the state to disabled and can determine if that state is unlocked or locked.

More information is available below.

https://community.instructure.com/en/discussion/663762/performance-and-usability-upgrades-for-speedgrader-goes-to-general-availability-in-january

-Doug

https://community.instructure.com/en/discussion/663762/performance-and-usability-upgrades-for-speedgrader-goes-to-general-availability-in-january

TrinaAltman

@InstContentTeam For this item listed at the top of this page:

________
2026-03-25

Deprecation: Removal of Unauthenticated File Access

For more information, please see Instructure Enforcements, Deprecations, and Breaking Changes.

________

I am not seeing it listed on the Instructure Enforcements, Deprecations, and Breaking Changes page and comments for that page are closed. Can you please provide more information? Thank you.

Heather Ahern

Hi @TrinaAltman Apologies, it seems the update was not published. The changes pages is updated and you can view more information in the Modernizing Our Files API for Enhanced Security and Performance blog.

james_whalley

@InstContentTeam Regarding Canvas Apps - Availability and Exceptions, do you know if there are any plans to make it easy to migrate apps that are currently deployed at the subaccount level to the root level with exceptions? It seems that currently, to use this feature to bring all of our lti management into one space, we would have to undeploy anything 1.3 that is not at the root level and redeploy it with the proper availability and exception settings.

Chris_Beks

I have this question as well. We've been diligent about only installing LTI 1.3 integrations for a while now, and I hope we do not have to go through those again. Any insight would be welcome

JoshDickey

What APIs does CDN affect, exactly? Will Grades be affected, for example?

JoshDickey

I meant, what APIs does the CDN change affect?

Chris

Hi @JoshDickey,

My read of the notes here is that it would affect any GET API where you're sending parameters as part of the body instead of as part of the URL. I checked all of the code I've created over the years and all of my calls used querystrings in the URL, so my code shouldn't be affected.

I guess I'd say it's less about a particular API itself as it is about the "style" of code being used for API calls.

I hope this info helps a bit!

-Chris

JamesSekcienski

The update to New Quizzes to make it a Native Canvas Integration is concerning since it is a breaking change for proctoring solutions and potentially other LTI tools. We are concerned about Respondus LockDown Browser no longer working after this update since the vendor says more development work is still required to support this change.

Thankfully someone highlighted that this update is only for Beta at this time and won't be coming to Production yet so this is a lot less concerning now.

dbrace

Thank you for raising this concern, @JamesSekcienski. My institution is a Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor customer but we are only in the beginning stages of New Quizzes.

Has Respondus shared the information publicly or was it while contacting them?

Has Respondus actually said that this change is (at least currently) a breaking change?

Has Respondus given a timeline for when it will be supported?

-Doug

JamesSekcienski

@dbrace You're welcome! We learned it when we opened a support ticket with them after reading the note that the update to New Quizzes may cause proctoring tools to not work. I'm not sure if they have made a public announcement yet and we didn't receive a timeline. The reply we received on the support ticket about this update said that it is not yet compatible with LockDown Browser and additional development work is needed to be compatible.

jmerlenbach2

We've had this active for a while now - you can still deploy at not root and add exceptions there, and all existing non-root deployments remained.

For example, we have an LTI deployed at a sub-account, but can now set an exception to disable it for a sub-sub-account, or for specific courses.

For future deployments, we are going to consider just doing them at the root if there are no reasons not to, and adjusting the exceptions to make them available in the spaces that need them.

dbrace

Thank you, @JamesSekcienski!

-Doug

james_whalley

I just realized that, from the root level, you can see all of the individual subaccount and course deployments already. So now everything is visible in one place!

…now I see that I cannot add new course deployments at the root level for apps already deployed to individual courses.

dbrace

I do see that referenced.

-Doug

screenshot from above below for clarity and to help others so they do not have to scroll back up

Canvas -- New Quizzes -- LTI change -- Beta.png

tbaker-mc

When testing New Quizzes in beta, I noticed a significant UX difference when a student presses the "return" button after submitting. Currently how it works in Production is that it would go back to the title page of that New Quiz item where the student can retake or view the results again, but it also has the "Previous" and "Next" buttons for when it is accessed in sequence (e.g., go from a page in a module to the assignment to another page). However, the beta update doesn't do this — instead, the "Return" button brings the student back to the Modules page, and neither the "Previous" nor the "Next" buttons exist. Is this a bug or an expected change? This impacts how we create our LMS orientations and how we verbally present directions to students.

AFurr

I also reached out to our Respondus rep and received the following from their support and also plan to share with our CSM:

The changes documented by Canvas in their "Canvas Release Notes for January 17, 2026" are not currently compatible with LockDown Browser.
Our testing in Canvas’s beta instance shows that New Quizzes no longer work with LockDown Browser. Canvas returns a “we’re sorry” error.

We have reported the results of our testing to our contacts at Instructure. At this time, I cannot provide a timeline as to when Canvas might be able to develop the necessary fixes.

andrew8

Did the Canvas Apps → Availability and Exceptions feature get delayed? I don't see them in our production instance.

masantos

Hello,

I don't see the changes from this release in my production instance, specifically the Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader feature option. Did something happen?

mzimmerman

I am not seeing it on our production instance, either.

MARISSASCHRADER

I also am not seeing this in our production instance. I'm wondering if it got delayed for some reason.

InstContentTeam

This Release Note has been updated. Please see the Change log.
Production Environment Delay-Canvas Apps: Availability and Exceptions AND Developer Keys: Canvas Apps Link

james_whalley

@masantos Do you still find that the Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader update did not happen for your instance?

james_whalley

@InstContentTeam I am having trouble finding the Change log referenced. Can you link to it?

BrianFritzen

Hoping I missed it. But I can't see any dark mode yet. A request that has been sent and talked about for years. It is 2026. Time to catch up to 2016.

Heather Ahern

Hi @james_whalley , This references the change log at the bottom of the release notes, where you can view the history of changes.

james_whalley

@Heather Ahern I don't know how I possibly missed that.

slwilso3

I am not seeing any of the changes to the New Quiz UX in our Beta. Everything seems to be enabled on our admin level, even the admin higher up sees nothing. Anything we can do to make this change happen?

james_whalley

@slwilso3 Did you look at the page html and see if an iframe was still loading? Visually, I don't think it's supposed to look different.

reenie_arnold

I was given this link, to learn about why the highly the baffling feature of "disabling the 'Submit Assessment' button" for rubrics was implemented. I spend more time trying to figure out why it's "off" and enabling/disabling as I work through comments and add points for a singular assignment. This "improvement" is the antithesis of saving time grading: it's creating more work and is annoying. Please disable this feature, or give us the option to. Thank you.

EOKES

The updated Speedgrader interface now forces you to scroll through the entire list of students from top to bottom every time you move to a new pupil to grade. The old interface "remembered" where you were in the list, showing a few students above and below the student you currently had selected. In courses with 30-100 students, this is inconvenient. Using the arrow buttons to either side of the student's name is not a great solution either, as if not all students have submitted work yet, you'll have to cycle through each name anyway.

Chris

Hi @EOKES,

I do agree it would be nice for the dropdown list to take you to the current student instead of starting at the top.

Something I do for a large course I have grading tasks is is to change the sorting order in SpeedGrader options to "submission status". That way all of the students who need to be graded are grouped together (usually at the top of the list for me). So that makes the dropdown more useful, but also makes the arrows more useful to as they'll go to the next student who has an ungraded submission after you grade one.

I know this isn't a full solution, but thought I'd share the strategy with you as it may help out.

-Chris

Chris

Hi @tbaker-mc,

My guess is that is a bug/oversight with the changes being made to New Quizzes display in beta right now. I'd definitely report that to Canvas support to it can be documented and hopefully taken care of by the team before those changes go to production in the future.

-Chris

Chris

Hi @reenie_arnold,

I tried to reproduce this in our Canvas instance, but the "submit assessment" seems to always be enabled/available for me to click. There might just be a certain combination of things going on for you that I don't have setup the same in my testing though. Have you contacted Canvas Support to report the issue so they can look into it further and get the issue officially documented and queues up for engineers to look at?

-Chris

Kristin Lundstrum

Hello!

I wanted to take a moment to call out the positivity and collaboration happening in this thread! It’s amazing! Conversations like this make the Community stronger for everyone.

@Chris, @james_whalley, @dbrace, @AFurr, @jmerlenbach2, and @JamesSekcienski—your willingness to help others better understand the release is appreciated! I'll be sending you our new Everyday Community Hero badge a thank-you for how you’re showing up and supporting your peers. 🙌

tbaker-mc

Yeah, that was my plan after testing today/Monday to see if anything changed. Given another issue we were having with New Quizzes, was trying to focus on that over this one.

tbaker-mc

It would definitely be nice to have this as a native item. A browser extension you could use is Dark Reader. Not perfect, but definitely that dark mode experience we all wish web Canvas had (even though the mobile apps have it).

tbaker-mc

@slwilso3 @james_whalley

Visually, it doesn't look different. However, the URLs are different. The updated New Quizzes pages will include "/build" and "/settings" in the URL, whereas in the production environments, it's practically the same URL no matter what tab you're on.

Gregory_Veloso_

Hello,

Regarding the recent changes in Canvas, what has significantly impacted me is the following: when accessing concluded courses, after selecting an assignment and then opening SpeedGrader, a message now appears stating that there are no students in the course. Previously, however, the submissions made by students were still displayed. This functionality was very important to me and to my colleagues.

Is there any place where it is still possible to access these past submissions?

masantos

@james_whalley

The updates finally showed at the end of the day on January 20. We had issues with our DesignPLUS customization once it was released and we were able to fix it. For some reason, the new update broke our customization and made all of the text in the SpeedGrader white, and instructors could not read the submission details and rubric comments. It is good now.

OmerYukseker

Speedgrader has been broken with the update. It is no longer possible to comment on an anwers if the answer is rotated:

Nancy_Webb_CCSF

@Gregory_Veloso_ , I checked in our concluded courses and speedgrader is showing the students. Our courses only conclude by section end date, but they are concluded. I also tested in Beta by using the Conclude the Course button in settings, but students were still showing in speedgrader although they were no longer visible in People except under View Prior Enrollments.

If this was a bug I hope it was fixed!

Gregory_Veloso_

So, I usually complete courses using the following button (button 1). Before that, in the "People" tab, the registered students appear in the view list.

However, after completing the course, the students no longer appear in the "People" view (image 2).

However, I can still download the assignments in a zip file (image 3).

They just don't appear in the Speedgrader list (image 4).

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