Canvas Deploy Notes (2026-01-28)

Canvas deploys contain code changes that are intended to fix bugs, improve performance, and prepare for new features. These deploys take place every two weeks and can be tested in the beta environment before the production deploy date indicated in the title of this document.

Unless otherwise stated, all features in this deploy are available in the Beta environment on 2026-01-15 and the Production environment on 2026-01-28.

Updated Features

Canvas Apps

Tool Icon Customization for Admins

Affected User Roles: Admin

Feature Option Name to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	N/A
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Account level settings-manage LTI registrations-manage
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Install App modals and edit pages

Summary

Admins can update the icon for tools installed using manual, paste JSON, or JSON URL methods from both the Discover and Manage pages in the Apps page.

Change Benefit

This update allows admins to replace broken tool icons on the Apps page, ensuring all tools display correctly without contacting the tool provider.

Feature Workflow

When installing or editing a tool, admins can use the Tool Icon URL field to update the tool’s icon.

Courses

Concluded Courses and Blueprint Associations

Affected User Roles: Admin, Instructors

Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Blueprint courses-add/edit/associate/delete
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Blueprint Course Associations

Summary

Courses that are associated with a Blueprint display a Concluded status pill.

Change Benefit

This update improves transparency for Blueprint associations by clearly identifying concluded courses.

Feature Workflow

Concluded Pill in Blueprint Associations

A Concluded status pill displays when a concluded course is associated with a Blueprint course.

Gradebook

Gradebook Status Icons for Accessibility

Affected User Roles: Instructor

Feature Option Name to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	No
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Gradebook and Gradebook Settings

Summary

A View status for colorblindness option is added to Gradebook Settings. When enabled, a symbol displays next to each status in the Gradebook to provide an additional visual indicator.

Change Benefit

This update improves accessibility by adding icon indicators to view status colors, making statuses easier to distinguish without relying on color alone.

Feature Workflow

Gradebook Settings View Status for Colorblindness

In the Gradebook settings, click the View status for colorblindness checkbox.

The gradebook status icons display in the gradebook.

Reports

User Access Token Report Options Updated

Affected User Roles: Admin

Feature Option Name to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	N/A
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Reports-manage
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	User Access Token Configure Report Modal

Summary

The Configure Report modal for User Access Tokens is updated with options to exclude deleted and expired tokens and to include tokens from deleted users.

Change Benefit

This update clarifies previously unclear report behavior, giving admins more control over which User Access Tokens are included and ensuring accurate, intentional reporting.

Feature Workflow

When configuring a User Access Token report, admins can choose to exclude deleted and expired tokens and/or include tokens from deleted users.

Settings

Granular User Profile Editing Permissions

Affected User Roles: Admin

Feature Option Name to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	N/A
Account Setting to Enable If only course or account, delete the other word	Users can edit their profile
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Account Level Personal Profile Settings

Summary

In Account Settings, when the Users can edit their profile setting is enabled, admins can configure more granular permissions that allow users to edit their title, bio, and profile links.

Change Benefit

This update gives admins greater control over user profile information by allowing them to enable or restrict editing of titles, bios, and profile links independently.

Feature Workflow

When the Users can edit their profile setting is enabled, admins can allow users to edit their title, bio, and/or profile links.

Other Updates

ePortfolios

Canvas Native ePortfolios Legacy Transition Updates

Affected Users: All users

Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Feature Areas	ePortfolios, User Navigation
Related resources	Introducing Canvas Portfolio: Now Part of the Core Canvas Experience How do I download the contents of my ePortfolio?

Summary

To improve clarity around ePortfolio options and support the transition to newer solutions, legacy indicators, in-product banners,added to Canvas native ePortfolios.

Sunset Banner: Canvas native ePortfolios display an in-product banner indicating that the product is planned to sunset on June 30, 2026. Users can export their ePortfolio content by following the instructions in the linked guide.

Legacy Naming Indicator: Canvas native ePortfolios are labeled as (Legacy), with the designation appended to the product name in the User Navigation.

Change Benefit

This update helps users clearly understand which ePortfolio tools are legacy solutions, reduces confusion during the transition to newer offerings, and provides improved export options to support content retention and portability.

Feature Workflow

The User Navigation includes a Legacy label [1], and a banner displays on the ePortfolio page [2].

Feature Preview Change Log updates

A Feature Preview indicates a feature option in active development. Users who opt in to the feature and join the Community user group can help improve the feature through direct feedback.

IgniteAI Generator for Rubrics

Updated Rubric Point Distribution

Affected Users: Instructor

Feature Preview to Enable	IgniteAI Generator for Rubrics Enhanced Rubrics
Feature Preview User Group	IgniteAI Generator for Rubrics
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	Account (Disabled/Locked) Course (Disabled) See the Canvas Feature Option Summary to learn more about Feature Options.
Subaccount Configuration	Yes
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Assignment Create Rubric Page
Mobile App Support	Not available
Free-for-Teacher Availability	Not available

Summary

When the Enhanced Rubrics and AI Rubric Generator feature options are enabled, the Points per Criterion field is replaced with a Total Points field, and points are evenly distributed across all criteria. When creating a rubric, assignment points automatically sync to the Total Points field.

Change Benefit

This update simplifies rubric scoring by allowing instructors to set a single total point value for the rubric. Points are automatically and evenly distributed across all criteria, reducing manual calculations, ensuring consistent scoring, and making rubric setup faster and less error-prone.

Feature Workflow

When creating a rubric, the Points per Criterion field is changed to Total Points.

The total points are distributed evenly across criterion.

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Canvas LMS Deploy Notes

Comments

InstContentTeam

Comments in this space are intended for collaboration between Community members. Instructure employees may review discussions and respond when possible, but responses are not guaranteed. Users are encouraged to work together by sharing use cases, best practices, questions, and clarifications.

Please keep replies threaded whenever possible to help keep conversations organized and easy to follow.

If you encounter a bug or need account-specific assistance, please contact Support, as issues reported here are not tracked or resolved.

tom_gibbons

It's great that icons are being added for gradebook status, but does anyone know what the clock face with the + sign is supposed to be? The cells are highlighted in purple, but purple isn't one of the highlight colors in the screenshot that shows the colors that are applied in the particular course.

Also, the clock face with the plus sign and the clock face with the exclamation point are pretty difficult to differentiate, visually. Is anyone else having that issue? Here's an annotation of the screenshot used in the documentation, above, to clarify what I mean (at least for sighted users). It's from this section:

melodyc_lam

@tom_gibbons Hopefully Instructure adds to documentation what the symbols are and what they're associated with. I do share the same concern that at first glance, both "clock" icons can be confused for each other, especially at the normal zoom level in the gradebook.

IanGoh

Tested in BETA, the clock w/ the exclaim = late. Haven't triggered the clock w/ plus yet.

If you hover over the icon, you get a label, e.g., late.

tbaker-mc

One should be late with a submission and one without a submission based on the colors in the gradebook.

stimme

I am really happy about the new icons to indicate submission status in the gradebook, because the meaning of the status colors can be hard to discern or remember even without color blindness. There are a few things I would suggest to improve this feature.

The legend of statuses in the gradebook settings View Options tab should include the icons with the colors.
It should just be on by default. Icons are more meaningful than five different colors hands down, and everyone would benefit from seeing them.
If it continues to be a user-specific setting (meaning that two people looking at the same gradebook do not both see status icons unless each one individually clicked the checkbox now), it should be moved from its current location to the user account settings features list (where the rest of the user settings intended to be used as accessibility features are located). That way each user only has to enable it once, not in every single course they teach.

Mikee

I am trying to reconcile the LTI icon update with what is present in PRD. I've raised this with support and our CSM, but what I remember testing doesn't match what's gone into prd, and the view I have also doesn't match the screenshot here - but the screenshot here matches what's in my beta env.

I'm wondering if our shard got missed in the deploy, so would really appreciate if anyone else can confirm their view of the icon update screen/process :)

Screenshot of the Edit App dialog showing a modal window open with Tool Icon and Placement Icon URL fields and a next button beneath

JamesSekcienski

It makes sense to contact Support for things that are bugs. However, where should suggestions/concerns be sent to ensure they are reviewed and receive a response from the appropriate team member? Sending questions/concerns to Support are unlikely to be addressed if they are not considered a bug. It is also preferable to get responses publicly through the Community so others that have a similar suggestion/concern can see the response too.

As an example, there are several comments below with suggestions/concerns about the new Gradebook icons, but since these aren't bugs they wouldn't be handled by Support. So how do we ensure the appropriate person sees this information and gives a reply?

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