Environment
Canvas, Panorama
Issue
This issue has been resolved as of 5/28/26 and replacing a file in Canvas is working as expected. However, this issue is still impacting the use of Panorama, where users may still get the "Failed getting file to preview" after updating a file with Panorama. This can be resolved by refreshing the page. The Canvas vendor is currently working on a fix for this issue.
An error appears on attempting to open/preview a file link on a Canvas page, you fail getting a file to preview from a link within a Canvas course page, or you can not open existing links to a file from within a Canvas course page.
Steps to reproduce the issue:
- Upload any document file that can be previewed.
- Edit a Page and use the toolbar to add a link to set file (Course Documents) to the page. It creates 2 clickable links, one for file preview and one for download.
- Either edit this file directly from within the Files area, or rename a different file locally (on your computer) to be the same name as the original.
- Upload this different file and select replace.
- Link is now broken in pages for the preview, but download still works.
If you upload the exact same file, it doesn't break, but if you make any changes it does. The file has to be altered before being replaced to cause the problem.
This issue also affects the use of Panorama, the accessibility tool in Canvas. When improving the accessibility of a file with Panorama, you may still get an error when attempting to preview the file.
Resolution
If you are still experiencing this issue when using Panorama, you can resolve it by refreshing your page.
Additional Information
Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.