Topics Map > Canvas
Canvas - Users with Multiple Accounts
Users sometimes have more than one Canvas account and they may not want to keep track of multiple accounts. This might happen when a student or instructor is enrolled in courses at more than one institution in the UW System Digital Learning Environment, when a user has an Instructional account and a Continuing Education account, or when a user has more than one Continuing Education account. This guide explains the options that administrators have for resolving the issue: combining accounts, deleting accounts, or leaving multiple accounts intact.
Combining Accounts
When to use this solution:
Combine user accounts when a user has Canvas IDs at more than one UW institution and each of those accounts has current enrollments or is expected to have future enrollments. Only use this solution if the user is flexible on which Canvas ID they use going forward.Caveats:
1. When a user's accounts are merged, Canvas will pick one account as the primary. We have no control over which account is the primary, and cannot accurately predict it. The user must use the primary account, whichever it is, going forward.2. If the user has Kaltura media under multiple accounts, they will need to move that media to the primary account via MediaSpace (or with administrator assistance) after combining accounts.3. 3rd party applications which are integrated into Canvas may not function correctly for a user with merged accounts, because they may attempt to use the non-primary account. Only the vendor of the external application can resolve this.5. Continuing Education accounts and other non-institutional credentials will not be merged with SIS-based accounts on the Instructional instance.6. Once existing accounts have been merged, they can only be unmerged by Instructure Support, and only for a brief period. After that period, merged Canvas accounts cannot be separated again.How to:
Canvas accounts can only be merged by campus Canvas administrators, or in some cases UWSA root Canvas administrators. Follow the instructions in the How do I merge users in an account? guide.
Deleting Accounts
When to use this solution:
Delete one or more of a user's Canvas accounts when a user has multiple Canvas accounts and one or more of those accounts has no current enrollments and isn't expected to have any future enrollments.Caveats:
1. Before deleting one of a user's secondary accounts, make sure that their primary account is enrolled in all of the courses that they may still need access to. Also, make sure that the user's primary account has ownership of all the files, ePortfolio materials, and Kaltura media that they still want.2. Before deleting an account on the Instructional instance which a student has used to complete for-credit course work, you should consult your institution's records retention policies. Deleting a Canvas account deletes past enrollments and hides proof of past coursework.3. Only root-level Canvas administrators can un-delete a deleted user account. The un-deletion process restores SIS enrollments, but will not restore enrollments which were manually added.How to:
Leaving Multiple Accounts Intact
When to use this solution:
A user may need to continue managing multiple active Canvas accounts in the following situations:1. The caveats of merging or deleting accounts are unacceptable.
2. The user has one or more accounts which have no current or future enrollments, but they may want to occasionally refer to materials in the old account(s). At that point, the user may prefer to abandon an older account rather than deleting it.Caveats:
1. If the user is actively using multiple Canvas accounts, they will have to keep track of multiple sets of login information.2. Enrollments, activity, Files, ePortfolios, and Kaltura media associated with one account will not necessarily be available in the other accounts.How to:
No action is needed. For users with multiple accounts, this is the status quo.