Canvas Portfolio: Known Issues

The Canvas Portfolio tool was released for wide use on 11/15/2025. There are a few Known Issues that we have learned about as we move into 2026, primarily revolving around user permissions, portfolio generation, and editing functionality. This article is meant to be a temporary location for Known Issues about Canvas Portfolios to help us understand and avoid issues.

Known Issues and Limitations

Instructure is actively working on fixes and gathering feedback through the Canvas Community forum to address these issues.

	Title of Known Issue	Description of Issue

	Title of Known Issue	Description of Issue
1	"Unable to get the available courses" error	Some users encounter this error when trying to access or generate an evaluation portfolio, particularly those with multiple account associations or roles within Canvas (e.g., both student and teacher roles).
2	"You are not allowed to perform this action" error	Users, including root account admins, have reported receiving this error message when attempting to save changes, such as adding a skill to a new experience in an evaluation portfolio. Repeated attempts (clicking save multiple times) may eventually allow the change to save as a current workaround.
3	Portfolio Generation Issues	Some users have reported that evaluation portfolios fail to generate entirely, even after waiting extended periods and switching browsers.
4	Editing Limitations (Showcase Portfolios)	Once a showcase portfolio is published, a dedicated "Edit" button to update it is not apparent, which is a significant user experience concern for making revisions. Editing section titles is not intuitive; the titles are editable by default, which some users find unusual compared to a typical "edit mode". There are reported issues with drag-and-drop functionality for moving evidence within the mobile view.
5	Evaluation Portfolio Visibility	Evaluation portfolios are currently only visible to the student and the instructor who initiated the portfolio. This limits use cases that require interdisciplinary or cross-departmental evaluation involving multiple instructors not formally enrolled in the specific course shell.
6	Updating Revised Attachments	There is a known bug where if a student submits a portfolio for review and then needs to edit or resubmit it, any newly attached files in the revised version do not update correctly within the evaluation portfolio.
7	Skill Management Limitations	Canvas Learning Outcomes are not yet supported in the portfolio tool. Skills must be added manually and are not connected to a centralized library, limiting consistent tracking across the institution.
8	External Content Display	Embedded YouTube videos in an evidence box might not display correctly in the published view of the portfolio.
9	System Status/Outages	General system incidents across Canvas can affect portfolio performance. In early December 2025, some users experienced slow loading or page errors across Canvas services.