Powerschool & Canvas Grade Sync & Passback

Summary

If you are experiencing issues with Canvas and syncing grades to Powerschool, please check the following…

***IMPORTANT NOTE*** The only categories that will sync with Powerschool are Assessment and Practice.  Do NOT manually create these categories; use the steps in this article to have Canvas automatically add them for you.  If you create the categories manually, and then import assignment groups, they will show up twice in the assignment category list, but only one will work.  There is no way to tell the difference between them if this happens.

Check Grade Sync Status in Canvas

Check the status of the sync by clicking on Grade Sync in the left menu.

This will give you a history of the of the syncs performed. Below is a screenshot of what you might see after a sync has completed. 

Green Checkmark Completed Status

If you have a green check mark and Completed then you are good to go and everything successfully pushed over into PowerSchool.

Red Exclamation Mark Completed Status

If there is a red exclamation mark and Completed, then only some of the grades and assignments pushed over into PowerSchool. You can click on Completed to view the errors the system encountered when trying to sync with PowerSchool. Here is the most common error we have seen:

This sync error has to do with the Assignment Group in Canvas not matching a Category in PowerSchool. Please remember that any assignment that you want to sync back to PowerSchool must match a Category in PowerSchool. You can import Categories from PowerSchool by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner when in Assignments and selecting Import Assignment Groups. That will ensure you have the right Categories. 

***IMPORTANT NOTE*** The only categories that will sync with Powerschool are Assessment and Practice.  Do NOT manually create these categories; use the steps in this article to have Canvas automatically add them for you.  If you create the categories manually, and then import assignment groups, they will show up twice in the assignment category list, but only one will work.  There is no way to tell the difference between them if this happens.

Another error we often see is:

This simply means that it was not able to update the grade for that particular student (for whatever reason), but the others were successfully updated.   This error often goes away after a day or two.  Sometimes it happens because of schedule changes that aren't reflected in both Canvas and Powerschool (I.e. a student has transferred out of the class in Powerschool but still appears in the Canvas course).

Failed Status

The third status is Failed. You can click on Failed to see why the sync failed. The most common failed error I have seen is:

This is due to the system timing out. Please try again a little later and it will sync. 

Conclusion

If you have any Errors that you are unable to resolve or are not sure what they mean, please take a screenshot of the error and submit a tech ticket. That will help us figure out the issue in a timely manner. 

***IMPORTANT NOTE*** The only categories that will sync with Powerschool are Assessment and Practice.  Do NOT manually create these categories; use the steps in this article to have Canvas automatically add them for you.  If you create the categories manually, and then import assignment groups, they will show up twice in the assignment category list, but only one will work.  There is no way to tell the difference between them if this happens.