{"id":4835,"date":"2025-01-10T11:43:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/?p=4835"},"modified":"2025-01-10T11:42:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:42:24","slug":"demystifying-the-canvas-link-validator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/demystifying-the-canvas-link-validator\/","title":{"rendered":"Demystifying the Canvas Link Validator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Broken links in Canvas are somewhat of an enigma. What exactly are broken links and where do they come from? How do we fix them (and prevent them in the future) so that students can access the things they need? Read on to find out!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>General Tips<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To get started, let\u2019s first go through some general tips for locating broken links in your course:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each course in Canvas has a tool called the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/community.canvaslms.com\/t5\/Instructor-Guide\/How-do-I-validate-links-in-a-course\/ta-p\/1001\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Course Link Validator<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It can be accessed by going to your Course Settings, then clicking <\/span><b>Validate Links in Content<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on the right hand side.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When should you use the Link Validator?<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you\u2019re building your course from scratch, check the link validator every week of building or so. Be sure to re-run the validator each time, as it doesn&#8217;t automatically update as you add content to the course.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you\u2019re importing course content from a previous semester, you can validate links at any point after importing, though we recommend checking one time after importing and re-checking the validator at least once more before publishing your course (if you\u2019ve added or changed any content after importing).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Turning on notifications for the \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/community.canvaslms.com\/t5\/Higher-Ed-Canvas-Users\/Get-Notified-Right-Away-About-a-Course-Content-Link-Error\/ba-p\/280287\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Content Link Error<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d category in your <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/canvas.emerson.edu\/profile\/communication\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canvas notification settings<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will alert you to broken links that your students have clicked on. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/community.canvaslms.com\/t5\/Instructor-Guide\/How-do-I-view-a-course-as-a-test-student-using-Student-View\/ta-p\/1122\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Use Student View<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to see what students see when clicking on links flagged by the Link Validator. This is especially helpful because you as an instructor may be able to access certain links that students wouldn\u2019t be able to access. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Types of Broken Links You May Come Across &amp; How to Fix Them<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#deleted-content\">Links to course content that was later deleted<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#hidden-nav\">Links to hidden navigation sections<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#different-course\">Links to course content in a different course<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#cannot-reach\">Links your browser cannot reach<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#behind-paywall\">Links with content behind a paywall<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#removed-moved\">Links to content that has since been removed or moved to a new location<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#unpublished-content\">Links to unpublished course content<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#canvas-help\">\u201cCanvas Help\u201d links<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"deleted-content\">Links to course content that was later deleted<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4836\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/1.png\" alt=\"Canvas error message which says &quot;That quiz has been deleted&quot; \" width=\"583\" height=\"63\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/1.png 1074w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/1-300x32.png 300w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/1-1024x111.png 1024w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/1-768x83.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: You linked to course content but the content was deleted later on. The link was not updated, so it\u2019s still pointing back to the deleted content and is therefore inaccessible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: In the Canvas Rich Content Editor, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/community.canvaslms.com\/t5\/Instructor-Guide\/How-do-I-edit-and-remove-hyperlinks-in-the-Rich-Content-Editor\/ta-p\/734\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">remove the broken link<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. You can then re-link to other course content to replace the deleted content, if applicable. If the deletion was accidental, you can try to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/community.canvaslms.com\/t5\/Canvas-Admin-Blog\/Undeleting-things-in-Canvas\/ba-p\/267116\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">restore the deleted content<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> which will make the link valid again.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"hidden-nav\"><strong>Links to hidden navigation sections<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4837\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/2.png\" alt=\"Canvas error message which says &quot;That page has ben disabled for this course&quot;\" width=\"585\" height=\"57\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/2.png 1070w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/2-300x29.png 300w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/2-1024x100.png 1024w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/2-768x75.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: You customized your course navigation to hide certain areas of the course from students, but a link to one of these hidden areas is still available somewhere in your course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: You can either remove the broken link or keep the link as is and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/community.canvaslms.com\/t5\/Instructor-Guide\/How-do-I-manage-Course-Navigation-links\/ta-p\/1020\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">unhide the relevant section in your course settings<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"different-course\"><strong>Links to course content in a different course<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4838\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/3.png\" alt=\"Canvas error message which says &quot;Access Denied. You don't have access to view this resource.&quot;\" width=\"365\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/3.png 732w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/3-300x275.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: You copied and pasted a link from a previous course instead of importing the previous course\u2019s content into your current course and linking via <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/support.emerson.edu\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360053618751-Using-the-New-Rich-Content-Editor-in-Canvas#external-links-vs-course-links-0-2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">this recommended method<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: If the content you want to link to does not yet exist in your current course, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/community.canvaslms.com\/t5\/Instructor-Guide\/How-do-I-select-specific-content-as-part-of-a-course-import\/ta-p\/1091\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">import it from a previous course<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (resist the urge to use copy and paste, as this can create broken links!). Then, remove the broken link and relink it via the recommended method.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"cannot-reach\"><strong>Links your browser cannot reach<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4839\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/4.png\" alt=\"Browser error message saying &quot;This site can't be reached&quot; due to a typo in the URL.\" width=\"689\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/4.png 1732w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/4-300x147.png 300w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/4-1024x503.png 1024w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/4-768x377.png 768w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/4-1536x754.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 689px) 100vw, 689px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: There is likely a typo in the URL you\u2019re using to create the link.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Double check the URL for typos. If you aren\u2019t sure what the right URL should be, try searching Google for the site you need to find the correct link.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"behind-paywall\"><strong>Links with content behind a paywall<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4840\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/5.png\" alt=\"Wall Street Journal message says &quot;Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership&quot;\" width=\"521\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/5.png 1508w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/5-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/5-1024x748.png 1024w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/5-768x561.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 521px) 100vw, 521px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Certain websites and links have paywalls, meaning you can\u2019t access certain content without being a paid subscriber (e.g., once you hit your free article limit, the New York Times has a paywall; the Wall Street Journal also has a paywall).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Where possible, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/guides.library.emerson.edu\/c.php?g=938565&amp;p=7406496\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">use permalinks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the Iwasaki Library\u2019s collections including its <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/guides.library.emerson.edu\/newspapers\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">news databases<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This ensures content is freely available to your students. If you have any questions about using permalinks, reach out to the Iwasaki Library at <\/span><a href=\"mailto:reference@emerson.libanswers.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reference@emerson.libanswers.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or (617) 824-8668. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"removed-moved\"><strong>Links to content that has since been removed or moved to a new location<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4842\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-2.11.41-PM.png\" alt=\"Screenshot ofThe Nation's site saying &quot;That page can't be found. Maybe try a search?&quot; &amp; a search bar\" width=\"699\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-2.11.41-PM.png 1700w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-2.11.41-PM-300x92.png 300w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-2.11.41-PM-1024x313.png 1024w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-2.11.41-PM-768x235.png 768w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-17-at-2.11.41-PM-1536x470.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Older content on websites sometimes moves from its original location on the website, which causes the original link to become invalid. Other times, the content is deleted from the site entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: You can try to find a working link by searching for the content on its website or on Google. If you can\u2019t find what you\u2019re looking for, it\u2019s likely that the content was removed.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"unpublished-content\"><strong>Links to unpublished course content<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4841\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4841\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4841\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/7-e1647957261343.png\" alt=\"Canvas error message that students see when trying to access unpublished content.\" width=\"610\" height=\"361\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/7-e1647957261343.png 1206w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/7-e1647957261343-300x178.png 300w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/7-e1647957261343-1024x606.png 1024w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/7-e1647957261343-768x455.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4841\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em style=\"font-size: 14px\">&#8220;Access Denied. You don&#8217;t have access to view this resource. We&#8217;ve let your instructor know to review this link as soon as possible.&#8221;<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: You linked to course content but that content is not published in your course, so it\u2019s not available to students yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: You can either <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/support.emerson.edu\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/205450535-Publishing-Your-Canvas-Course\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">publish the content<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to make the link to it valid, or remove the broken link (and any references to the unpublished content if applicable). <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"canvas-help\"><strong>\u201cCanvas Help\u201d links<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4845\" src=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-18-at-9.29.21-AM.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of the link validator showing how Canvas Help links are being flagged\" width=\"697\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-18-at-9.29.21-AM.png 770w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-18-at-9.29.21-AM-300x108.png 300w, https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-18-at-9.29.21-AM-768x275.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 697px) 100vw, 697px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>The cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: If you\u2019re using ITG\u2019s template in your Canvas course(s), you may notice that several Canvas Help links are flagged by the link validator. This is because these kinds of links point to content in a different Canvas course called \u201cITG Resources\u201d. However, this is not problematic because we have set the ITG Resources course to be visible to all Emerson Canvas users.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The solution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Ignore these links in the link validator since they\u2019re not actually broken\u2013rest assured they can be accessed by your students!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Need more help?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don\u2019t hesitate to reach out to us at <\/span><a href=\"mailto:itg@emerson.edu\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">itg@emerson.edu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> if you have any questions about broken links in Canvas!<\/p>\n<p>This post was originally published on March 22nd, 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broken links in Canvas are somewhat of an enigma. What exactly are broken links and where do they come from? How do we fix them (and prevent them in the future) so that students can access the things they need? Read on to find out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2371,"featured_media":4877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[115,21,120,117,118,116,119],"class_list":["post-4835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canvas","tag-broken-links","tag-canvas-2","tag-canvas-troubleshooting","tag-error-message","tag-invalid-links","tag-link-validator","tag-permalinks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4835"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5498,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions\/5498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/itg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}