In the Admin menu, the Manage External Users tool should be used to create Canvas accounts only for people who do not have (and will not soon receive) either a University Single Sign-On (SSO) account or an Applicant account. Creators of such external accounts will be asked to confirm this each time they access the tool.

The Manage External Users tool is available in every subaccount to LCCs, Unit Admins, and Assistant Unit Admins ('Creators'). Other subaccount users will see the tool, but will not be able to do anything. They will need to ask their LCC/Unit Admin to create external user accounts for them. The tool will link them to the Who is my Local Canvas Coordinator (LCC)? page.

Important Note: When enrolling newly created external users onto a course, please select the "Login ID" or "SIS ID" option under "Add user(s) by" in the Add People box, paste their email addresses into the text box and continue as normal. If you attempt to use the "Email Address" option, Canvas will not find the users. This is the result of a security fix released in June 2021, to ensure that the intended users have completed their account registration process.

Accessing the Tool

Click on the Admin link on the left-hand menu and select a subaccount where you are an LCC or Unit Admin.
Select the Manage External Users tool in the subaccount menu.
You will be presented with the confirmation message that you intend to create accounts for external users. Click Confirm.
A form will appear for you to enter the First Name, Last Name and Email addresses of the new users:

Entering User Data

Users can be entered into the form by either:
- Typing or copying/pasting values individually into each input box, or
- Pasting in multiple values from an Excel sheet with three corresponding columns (First Name; Last Name; Email). To do this, check that the cursor is in the top left box and then paste (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V) your copied Excel data.
As soon as you have entered data in one row, new rows will be added automatically, up to a limit of 50. If you need to create more than 50 external accounts, it is necessary to do them 50 at a time.
- Even though only one row shows initially, you can paste in up to 50 rows and the form will expand automatically. If you paste in data that takes you over the 50-row limit, any data beyond 50 rows will be ignored.

Use the Clear button to empty the form of data, if you need to start again.
Use the Submit button to submit the form which will create the requested user accounts, where possible.

After Submitting the Form

The Creator will see a summary of the results at the top of the screen, with the number of successes, failures and warnings:

External users who are successfully created will be sent a registration email with a link to set a password. They will be informed that by doing so, they accept the Canvas terms of use and privacy policy.
- If a registration email 'bounces', i.e. cannot be delivered to the newly-created user, the Creator will be informed by email. It may be some time before the bounce is confirmed and the Creator is informed.
External users who are successfully created will be available for enrolling in courses using the People tool immediately.
- Note: it is not possible to enrol new external users using the email address option until they have completed their account registration. Instead, please select the "Login ID" option under "Add user(s) by" in the Add People box, paste their email addresses into the text box and continue as normal.
- It may take up to 24 hours before they are available for adding to Ad Hoc groups in the Oxford Groups (GET) tool, but we are working to improve this.

If you enter details for an external user who already has a Canvas account, you will see an alert message, shown below. Such users will not receive a registration email, as they will have received one when their account was first created.

Failures and warnings: You will be told which rows are affected, and more information will be given against each row.

Reasons for warnings/errors include:

Empty fields
Incorrectly formatted email addresses
Email addresses that are already associated with an active user (see screenshot above with red warning)
ox.ac.uk emails (except 'canvas-alias' users, which can be used as test users and have the format abcd1234+something@canvas-alias.it.ox.ac.uk. Emails/notifications for such user accounts will be sent to the University email account of the associated SSO user (e.g. abcd1234.)
An email that is associated with a deleted user. Restoring deleted users takes longer, so the Creator will receive an update email when that process is complete. If the restored user already has an active login, the Creator will be advised to enrol them using a different email address, the one that is associated with their active account.