This story was updated at 4:39 p.m. with new information.
After several hours of disruption, Canvas is now back online following a widespread outage of Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Instructure, the company behind the platform, confirmed in updates at 3:47 p.m. PDT that Mastery Connect is now accessible and that Canvas is being restored for all affected users.
The outage, which began early Monday morning, affected students nationwide, leaving many students temporarily unable to access or submit their coursework.
With services now available, students can now resume their coursework, though Instructure continues to monitor the platforms to ensure full functionality for all users.
ORIGINAL STORY POSTED 2:42 P.M.
Fresno State’s Canvas website is down amid a global outage affecting platforms that rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The outage began early Monday, with Instructure first reporting the issue at 12:04 a.m. PDT, saying it was investigating an operational problem affecting multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 region.
By 12:28 a.m. PDT, the issue had been formally identified, and users — including Fresno State students — began experiencing error messages and trouble accessing Canvas, preventing them from logging in or submitting coursework.
According to Analise Gutierrez from Fresno State’s University Technology Services, there are no new campus-specific updates at this time. However, Canvas leaders have been posting updates on the ongoing outage roughly every 30 minutes to an hour via their status page.
Throughout the morning, Instructure posted frequent updates noting that teams are continuing to work with AWS to restore services. At 2:55 a.m. PDT, AWS confirmed increased error rates and latencies for multiple services in the affected region.
The outage is a part of a larger disruption affecting hundreds of apps and services that rely on AWS’s cloud network, including Snapchat, Ring, Zoom, Slack, Venmo, Hulu, WhatsApp, Microsoft 365, Roblox, Fortnite, Duolingo and even some airline systems.
Some phone carriers, including Verizon, are also down, with users having difficulties with messages and calls.
According to experts, the outage stemmed from a data center in Virginia, temporarily separating many apps from their data and causing widespread service interruptions.
Students across the country have been sharing their frustration on TikTok. One student posted about nearly panicking because Canvas was down and she wouldn’t be able to complete her anatomy exam due in two hours. Meanwhile, other students seemed relieved to have a break from classwork.
Despite AWS reporting signs of recovery by 6:31 a.m. PDT, Canvas and related platforms remained partially down, leaving students and faculty temporarily unable to access online coursework. Instructure leaders continued posting updates, with the most recent reported at 1:26 p.m. PDT, confirming that AWS is still investigating issues affecting Canvas, Mastery Connect and other Instructure products.
Students can follow live updates on the AWS Health Status Page.
