What causes "Course with canvas id %{id} not found" in instructure/canvas-lms?

Verify course_id is the numeric Canvas course id (Course.find(id) in console) and not an SIS id.

instructure/canvas-lms · error · InvalidDataError

Course with canvas id

Error message

Course with canvas id %{id} not found

What it means

If a group specifies course_id and the import context is an Account, the importer looks up Course.find_by(id: course_id). When no course with that Canvas numeric id exists, this error is raised. Note it matches on Canvas internal id, not SIS id or other identifiers.

Solutions

Verify course_id is the numeric Canvas course id (Course.find(id) in console) and not an SIS id.
Look up the course by SIS id instead and translate: Course.find_by(sis_source_id: ...) to get its canvas id.
Remove or blank the course_id so the group imports into the current account context.
Check that the course exists on the same shard/account the import runs against.

Example fix

// before
{ object_type: 'group', course_id: 'COURSE-101', ... }
// after
{ object_type: 'group', course_id: 12345, ... }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

ids = rows.map { |r| r[:course_id] }.compact.uniq
missing = ids - Course.where(id: ids).pluck(:id)
raise ArgumentError, "unknown course ids: #{missing.inspect}" if missing.any?

Type guard

def course_exists?(id)
  id.present? && Course.exists?(id: id)
end

Try / catch

begin
  importer.import_group(group)
rescue Outcomes::Import::InvalidDataError => e
  failures << {vendor_guid: group[:vendor_guid], error: e.message}
end

Prevention

Preflight all course_ids against the DB before import
Use canvas numeric ids, not SIS ids, in course_id
Re-export id lists close to import time — courses get deleted

When it happens

Trigger: group[:course_id] holds an id for a course that was deleted, belongs to a different shard, is an SIS id (e.g. 'COURSE-101') instead of a numeric canvas id, or was simply mistyped.

Common situations: Copying course ids from a URL that shows a different id form; cross-shard references that find_by(id:) does not resolve; staging data referencing courses that were purged in production; CSVs exported before courses were deleted.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of instructure/canvas-lms@1c9f0bb801 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a04480980c104636. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at lib/outcomes/import.rb:91

      invalid = group.keys.select do |k|
        group[k].present? && OBJECT_ONLY_FIELDS.include?(k)
      end
      if invalid.present?
        raise InvalidDataError, I18n.t(
          "Invalid fields for a group: %{invalid}",
          invalid: invalid.map(&:to_s).inspect
        )
      end

      group_context = context

      if group[:course_id].present?
        raise InvalidDataError, I18n.t("Cannot import to other courses") unless context.is_a?(Account)

        group_context = Course.find_by(id: group[:course_id])

        if group_context.nil?
          raise InvalidDataError, I18n.t(
            "Course with canvas id %{id} not found",
            id: group[:course_id]
          )
        end

        unless child_context?(group_context)
          raise InvalidDataError, I18n.t(
            "Target course %{course_id} is not a child of current account (%{name})",
            course_id: group[:course_id],
            name: context.name
          )
        end
      end

      model = find_prior_group(group, group_context)
      unless model.context == group_context
        raise InvalidDataError, I18n.t(
          "Group with ID %{guid} already exists in another unrelated course or account (%{name})",

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