What causes "Invalid role_id '#{role_id}' for admin" in instructure/canvas-lms?

Verify the role_id exists in the target root account (Role.where(id: ...)) and correct it.

instructure/canvas-lms · error · ImportError

Invalid role_id '# ' for admin

Error message

Invalid role_id '#{role_id}' for admin

What it means

Raised by SIS::AdminImporter#process_admin when a `role_id` was supplied but get_role could not resolve it to an existing role. The numeric/sis role id does not correspond to any role visible to the importer.

Solutions

Verify the role_id exists in the target root account (Role.where(id: ...)) and correct it.
Prefer the role name (`role` column) over role_id for cross-environment portability.
Re-export the roles and regenerate role_ids for the current environment.

Example fix

// before
process_admin(user_id: 'u1', account_id: 'a1', role_id: 987654, status: 'active')
// after
process_admin(user_id: 'u1', account_id: 'a1', role_id: 123456, status: 'active') # id from target account

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

role = Role.find_by(id: role_id)
raise ArgumentError, "role_id #{role_id} not found" unless role

Try / catch

begin
  importer.process_admin(user_id:, account_id:, role_id:, status:)
rescue SIS::ImportError => e
  errors << { row: row_no, message: e.message }
end

Prevention

Regenerate role ids per environment; never reuse ids across prod/beta/test.
Check for soft-deleted roles when reusing old exports.
Prefer role names for portable SIS files.

When it happens

Trigger: role_id: from a different Canvas environment or shard; role_id of a deleted role; role_id belonging to another root account.

Common situations: Copying CSVs between prod/beta where role ids differ; ids taken from Role dump of a different shard; role removed by an admin before the admin import ran.

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/f31eb09e22fae1b2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at lib/sis/admin_importer.rb:76

        @account_users_to_set_batch_id = Set.new
        @account_roles_by_account_id = {}
      end

      def process_admin(user_id: nil, account_id: nil, role_id: nil, role: nil, status: nil, root_account: nil)
        raise ImportError, "No user_id given for admin" if user_id.blank?
        raise ImportError, "No status given for admin" if status.blank?
        raise ImportError, "No role_id or role given for admin" if role.blank? && role_id.blank?

        state = status.downcase.strip
        raise ImportError, "Invalid status #{status} for admin" unless %w[active deleted].include? state
        return if @batch.skip_deletes? && state == "deleted"

        get_account(account_id)
        raise ImportError, "Invalid account_id given for admin" unless @account

        get_role(role_id, role)
        raise ImportError, "Invalid role '#{role}' for admin" if role.present? && !@role
        raise ImportError, "Invalid role_id '#{role_id}' for admin" if role_id.present? && !@role

        the_root_account = root_account_from_id(root_account) if root_account
        raise ImportError, "Invalid or unknown user_id '#{user_id}' for admin" if root_account && !the_root_account

        the_root_account ||= @root_account

        user = get_user(user_id, the_root_account)
        raise ImportError, "Invalid or unknown user_id '#{user_id}' for admin" unless user

        if state == "deleted" && user.id == @batch&.user_id && @account == @root_account
          raise ImportError, "Can't remove yourself user_id '#{user_id}'"
        end

        create_or_find_admin(user, state)
        user.clear_adminable_accounts_cache!
        @success_count += 1
      end

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