How to See Missing Assignments on Canvas (Students and Parents)
Where Canvas shows missing work: the Missing label on each course's Grades page, List View across all courses, the Student app, and the Canvas Parent app's missing-assignment alert. Plus what to do next.
The short answer: open a course, click Grades, and look for the Missing label in the status column. To see past-due work across all your classes at once, switch your Dashboard to List View. Here's every place Canvas shows missing work, for students and for parents, plus what to do once you've found it.
On a course's Grades page
This is the most reliable place. Open the course, click Grades in the course menu, and scan the status column. Canvas marks work Missing when the due date has passed and nothing was submitted, and Late when it was turned in after the due date. Sorting by due date (the default under Arrange by) puts the oldest missing work at the top.
Across all your classes: List View
On the Dashboard, open the Dashboard options menu and choose List View. It lists your work by date across every course, and past-due work you haven't submitted gets a Missing indicator and label. At the top of List View there's an alerts button that collects graded, past-due items from all your courses in one list, with tabs for new and dismissed items.
The To Do list in the Dashboard sidebar also keeps past-due items for about four weeks, but it only shows a handful at a time. Click Show All to jump to List View.
If your account has the newer Canvas dashboard, its Course work widget can filter to missing work across your courses.
In the Canvas Student app
The app's To Do tab shows what's due in the next seven days, not a list of everything missing. For missing work, open a course and tap Grades: missing assignments are labeled there, and on iPhone the Grades filter can narrow the list to missing work.
For parents
On the web, a Canvas parent (observer) account shows the same Missing labels on each course's Grades page; use the student drop-down if you have more than one child. In the Canvas Parent app, turn on the missing-assignment alert: open the menu, choose Manage Students, tap your child, and switch the alert on. New missing work then shows up under the app's alerts, and each assignment's status (Submitted, Not Submitted, Missing, or Late) shows in the course view.
Don't have parent access yet? Here's how to become an observer on Canvas.
When Missing doesn't mean missing
Canvas adds the Missing label automatically only to assignments that expect an online submission. Teachers can also set or clear it by hand, and entering a score doesn't always remove a label a teacher set. So work handed in on paper, excused work, or a teacher who hasn't caught up on grading can all leave a Missing label that isn't real. Our guide to what Missing means in Canvas walks through the false alarms and when one turns into a zero.
Found some. Now what?
- Check whether it still accepts submissions. Many assignments stay open after the due date with a late penalty. A late score beats a zero.
- Do the newest ones first if late work loses more points the longer it waits, or the ones worth the most points if it doesn't.
- Ask the teacher about anything closed. Be specific: which assignment, and whether there's a way to make it up.
A few missing assignments in one class is how most grade slides start. Here's how to catch a falling grade before it's too late.
Every missing assignment in one list
Canvas makes you check class by class. GradeGlance syncs your Canvas data and puts every missing assignment, across every class, in one list. It's free for students, and free for parents with one child (Standard covers three). Students get a free late alert the moment something goes late, with whether Canvas still takes it. Parents on Standard and Max get an evening roundup of what's late and what's due by midnight and not turned in yet.