Student: What do I do if I can't upload a file to a group discussion because the Group Storage Quota has already been met?

You will learn what you can do when you receive an error message (like one of those below) when trying to upload a file within a group (or a group discussion) in your course in Canvas.

Note that these screenshots below are within a Discussion group. The current file storage quota for groups is 100 MB. That is for the whole group, regardless of how many users are in that group.

You will likely receive an error message like one of these three below if your group has used up it storage quota/allotment.

"File storage quota exceeded"
"Error: Request failed with status code 400"
"File failed to upload. Please try again."

screenshots of the error message
Expand or collapse content How do I manage the group file storage quota?

Just as this other guide walks you through the process of managing your personal file storage quota, this current guide will walk you through the process for managing your group file storage.

1. Click on Files, if you are in a group page; otherwise, click on Groups in the global navigation.

Files icon selected

2. Click on Switch to Old Files Page.

Switch to Old Files Page button

3. You can now see how much of the group storage quota has been used.

For this group, it is at 100% usage which means that one or more files will have to be deleted from the group file storage, in order to upload any new files.

percentage of 100 MB used

4. Find a file you decide to delete, and click on the three dots menu.

Three Dots menu

5. Use the dropdown menu to select Delete.

Delete selected

6. Click on OK.

OK button

7. After you refresh the page, you can see if you need to delete any additional files.

percentage of 100 MB used (updated)

How can I avoid this in the future?

You can help minimize the need to delete files by:

  1. Using Dropbox and linking the files from Dropbox into the Canvas Discussion.
  2. Uploading a video to Canvas Studio then embedding it into the discussion (it still stays in Studio).
  3. Compressing any video before uploading it to a course.
  4. Compressing any PowerPoint presentation before uploading (or using Dropbox instead to host the file).
  5. Resizing any images to the display size before uploading.

Article Summary

You have now learned how to manage your group file storage, so that you can upload new files to your group within a Canvas course.