Where to find Canvas notification settings
Canvas sends discussion notifications through your email and through the Canvas app itself. To stop them, you need to change settings in two places: your Canvas account settings and your course settings. The fastest way is to go directly to the course where discussions are happening, but if you want to silence all discussion notifications across every course at once, you'll start in your account settings.
Open Canvas and look for your profile picture or initials in the top right corner. Click it, then select "Settings" from the dropdown menu. This takes you to your account-wide preferences, where you can control what Canvas is allowed to email you about. From here you can turn off all discussion notifications, or you can go into individual courses and adjust them one at a time.
Key Takeaways
- Canvas discussion notifications come through email and the Canvas app separately, so you may need to change settings in both places to stop them completely.
- Your account settings control notifications across all courses at once, while course settings let you silence discussions in just one class.
- The notification preference you're looking for is usually labeled "Discussions" or "Course Activity" depending on your Canvas version.
- Turning off notifications does not delete old messages or prevent you from seeing discussions when you log in — it only stops the alerts.
Turning off all discussion notifications at once
If you want Canvas to stop emailing you about discussions in every course, go to your account Settings and look for "Notifications" in the left sidebar. Click it. You'll see a list of notification types — look for "Discussions" or "Course Activity" depending on your Canvas version.
Next to "Discussions," you'll see a dropdown menu that probably says "Notify me" or "For each item." Click that dropdown and change it to "Do not notify." This stops Canvas from sending you emails about new discussion posts. If you see a separate option for "Discussion Replies," change that one too. Then scroll down and click "Save" or "Update Preferences" at the bottom of the page.
This change applies to every course you're in. You won't get emails about discussions anymore, but you can still see them when you log into Canvas. If you want to turn notifications back on later, you come back to this same page and change the setting back.
Turning off notifications for one course only
If you only want to silence discussions in one specific class, go to that course and click "Settings" in the left sidebar. Look for "Notifications" — it may be under a "Course Settings" section or directly in the sidebar. Click it.
You'll see the same dropdown menus as before, but these changes only affect this one course. Find "Discussions" and change it to "Do not notify." If the course has a separate setting for "Discussion Replies" or "New Discussion Topics," change those too. Click "Save" when you're done.
This is useful if you're in one class with very active discussions but want to keep notifications on in your other courses. You can adjust each course separately this way.
Stopping Canvas app notifications separately
Canvas sends notifications through the mobile app as well as email. If you use the Canvas app on your phone, turning off email notifications won't stop the app from sending you alerts. You need to change app settings separately.
Open the Canvas app and tap your profile picture in the bottom right corner. Tap "Settings," then look for "Notifications" or "Push Notifications." You'll see toggles for different notification types. Find "Discussions" and turn the toggle off. The exact wording varies by phone — on iPhone it says "Allow Notifications," on Android it says "Notifications" — but the idea is the same: flip the switch to off.
If you don't see a Discussions toggle in the app, go to your phone's main Settings app instead. Find "Canvas" in the app list, tap it, then tap "Notifications." Turn off the toggle for Canvas entirely, or look for a way to silence specific notification types. This depends on whether you have an iPhone or Android phone.
What happens when you turn off discussion notifications
Turning off notifications does not delete any messages or prevent you from reading discussions. It only stops Canvas from sending you alerts. You can still log into Canvas anytime and read every discussion post that's been made. Your instructors can still see that you've read posts. Nothing changes except that you won't get an email or app alert when someone posts.
If you turn notifications back on later, you won't get alerts for posts that were made while notifications were off. Canvas doesn't send retroactive notifications — it only alerts you about new activity going forward.
If you're still getting notifications after changing settings
Sometimes Canvas takes a few minutes to explore changes, so wait 10 to 15 minutes and check your email. If you're still getting notifications after that, log out of Canvas completely and log back in. This refreshes your settings.
If notifications keep coming, check whether you changed the setting in the right place. If you only changed your account settings, notifications in individual courses might still be on. Go into each course's Settings and turn off discussions there too. If you changed course settings but not account settings, do the opposite.
Also check your email spam folder — sometimes Canvas emails end up there by mistake. If you find them in spam, mark them as "not spam" so future emails go to your inbox, then decide whether you actually want to receive them or turn off the notification entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my instructor know I turned off notifications?
No. Your instructor cannot see your notification settings. They can see whether you've read a discussion post when you log in, but they have no way to know whether you got an email alert about it or not.
Can I turn off notifications for new discussion posts but keep them for replies to my posts?
It depends on your Canvas version. Some versions let you set "Discussions" and "Discussion Replies" separately, so you can turn off one and keep the other on. Check your notification settings to see if you have both options. If you only see one "Discussions" setting, you can't split them.
What if I want notifications back on for just one course?
Go to that course's Settings, find Notifications, and change "Discussions" back to "Notify me" or "For each item." This won't affect your other courses. If you want notifications on in multiple courses but off in others, you have to adjust each course individually.
Do I need to turn off app notifications and email notifications separately?
Yes. Canvas treats them as two separate systems. You can turn off email notifications but still get app alerts, or vice versa. If you want to stop all discussion notifications, change the setting in both places.
If I turn off notifications, will I miss important announcements from my instructor?
Discussion notifications and course announcements are different. Turning off discussion notifications only affects alerts about discussion posts. If your instructor posts announcements, you can adjust those notifications separately in your notification settings — look for "Announcements" instead of "Discussions."