Hypothesis Authorization and Access Issues
As a result of the Canvas outage in May, 2026, tools integrated with Canvas Canvas, including Hypothesis, were reset for security reasons and users were required to reauthorize their accounts. While most reauthorizations were seamless, Hypothesis may require additional steps to reauthorize your account.
On this page:
Student access and authorization issues
General Assignment Access
If you are a student accessing a Hypothesis assignment in Canvas, you may get one of the following error messages if you have not authorized or reauthorized your access:
If you have never authorized Hypothesis:
If you have not used Hypothesis since May 8, 2026:
To authorize Hypothesis, follow these steps:
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Click Authorize or Try Again in the pop-up
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Click Authorize in the pop-up window to grant access to Canvas:
Please note: If you have any browser settings or extensions that prevent pop-up windows from appearing, you may be prompted to allow the pop-up or you may need to temporarily disable those settings or extensions to authorize access. -
The Hypothesis document should then load.
Assignments using Canvas Pages or Canvas Files
If your instructor is using Canvas resources, like Pages or Files, for Hypothesis reading assignments, you may get the following error messages:
If you have already authorized Hypothesis to access Canvas using the steps listed in the previous section, please contact your instructor about the issue.
Assignments using Canvas Groups
If your instructor has set up the Hypothesis assignment as a Group Assignment, you may get the following message if the Canvas Groups were not set up correctly:
As indicated in the message, you will need to contact your instructor to address the issue.
Faculty and Staff access and authorization issues
General Access
If you are a Teacher, TA, or Designer accessing Hypothesis via the external tool option in a Canvas assignment, you may get one of the following error messages when selecting content if you have not authorized or reauthorized your access to the service:
If you have never authorized Hypothesis:
If you have not used Hypothesis since May 8, 2026:
To authorize Hypothesis, follow these steps:
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Click Authorize or Try Again in the pop-up.
-
Click Authorize n the pop-up to grant access to Canvas:
Please note: If you have any browser settings or extensions that prevent pop-up windows from appearing, you may be prompted to allow the pop-up or you may need to temporarily disable those settings or extensions to authorize access. -
The Hypothesis tool will then allow you to select the content you want to add to the assignment.
Assignments using Canvas Groups
If you or someone on your instructional team are setting up the Hypothesis assignment as a Group Assignment, please ensure at least one Canvas Group Set has been created. If there are no Group Sets in the Canvas course, the following error message will appear:
Please go to the People section of the course, and click on the Groups tab to create a Group Set.
If you have an expired authorization token for Hypothesis in Canvas (due to the May 8 Canvas tool reset) and have not yet reauthorized access, you may get the following error message:
To correct this, you will need to go to your Canvas Profile Settings and delete the expired Hypothesis token from the Approved Integrations list. After deleting the expired token, return to the Assignment and click Try again in the pop-up, or go through the steps listed above to authorize access.
Please email help@uw.edu if you have questions or need additional support.