When you create a contact method in Canvas, you can use that contact method as a way to receive Canvas notifications. By default, notifications are sent to the email address used to create your Canvas account. However, you can add an additional email address if you do not want to use your existing email address or want to use an additional email for notifications.

Learn how to set notification preferences.

You may be able to change your password in your profile settings.

If you do not have access to change your password, your password is controlled through your institution. Contact your institution to learn how to change your password.

If you can change your password, there are no password reset intervals, so you can change your password as little or as often as you want. However, you can keep strong passwords effective by changing them often. Here are some good password guidelines:

• Use at least eight characters (the more the better), but most people will find anything more than about 15 characters difficult to remember.
• Use a random mixture of characters, upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, spaces and symbols.
• Don't use a word found in a dictionary, English or foreign.

Note: If you forget your password, you may be able to reset it. Learn how to reset your password.

If you have an email address registered in two Canvas accounts, you can merge these accounts. Merging accounts combines the logins, contact methods, and enrollments for the two accounts.

The icon to complete this process will only appear in User Settings if there are two or more email addresses on the account and the email address that appears on both accounts has been registered.

In order to complete this process, you must have the Canvas username and password for both accounts.

Note: Merging user accounts cannot be undone.

All dates and times throughout your Canvas courses are displayed according a course's respective time zone. However, you can set your own time zone for your user account and have your local time zone display throughout Canvas. Displaying dates in your local time may help you stay up to date on assignments and due dates, especially if your course time zone differs significantly from where you reside.

Note: If you set a time zone in your user settings, you can always view the course time zone by hovering over any date and time in your course. The text will show both the local time and course time.

If your institution has enabled profile pictures, you can add and change profile pictures in your account. If you do not see a placeholder picture in your user settings, your institution has not enabled this feature.

There are three ways you can select a profile picture to use throughout Canvas:

• Upload a Picture from your computer
• Take a Picture using your computer's camera (not supported when using Safari or Internet Explorer)
• Import from an existing Gravatar account

Tips for profile pictures:

• Please choose an appropriate picture to represent yourself. Your institution has the right to remove pictures that are not appropriate for a classroom setting.
• Images should be square in size to prevent your picture from being resized or distorted.
• Files can be any type (.jpg, .png, .gif) or size as long as you have room in your personal files to store the file. Canvas recommends that your profile picture be as small as possible.
• Your personal files quota is enforced when uploading a profile picture. If you do not have enough storage space in your personal files, you will not be able to upload your profile picture. Create more space by removing some files in your personal files.