Moodle in English: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - venres, 9 de xullo de 2021, 4:17 PM

Hi all,

(Moodle 3.9.7, PHP 7.3.20) I have a strange case in which one teacher cannot add or edit assignment modules in any course. No error messages are generated, the settings page simply won't save. Other teachers do not have this problem. The permissions for this teacher are normal (same as for other teachers). Changing the teacher's role to Manager, does not solve the issue.

Have you any suggestions as to the cause of this issue, or what I should check?

Thanks beforehand,

Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Helen Foster - sábado, 10 de xullo de 2021, 12:49 AM

Hi Paul,

Have you tried logging in as the teacher?

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - sábado, 10 de xullo de 2021, 1:34 PM

Hi Helen

Thanks for your response. Yes, I did log in as the teacher in question and when I log in as her, I cannot add or edit assignments either, but with my regular admin account I can. Also with other accounts (manually created or via our LDAP authentication) in the teacher role, I can add and edit assignments normally. In the courses I checked, the teacher in question has the same permissions as the other teachers (so mod/assign:addinstance is set to Yes).

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Davo Smith - sábado, 10 de xullo de 2021, 5:56 PM

Just to be clear, when you say you have checked the permissions, have you checked them using the "Check permissions" feature: https://docs.moodle.org/en/Permissions#Checking_permissions

Sometimes, problems like this, can be due to a 'prohibit' capability set higher up in the site hierarchy.

Apologies if this is what you've already checked.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - luns, 12 de xullo de 2021, 1:38 PM

Hi Davo,

No offence taken. Yes, I did check permissions at the activity level and course level, as well as the role definitions at site level.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - mércores, 14 de xullo de 2021, 1:23 PM

The mysterious error mysteriously disappeared... I am baffled.
Thanks for the responses.

Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Joel Schaefer - xoves, 15 de xullo de 2021, 3:49 AM

Shoot! I am having what sounds like the exact same problem but it still has not gone away.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - venres, 5 de maio de 2023, 4:18 PM

Hi Joel,

My colleague, discovered that enabling Poodll submission in the assignment, allows an affected teacher to save an assignment and after that the teacher can edit the assignment and take away Poodll submission. Do you have the Poodll plugin setin your Moodle?

This gives merely an indication of where the cause could lie. It does not explain why this affects only few teachers and only for a limited time.

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - luns, 15 de novembro de 2021, 4:05 PM

Aaand the mysterious error mysteriously re-occurred for another teacher. All permissions are in place, the error occurs in all courses (with or without H5P, which is up-to-date) and purging caches has no effect. Changing browsers or changing roles has no effect. We have by now Moodle 3.10.7 (to be upgraded to 3.10.8 soon).

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Akashdeep Singh - xoves, 24 de febreiro de 2022, 9:48 PM

Hi Paul,

Were you ever able to find the cause of this problem ?

This mysterious error affected one of our teachers last year and now it's haunting another one.

All permissions are same nothing have changed. Restored the affected course in a test instance and it works as expected there.

I am looking into the HVP plugin as suggested by one of the contributors.

Regards,

Akash

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - venres, 5 de maio de 2023, 4:18 PM

Hi Akashdeep,

My colleague, discovered that enabling Poodll submission in the assignment, allows an affected teacher to save an assignment and after that the teacher can edit the assignment and take away Poodll submission. Do you have the Poodll plugin setin your Moodle?

This gives merely an indication of where the cause could lie. It does not explain why this affects only few teachers and only for a limited time.

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Joel Schaefer - xoves, 15 de xullo de 2021, 3:59 AM

If anyone has any additional info on this I would love the insight. Here are my details:
Moodle 3.8.2+

2 users:
1) Account created manually assigned Course Creator system level role
2) Account created through LDAP assigned Course Creator system level role

Course with Assignment:
Both users can see the Grading Summary screen

User 1 can see All students:

User 2 cannot see any users:

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Tom Esson - xoves, 14 de outubro de 2021, 3:47 AM

I've been having this exact issue recently with one of our long-time Faculty members. Suddenly, he can't add or save assignments. I created another account for him and merged it with the old one, then he was able to add/save, but now it has reverted again. All permissions seem to be in place, and nothing obvious has changed with his account. Also Moodle 3.9.7.

Anyone else run into this?

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Emma Richardson - xoves, 14 de outubro de 2021, 4:27 AM

How is the teacher in question authenticating? Are you sure that he is not switching role while in the site? Have you checked his permissions? Is it specific to a single course?

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Tom Esson - xoves, 14 de outubro de 2021, 7:17 AM

Hi Emma,

He authenticates via SAML2, like all of our users. He is not role-switching, although even going to a different role doesn't help. I even tried adding him to the System Administrator group and it still didn't make a difference.

His permissions all check out, and it happens in every single course.

Tom

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Emma Richardson - xoves, 14 de outubro de 2021, 7:58 PM

And you have logged in as him from a different computer and verified the issue?

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Tom Esson - xoves, 14 de outubro de 2021, 11:57 PM

Absolutely, multiple pcs and tested with Chrome, Firefox & Edge, although, interestingly, I tried Safari on a Macbook this morning and it had the same behaviour, but on Chrome with the Macbook, it worked. I then tried Internet Explorer on the pc, which threw a few errors loading the page, but it actually saved the assignment.

I've had one other instructor with the same issue, but he was fairly new, so removing and recreating his account was easy to do, and he hasn't had a reoccurrence.

Very strange.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Emma Richardson - venres, 15 de outubro de 2021, 1:37 AM

Hold on, so the button etc is actually there to save the assignment? It just doesn't save? Have you tried clearing caches? Have you turned debugging on to full developer level to see if there are some useful messages?

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Ben Haensel - venres, 15 de outubro de 2021, 2:42 AM

I had this going on for a teacher last week. He told me one of the last things he did before he couldn't update assign mods in the site was to update a non-core h5p (hvp). I updated that plugin, purged site cache for good measure, and he was back in business! Do you use the hvp plugin possibly? -Ben

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Tom Esson - venres, 15 de outubro de 2021, 5:58 AM

Thanks Ben,

We do use hvp, but it is fully up to date. I did update any content types and cleared cache, but to no avail. I also ended up applying all available plugin updates as well, but no dice.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Emma Richardson - venres, 15 de outubro de 2021, 8:02 PM

I would take a look at what plugins the teacher is using and maybe try disabling them one at a time. Also, do you have another server that might also be caching? Have you also cleared browser caches? When I am trying to troubleshoot, I tend to manually delete the cache and localcache folders from the moodleDATA folder (not the code folder). And then clear the browser caches. You might see if chrome developer tools tools shows anything being blocked on the page...

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Tom Esson - venres, 15 de outubro de 2021, 3:08 AM

Yes, the button is there, just nothing happens when you click on it. It just stays on the page. Caches have been cleared, debugging gives no information, no error is logged.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Emma Richardson - venres, 15 de outubro de 2021, 3:42 AM

Check Ben's response and see if that fixes it - if not h5p, maybe another plugin is responsible...

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Tom Esson - venres, 18 de marzo de 2022, 10:03 PM

And now...unbelievably, it's happening to my account, and I'm the site administrator. I was editing an assignment for an instructor and suddenly it refused to save.

Now I can't add or edit Assignment activities. I can add/edit everything else. So very strange.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Andrei Boris - mércores, 5 de outubro de 2022, 4:05 AM

Hi Tom,
Have you found the resolution ?
We have Moodle 3.9.7 and it just happened to one of our teachers.
We don't have H5P ; yes, we already tried every single suggestion in this topic.
Thank you!

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - venres, 5 de maio de 2023, 4:19 PM

Hi Andrei,

My colleague, discovered that enabling Poodll submission in the assignment, allows an affected teacher to save an assignment and after that the teacher can edit the assignment and take away Poodll submission. Do you have the Poodll plugin setin your Moodle?

This gives merely an indication of where the cause could lie. It does not explain why this affects only few teachers and only for a limited time.

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Vardaan S. Rathore - martes, 16 de novembro de 2021, 4:14 PM

Hello Paul,

Can the teacher add other activities and resources?

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por François Lizotte - mércores, 8 de febreiro de 2023, 5:53 AM

I'm running into this strange problem right now on a Moodle 3.11.12+ that was just updated this morning. I tried:

1- Clearing caches
2- Unenrol and enrol back in the course
3- Added another editing teacher to course who could add an assignment no problem

François

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Ken Task - mércores, 8 de febreiro de 2023, 7:45 AM

Turn on debugging ... all the way to developer. Login as that teacher and see what Moodle might be complaining about.

Also check web services error logs as well as any WAF logs you might have.

'SoS', Ken

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por François Lizotte - xoves, 9 de febreiro de 2023, 2:57 AM

Debugging mode didn't show anything.

I'll ask our tech to check the logs again. The problem persists 24 hours later.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por François Lizotte - martes, 14 de febreiro de 2023, 9:53 PM

New check this morning and the problem is gone. Might not be magic since Apache and PHP were both restarted earlier.

François

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - venres, 5 de maio de 2023, 4:20 PM

Hi Francois,

My colleague, discovered that enabling Poodll submission in the assignment, allows an affected teacher to save an assignment and after that the teacher can edit the assignment and take away Poodll submission. Do you have the Poodll plugin setin your Moodle?

This gives merely an indication of where the cause could lie. It does not explain why this affects only few teachers and only for a limited time.

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Serge FELIX - venres, 7 de abril de 2023, 9:52 PM

Hello,

We've got exactly the same problem this week on 4.1.2+ for 2 two teachers.

- For one of them, the problem gone itself ...
- The problem stays for the other.

The problem :
- occurs only for assignment activity
- is not dependant of the course

I've try to activate debug mode but nothing appears. Moreover, It's not comfortable to analyze on the production platform in exams period

We never had this issue in the past

Serge

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - venres, 5 de maio de 2023, 4:28 PM

Hi Serge,

See my other messages, do you have the Poodll assignment plugins?
Sorry about flooding the thread with the same information, but I am eager to find out if this is the entry needed to fix this issue.

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Serge FELIX - venres, 5 de maio de 2023, 5:01 PM

Yes we have poodl plugin, but the problem also went away on its own for the second teacher ...

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - luns, 8 de maio de 2023, 1:06 PM

Hi Serge,

You can take a test account and try this:

Go to a test course as teacher.
Add an assignment (This should work)
Add an H5P Dialog card activity to the course.
Try and add another assignment (This will likely not work anymore)
Try and add an assignment and select Poodll submission (This should work)
Edit the assignment and take away the Poodll submission from the assignment settings (This should work)

To someone more knowledgeable than me, the Pooddll workaround should give a clue as to what kind of problem the H5P activity causes for the user account, which in turn should give leads as to how it can be fixed.

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Serge FELIX - mércores, 31 de maio de 2023, 4:04 PM

Sorry for my late response, I've try to reproduce the bug with your procedure but without success.

My colleagues are aware of the bug and your workaround, so they can investigate further if they encounter it again.
As well as they can try to reproduce it when the exam period will over.

I'm just a system admin

Serge

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Paul Nijbakker - venres, 5 de maio de 2023, 4:55 PM

Hi all,

While testing how this problem occurs, we noticed that it comes up after a teacher has edited an H5P activity in the Moodle content bank! (So, not the hvp plugin but Moodle's own h5p plugin). If we now can also find out what makes it go away, we would be happy, but for now activating the Poodle assignment submission plugin allows the assignment to be saved (and subsequently edited) and that will be our workaround for now.

Rgrds,
Paul.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Jean-François Rouleau - xoves, 1 de xuño de 2023, 3:23 AM

Hi, we've had the exact same problem at our institution for months and I managed to reproduce it in a non-production environment just yesterday so I could finally debug it. If I'm not mistaken, the bug comes from the assignsubmission_onlinepoodll plugin when the "Online Poodll" submission type is not selected and the "backimage" filemanager element does not have any image and when there exists some draft files with itemid = 0 for the current user. Thats why it only affect one user and why it goes away after a few day when Moodle deletes old draft files.

Here is the bug report with all the technical details I found:
https://github.com/justinhunt/moodle-assign_submission_onlinepoodll/issues/7

Meanwhile, the workaround proposed by Paul is also the one I recommend.

Jean-François

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Justin Hunt - venres, 8 de decembro de 2023, 1:42 PM

I have added a fix for this now in the latest release of: assignsubmission_onlinepoodll (version 3.1.13 Build 2023120800)
You can get it here:
https://moodle.org/plugins/assignsubmission_onlinepoodll

Paul's steps in this thread to reproduce the issue were very helpful, and Jean-François detailed analysis of the problem was terrific. Apologies that it took so long.

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Re: One teacher cannot add assignments, others can, permissions the same

por Jean-François Rouleau - venres, 8 de decembro de 2023, 10:42 PM

That's great ! Thank you Justin.

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