How can we help?
Most issues can be resolved in a minute or two. Find your situation below — or reach out and we'll help you through it.
Try these first.
"Extension not detected" when I click Send to SIS
This usually means CateLMS hasn't seen the extension's handshake yet. Try in this order:
- Confirm the extension is installed: in Chrome, type
chrome://extensionsin the address bar and look for "CateLMS Sync" in the list. It should be enabled (toggle on). - Reload the CateLMS tab — a full reload (
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R), not just a refresh. - Click the extension icon in your browser toolbar to open its popup. The popup should show "Connected to CateLMS." If it doesn't, the extension can't see your CateLMS session.
- If you have multiple Chrome profiles or are in Incognito mode, the extension may not be enabled there. Check that you're in the same Chrome profile where you installed the extension.
If none of that works, email us with a screenshot of chrome://extensions and we'll dig in.
"Wrong class open in your SIS" appears when I try to sync
The extension looks at whatever SIS tab you have open and tries to match it against the CateLMS class you're sending from. This message means the SIS tab is showing a different class than the one you're syncing.
- Switch to your SIS tab.
- Navigate to the gradebook (or attendance roster) for the same class period you're sending from in CateLMS.
- Switch back to your CateLMS tab and click Send to SIS again.
If the SIS class looks right and you're still getting this error, it usually means the student rosters don't match — every student in your CateLMS class needs to also be in the SIS class. Check for transfers or new enrollments that may have synced one direction but not the other.
The match is wrong — it picked the wrong assignment in my SIS
Don't click Confirm. The match-confirmation modal exists exactly so you can correct this. Two options:
- Pick a different match: if there's a candidate list, scroll through and pick the right one.
- Create new instead: if no existing assignment in your SIS is the right match, click "Create new instead" and the extension will create a fresh assignment in your SIS gradebook with the same title and point value as your CateLMS assignment.
If the wrong-match suggestion happens consistently for the same assignment, email us — we can adjust the matching weights for your SIS's quirks.
Some students synced, some didn't
Click "View details" on the result toast to see the per-student breakdown. Each failure has a specific reason:
- "Student SIS ID not in current view" — the student is in your CateLMS roster but not in the SIS gradebook tab you have open. Usually means they recently transferred or are flagged as withdrawn in the SIS.
- "Field not editable" — the SIS has locked that cell (often because the grading period closed). Reopen the period in your SIS or post a manual override.
- "Score out of range" — your CateLMS score is higher than the SIS allows for that assignment. Check the SIS's max-points setting for the assignment.
If a failure reason isn't listed here, the audit log entry in CateLMS has the technical detail. Forward that to us if you need help interpreting it.
The extension worked yesterday and now it doesn't
Most likely your SIS pushed an update overnight. SIS vendors update their UIs periodically and a CSS class change can break the page pack the extension uses.
Email us with the SIS name (Aspire, PowerSchool, Skyward) and a screenshot of the gradebook page. Page packs ship independently of the extension, so we can update without you needing to reinstall — usually within 24-48 hours of a confirmed report.
I uninstalled and want to reinstall — will my data be okay?
Yes. The extension stores nothing of substance locally — only your CateLMS base URL and a handshake state. Reinstalling has zero effect on data in either CateLMS or your SIS. Your audit history in CateLMS persists across uninstalls.
How do I know what version I have?
Open chrome://extensions, find CateLMS Sync, click "Details," and the version number is listed at the top. Updates happen automatically via the Chrome Web Store within ~24 hours of a new release.
What to include in your support email.
The more of this you can share, the faster we can help.
- What you were trying to do ("send Period 7 grades to Aspire," "import last year's transcripts," etc.)
- What happened instead — paste the exact error message if there is one
- Your SIS — Aspire, PowerSchool, Skyward, or other
- Your district or school name — helps us check whether others are seeing the same issue
- Browser and version — find this in your browser's About menu (Chrome/Edge/Brave/Arc)
- Extension version — find this at
chrome://extensions→ CateLMS Sync → Details - Screenshot if possible — especially of any error message or the SIS page
Please don't send actual student data in your email. Generic descriptions ("a student wasn't matched") are enough — we don't need names or IDs to investigate, and screenshots that show student data should have it blurred out before sending.
Reviewing the extension before deployment.
Documentation we can provide
If your district requires a security review before approving a Chrome extension for staff use, email us at support@catelms.com and we'll send you:
- The full source code for review (the extension is open-source)
- A network-traffic summary listing every external endpoint the extension contacts
- A FERPA assessment specific to this extension
- Page-pack source files for each SIS we support
- Vendor-questionnaire responses (Common App, NIST, or whichever framework your district uses)
Quick facts for security review
- The extension stores no student data locally — every record passes through extension memory for the duration of a single sync (~5-15 seconds) then is released
- The only external service the extension contacts beyond your CateLMS instance and your SIS is Anthropic's Claude API, and only when the teacher invokes the optional AI tiebreaker for assignment matching — assignment metadata only, never student data
- The extension uses your existing browser sessions for both CateLMS and your SIS — no separate credentials to manage
- Source code is auditable; the build is reproducible from the public repo
Centrally deploying to staff devices
Districts running Google Workspace can deploy the extension via the Google Admin console using the extension's Chrome Web Store ID. We can provide the extension ID and the recommended policy template — email us and mention you're a district IT admin.
Documents and policies.
Privacy policy
The complete privacy policy describes what data the extension processes, what it doesn't collect, and how the AI-assisted matching works.
How the extension works (overview)
The product page covers the daily-use flow, supported SIS systems, and the page-pack architecture.
Bug reports & feature requests
Bug reports, feature requests, and Page Pack requests for SIS systems we don't yet support: email support@catelms.com.