Turnitin Troubleshooting

If you’re having trouble finding, submitting, or viewing feedback for a Turnitin assignment, below is a selection of troubleshooting options for Turnitin on LearnZone to help!

You can also reach out to your teacher or visit the Library who can support you.

Cannot find the assignment

Check that you are looking in the correct module and topic. Turnitin assignments appear as activities, for example:

Turnitin Assignment activity on LearnZone

If the assignment is not present, verify if it is not a Microsoft Teams Assignment instead. Open Teams and go to the Assignments tab.

If the assignment still cannot be found, contact your teacher.

Cannot submit the assignment

If the “Submit” button does not appear, check the assignment’s Start and Due Dates. Wait for the Start Date to pass or contact the teacher. Submissions after the Due Date are only allowed if late submissions are permitted.

A Turnitin assignment with arrows showing where the start date and submit paper buttons are.

When making a submission, check if the submission has a title and a file is uploaded OR text input is provided, if instructed by the teacher.

Make sure that the Own Work checkbox at the bottom of the page has been pressed. If the assignment has multiple parts, make sure the correct files are submitted for each.

If a file does not upload, make sure that the file: is less than 100MB. To check this, right-click the file, select “Properties”, then see “Size”. 1MB equals to 1024KB and 1GB to 1024MB.

Screenshot of file explorer with a file 'right clicked' showing a menu and an arrow pointing at 'Properties'.Screenshot of a files properties with the size of the file underlined and an arrow pointing at it.

For PowerPoint files, you can help keep your file size down by compressing your pictures.

Your file must have at least 20 words. In Word, the word count is in the bottom-left corner of the window. For PDF, you will have to verify this manually.

It must also have less than 800 pages.

Screenshot of a Word document with an arrow pointing at the Word count in the bottom left corner of the winodow.

Is it an allowed type:

  • Word (DOC/DOCX)
  • PDF
  • Excel (XLS, XLSX)
  • PowerPoint (PPTX, PPSX, PPS)
  • plain text (TXT)
  • rich text format (RTF)
  • HTML

To find out what the file type is, right-click the file, select “Properties”, then see “Type of file”.

Screenshot of file explorer with a file 'right clicked' showing a menu and an arrow pointing at 'Properties'.Screenshot of a files properties, showing the type of file underlined and an arrow pointing at it.

Convert the file to PDF and/or reduce its size, then try resubmitting. In Word, select “Save as”, choose “PDF” file type from the extendable list below the file name.

Screenshot showing how to convert a Word document to PDF.

Try refreshing the LearnZone page to see if you can submit now, as your internet connection may have dropped or timed out.

If scanned notes fail to upload, rescan them using college scanners or Microsoft Lens. Alternatively, add 20 typed words to the submission, for example:
“For the submission to successfully upload and display in Turnitin Feedback Studio, the document must contain at least 20 selectable words.”

If the issue has not been resolved, contact your teacher about the problem.

Cannot see your feedback or Similarity Report

Navigate to the Turnitin link where you submitted the assignment.

Screenshot of aTurnitin submission showing where the Post Date is, Similarity and Grade.

Showing the Similarity Report to the students is optional. Contact your teacher about the report.

Check the assignment’s Post Date to see when the results will be available.

If the issue has not been resolved, contact your teacher about the problem.

A submission is broken, or a wrong file has been submitted

If a wrong file has been submitted and resubmissions are not allowed, the teacher must remove the incorrect file to allow for a resubmission. Contact your teacher promptly.

If the assignment cannot be viewed or downloaded after submission, the file may be corrupt. Contact your teacher to delete the file and allow resubmission.

For any other issues with the assignment, contact your teacher.

You did not received a Digital Receipt

Navigate to the Turnitin Assignment. The receipt is available to download as one of the options.

Screenshot showing where you can download the Digital Receipt from inside the Turnitin submission next to the your uploaded submission.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a Similarity Report?

A Similarity Report is a document detailing matches inside your submission to other submissions for other students at our institution and others around the world. Your teacher may choose not to show you this report. If your teacher has any issues with your submission they will discuss it with you privately.

Does a high similarity score mean that am in trouble?

The similarity score matches the text inside your submission to others that are stored in a database online. This is used to detect similarities between your work and that submitted by others. As long as you reference any work within your own submission there is probably no need to worry. You should contact your teacher if you are concerned.

What's the difference between the assignment plugin and the Turnitin plugin.

The plugins are slightly different but essentially both are used to enable you to submit work. Turnitin will run checks on your work to enable your teacher to detect Plagiarism and AI more easily; whereas the Assignment plugin does not.