Scenario
A user completes a course that should award a certificate, but the certificate does not appear on their profile or in the course completion record.
Explanation
This issue occurs when the user completed the course before the Award a certificate option was enabled in the course settings.
For example:
The user completed the course in September 2025.
The Award a certificate option was enabled in October 2025.
Because the completion was recorded before certificate awarding was enabled, the system cannot retroactively issue the certificate.
Certificate settings apply only to completions recorded after the option is enabled.
Resolution
If the certificate is missing due to this timing issue, reassign the course and manually update the completion record to award the certificate.
Locate the user in the reporting dashboard.
Manually reassign the course to the user.
Mark the user complete for the course.
Set the original completion date during this process.
Confirm the certificate is awarded.
This approach updates the record and issues the certificate without requiring the user to retake the course.