diff --git a/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ColorKeeper.kt b/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ColorKeeper.kt
index 1bf12a8539..6e5da51f04 100644
--- a/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ColorKeeper.kt
+++ b/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ColorKeeper.kt
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 package com.instructure.pandautils.utils
 
 import android.content.Context
-import android.graphics.Color
 import android.graphics.PorterDuff
 import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable
 import androidx.annotation.ColorInt
@@ -135,11 +134,21 @@ object ColorKeeper : PrefManager(PREFERENCE_FILE_NAME) {
      * @return The parsed color, or [defaultColor] if the string could not be parsed
      */
     private fun parseColor(hexColor: String): Int = try {
-        ColorUtils.parseColor("#${hexColor.trimMargin("#")}", defaultColor = defaultColor)
+        val trimmedColorCode = getTrimmedColorCode(hexColor)
+        ColorUtils.parseColor(trimmedColorCode, defaultColor = defaultColor)
     } catch (e: IllegalArgumentException) {
         defaultColor
     }
 
+    // There might be cases where the color code from the response contains whitespaces.
+    private fun getTrimmedColorCode(colorCode: String): String {
+        return if (colorCode.contains("#")) {
+            "#${colorCode.trimMargin("#")}"
+        } else {
+            colorCode
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Generates a generic color based on the canvas context id, this will produce consistent colors for a given course
      * @param canvasContext a valid canvas context
diff --git a/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ThemePrefs.kt b/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ThemePrefs.kt
index d39aa7824c..c28b2e9392 100644
--- a/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ThemePrefs.kt
+++ b/libs/pandautils/src/main/java/com/instructure/pandautils/utils/ThemePrefs.kt
@@ -122,10 +122,20 @@ object ThemePrefs : PrefManager("CanvasTheme") {
 
     private fun parseColor(hexColor: String, defaultColor: Int): Int {
         try {
-            return ColorUtils.parseColor("#${hexColor.trimMargin("#")}", defaultColor = defaultColor)
+            val trimmedColorCode = getTrimmedColorCode(hexColor)
+            return ColorUtils.parseColor(trimmedColorCode, defaultColor = defaultColor)
         } catch (e: IllegalArgumentException) {
             return defaultColor
         }
     }
 
+    // There might be cases where the color codes from the response contain whitespaces.
+    private fun getTrimmedColorCode(colorCode: String): String {
+        return if (colorCode.contains("#")) {
+            "#${colorCode.trimMargin("#")}"
+        } else {
+            colorCode
+        }
+    }
+
 }