# Allow marking as unread
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 8, 2023, 10:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473 "2023-03-08T10:06:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jidanni](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jidanni)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2023, 10:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/1 "2023-03-08T10:06:43Z")
I read [Questions About The Notification System](https://meta.discourse.org/t/questions-about-the-notification-system/204245) and tried pushing all the buttons I can find. But apparently there’s no way to mark a read article, or notification, as unread.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2023, 10:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/2 "2023-03-08T10:10:04Z")
I think you may be looking for the ‘defer’ button:
However, I think you need to turn the ability on in your [Preferences-\>Interface](https://meta.discourse.org/my/preferences/interface) page:
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### Author:  [@jidanni](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jidanni)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2023, 12:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/4 "2023-03-08T12:28:15Z")
Looks good. I was able to thus change notifications back to blue as a side effect. The only one I couldn’t change back to blue was a badge notification.
First time in software that I ever encountered an unmark as read button that needed to be enabled first!
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### Author:  [@renato](https://meta.discourse.org/u/renato)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/5 "2023-03-08T12:49:15Z")
Admins can also enable the `default other enable defer` setting to “Enable defer topic functionality by default”, so this user preference is already enabled and you can opt-out instead of opting-in.
That said, this feature is so useful that it would make sense to be enabled by default on a new install IMHO.
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### Author:  [@mattdm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattdm)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/6 "2023-03-08T14:05:18Z")
You may also be interested in bookmarks — you can make these re-notify you in the future, including (if you want) a reason why.
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### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2023, 3:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/7 "2023-03-08T15:00:12Z")
> [@jidanni](#):
>
> First time in software that I ever encountered an unmark as read button that needed to be enabled first!
Out of curiosity, what social networks or discussion software (we can include chat-oriented software, but not email clients, which all have this feature) do you know that have a default setting to mark a post as unread?
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### Author:  [@jidanni](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jidanni)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 12:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/8 "2023-03-10T00:44:36Z")
I am saying “that allow a user to toggle a post’s read status.”
I am saying it seems to new users that once a post has been read in Discourse, its status is set in stone.
Because no user would have dreamed that “only hacker users would need a toggle status button, so that’s why one must opt-in deep in Preferences.”
Yes, it is hard to explain.
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### Author:  [@mattdm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattdm)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 1:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/9 "2023-03-10T01:11:38Z")
I think it might be more helpful if you could focus on your own experience and impressions rather than sweeping claims about worldwide end users, new users, no users, etc.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2023, 1:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-marking-as-unread/257473/10 "2023-04-09T01:11:43Z")
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