# Can't set Email Notifications for Chat in admin setting

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-set-email-notifications-for-chat-in-admin-setting/264156
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** notifications, chat
**Created:** [May 7, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-set-email-notifications-for-chat-in-admin-setting/264156 "2023-05-07T16:57:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Dotila\_Li](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dotila_li/32/303426_2.png) [@Dotila\_Li](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Dotila_Li)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-set-email-notifications-for-chat-in-admin-setting/264156/1 "2023-05-07T16:57:23Z")

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As an admin, I can’t find the setting according to the option “Email Notifications” in user chat preferences.

I need to set the option to ‘Never’ for every user at once, but I can’t.

* * *

 ![RH7PCWE86OKCRP}1MI(SD67](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/f/9/2f977f8c1e732f675fb7fea5d6c82f1191545a10.png)  
 ![_`U@K{J_L0F_N{B%C7@}VG](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/c/0/2c04508f87b5813ba07a2384e20e64be07e83a2c.png)

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### Author: ![nathank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nathank/32/290039_2.png) [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-set-email-notifications-for-chat-in-admin-setting/264156/2 "2023-05-07T18:33:51Z")

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I’ve moved this to #Contribute > Feature and tagged it #chat as it isn’t a broken thing but rather a thing you are requesting.

You’ve got my +1! It would be really helpful to be able to easily configure site defaults for chat.

You could probably do what you need via the Rails console for your existing users. But I’m not sure how you’d do that for your new joiners. Maybe a Custom Wizard?

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### Author: ![Overgrow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/overgrow/32/478189_2.png) [@Overgrow](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Overgrow)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-set-email-notifications-for-chat-in-admin-setting/264156/3 "2024-09-11T12:26:26Z")

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I just needed to set the default email notifications (to `never`) for chat for everyone, because it seems like `when_away` is the default.

I’m sharing the script:

```ruby
User.all.each do |user|
  user_option = user.user_option

  if user_option.chat_email_frequency != "never"
    puts "User: #{user.username} - Current chat_email_frequency setting: #{user_option.chat_email_frequency}"
    user_option.update(chat_email_frequency: "never")
    # puts "Updated chat_email_frequency setting to 'never' for user: #{user.username}"
  end
end

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![nathank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nathank/32/290039_2.png) [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2024, 11:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-set-email-notifications-for-chat-in-admin-setting/264156/4 "2024-09-11T23:21:21Z")

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What will you do for your new joiners?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Moin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/moin/32/554653_2.png) [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2025, 8:56am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-set-email-notifications-for-chat-in-admin-setting/264156/5 "2025-11-24T08:56:36Z")

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Bumping this.

Chat email notifications for DMs are now independent from the core email settings, which means configuring `default email level` to “never” no longer blocks these chat emails.