# Configuring Activity Summary emails

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-activity-summary-emails/36627
**Category:** Site Management
**Tags:** email, reference, activity-summary
**Created:** [12 december 2015 om 20:04 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-activity-summary-emails/36627 "2015-12-12T20:04:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 1

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### Author: ![Discourse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/discourse/32/148734_2.png) [@Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Discourse)
#### Post date: [12 december 2015 om 20:04 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-activity-summary-emails/36627/1 "2015-12-12T20:04:12Z")

</div>

> 🔖 This guide explains how to configure and manage activity summary emails in Discourse, including user and admin options, customization, and troubleshooting.
> 
> 🙋 Required user level: Administrator

Activity summary emails (formerly known as digest emails) are automated messages sent to forum members who haven’t visited in a specific period. These emails contain a collection of popular content since the user’s last visit, aiming to re-engage inactive members.

## Understanding activity summary emails

Activity summary emails include:

1. Activity statistics to emphasize engagement levels
2. A list of popular topics
3. A selection of popular posts
4. Links to topics that are “New for you”

Here’s an example of what an activity summary email looks like:

 ![Activity Summary Email Example](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/9/1/91902440ccad3f7efaa8de58ad9e8a3cd2d9c359.png)

The system sends these emails only when a member hasn’t visited the forum for a minimum period.

## Configuring user options

Users can customize their activity summary email preferences:

1. Go to user preferences
2. Navigate to the “Emails” tab
3. Adjust the “Activity Summary” frequency

Available frequency options are:

- Never
- Every 30 minutes
- Every hour
- Daily
- Weekly
- Every month
- Every six months

> ℹ The system won’t send activity summaries to silenced or suspended members.

## Setting up admin options

### Default user settings

To configure default settings for new users:

1. Go to Admin / Settings
2. Search for “digest”
3. Adjust the following settings:
  - `default email digest frequency`
  - `default include tl0 in digests`

Here’s what these settings look like in the admin panel:

 ![Default User Settings](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/7/6/76465b279a0dd4a9f28a8ef0d5b6288020fd12c1.png)

### Site settings

To customize activity summary emails:

1. Go to Admin / Settings
2. Search for “digest”
3. Modify the following settings as needed:
  - `digest logo`
  - `digest min excerpt length`
  - `digest topics`
  - `digest posts`
  - `digest other topics`
  - `suppress digest email after days`
  - `digest suppress categories`
  - `digest suppress tags`
  - `show topic featured link in digest`
  - `disable digest emails`

### Customizing email appearance

To customize the email’s appearance:

1. Go to Admin / Settings
2. Adjust the following settings:
  - `email accent bg color`
  - `email accent fg color`

For more advanced customization, refer to the [guide on customizing email templates](https://meta.discourse.org/t/customizing-specific-system-email-templates/88323).

### Adding custom content

To add custom text to activity summary emails:

1. Go to Admin / Customize / Site Texts
2. Search for `user_notifications.digest.custom`
3. Edit the desired customization keys

### Understanding the list of popular topics

Popular topics for digests are extracted from `/top` topics with certain rules:

- individual user permissions to view that topic
  - topics from private categories the user does not have access to will not be sent

- topic notification level
  - the topic shouldn’t be muted for that user

- user who created that topic must have trust level greater than 0
  - this default can be overridden (see below)

- topic must be created after the user was last seen or last sent a digest (whichever is more recent)
- topic should not be from a muted category
- topic should not be closed
- topic should not be archived

## Testing activity summary emails

To preview an activity summary email:

1. Go to Admin / Emails
2. Click on “Preview Summary”
3. Set the `Last Seen User` date
4. Enter a `username` to use for the summary email.
5. Choose to view on-site or send to an email address

Here’s what the preview option looks like in the admin panel:

 ![Preview Summary Email](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/6/2/6227049712b8cbe78172cccc53d2abaa3223b727.png)

> ℹ Note that for the summary email to populate, it will need to contain at least some activity since the `last seen user` date, so you may need to set this date back several weeks if your site does not have a lot of activity.

## Troubleshooting

A user might not receive activity summary emails if:

- They have been active on the site recently
- They have [unsubscribed from activity summary emails](https://meta.discourse.org/t/managing-activity-summary-email-subscriptions/239689)
- A summary has been sent recently
- Their email has been bouncing
- They’re inactive, suspended, or staged
- They were created via [DiscourseConnect](https://meta.discourse.org/t/13045?silent=true) and have never visited the forum

## Checking email sending dates

To check when an email was last sent to a user:

- Check the `last_emailed_at` column in the `users` table
- Check the `digest_attempted_at` column in the `user_stats` table

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a place to see statistics or a report of the amount of e-mails sent?

You can see the list of sent emails from your site’s Admin / Emails / Sent page. You can see the total number of emails sent per day with the Emails Sent dashboard report (found by clicking the Reports link from your admin dashboard.)

For a detailed report of emails sent per type of email, you can query the `email_logs` table with the [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plugin.

For self hosted sites, you can also usually see reports at your transactional mail provider, which will also include delivery status, bounces, etc.

### What are the technical requirements and the costs associated with sending email to forum members?

For self hosted sites, an account with a transactional email provider like Sendgrid needed. Take a look at the [email provider recommendations](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTALL-email.md).

Email delivery is included with all of our hosting plans. If you go with our hosting, everything to do with sending and receiving emails on your Discourse site is configured for you.

## Additional resources

- [Managing Activity Summary email subscriptions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-frequency-or-unsubscribe-from-activity-summary-emails/239689)
- [Customizing the Discourse outer email template](https://meta.discourse.org/t/customize-and-style-the-discourse-outer-email-template/153637)
- [Adding custom content to summary emails](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-custom-content-to-summary-emails/49103)

> Last edited by @SaraDev 2025-06-11T20:46:13Z
> 
> Last checked by @hugh 2024-08-02T04:11:44Z
> 
> > **Check document**
> >
> > Perform check on document:

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