# Not receiving emails when mentioned or when someone replies to a topic I created
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** notifications, email
**Created:** [26.Январь.2016 22:43:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538 "2016-01-26T22:43:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Isabelle\_Paradis](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Isabelle_Paradis)
#### Post date: [26.Январь.2016 22:43:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/1 "2016-01-26T22:43:44Z")
I’m admin and I’ve been testing discourse before we send out actual invites to members.
As far as emails, it works. Test email works. It also works when I send out invites and passwords requests.
It doesn’t work when someone mentioned someone else (yes ‘Send an email notification even when the user is active by default.’ is ON). And it doesn’t work when someone else replies to my topic. I have email notification turned on for both mentions and topic reply for all my mock members including me.
Is there a setting that overrides this somewhere I haven’t seen?
Thanks
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [26.Январь.2016 22:56:04 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/2 "2016-01-26T22:56:04Z")
We’re not aware of any issues with email notifications.
As you noted, the setting
> Send me email notifications even when I am active on the site
should be checked for _every single user involved_ if you are testing this – because the default Discourse behavior is that **we never email a user who is active on the website**.
It is typically the case that the person who “didn’t” get an email notification had a browser open, pinging the site.
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### Author:  [@Isabelle\_Paradis](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Isabelle_Paradis)
#### Post date: [27.Январь.2016 19:27:48 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/3 "2016-01-27T19:27:48Z")
This seems to work now.
It was a tad annoying to do testing but what did help was putting ‘email time window mins’ to 0.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [27.Январь.2016 20:55:32 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/4 "2016-01-27T20:55:32Z")
That will work, but any edits people make to the posts won’t get through as there’s no time allotted for edits. I suggest leaving it at least at 1.
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### Author:  [@Jason\_Schleifer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jason_Schleifer)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:15:48 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/5 "2016-06-18T19:15:48Z")
We are having the same problem.. is there a way to enable this on by default?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:18:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/6 "2016-06-18T19:18:41Z")
You can default that preference to on (email me notifications even if I have a browser open actively pinging the website) in your Admin, Site Settings if desired.
That will only change the preference for new sign ups, though.
Be careful with this, as users could report your site for email spam if you are constantly emailing them for notifications they already saw on the website.
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### Author:  [@Jason\_Schleifer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jason_Schleifer)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:21:28 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/7 "2016-06-18T19:21:28Z")
Thank you for the warning - at the moment we’re a small community, and it’s important that people get notified if they’re mentioned.
How long before the notifications go out?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:39:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/8 "2016-06-18T19:39:57Z")
As mentioned above, this depends on the edit grace period. You can shorten the edit grace period in Admin, Site Settings to accelerate the notifications. But I don’t recommend setting it lower than 1 minute.
And just as a reminder, for existing users, they must edit their user preference. Only new users will be affected by the new preference default.
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### Author:  [@Jason\_Schleifer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jason_Schleifer)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:41:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/9 "2016-06-18T19:41:26Z")
cool, thanks!
I just went through and changed everyone’s preferences to receive by default.. we’re a new community and just getting going. Trying to reduce friction.. and having this on by default reduces new user friction IMHO 🙂
thanks!
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:42:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/10 "2016-06-18T19:42:08Z")
It will absolutely start to double notify folks that are active on the website. So as long as you are clear about that.
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:45:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/11 "2016-06-18T19:45:26Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> It is typically the case that the person who “didn’t” get an email notification had a browser open, pinging the site.
Is there any desire among the team or have there been any other discussions about what it might take to [improve what “active” means](https://meta.discourse.org/t/last-seen-date-updates-with-no-other-obvious-activity-eg-posts-read/39854)?
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### Author:  [@Jason\_Schleifer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jason_Schleifer)
#### Post date: [18.Июнь.2016 19:59:35 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/12 "2016-06-18T19:59:35Z")
By double-notify, you mean receive an email and also pop up a notification in the header - right?
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### Author:  [@fefrei](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fefrei)
#### Post date: [19.Июнь.2016 14:33:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/13 "2016-06-19T14:33:26Z")
Yes, that’s what is going to happen (in reverse order).
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### Author:  [@Jason\_Schleifer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jason_Schleifer)
#### Post date: [19.Июнь.2016 14:53:40 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/14 "2016-06-19T14:53:40Z")
cool, thanks! I’m happy with that. 🙂
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [10.Февраль.2022 18:05:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-emails-when-mentioned-or-when-someone-replies-to-a-topic-i-created/38538/17 "2022-02-10T18:05:59Z")