Users are experiencing issues with not receiving email notifications when mentioned or when replies are posted to topics they created, despite having relevant settings enabled. Isabelle_Paradis confirmed email functionality works for test emails and invites but not for mentions or replies. codinghorror clarified that Discourse defaults to not emailing users who are active on the site — often because their browser is open and pinging the site — and advised ensuring the setting ‘Send me email notifications even when I am active’ is enabled for all users involved. Isabelle_Paradis resolved the issue by setting ‘email time window mins’ to 0, though codinghorror cautioned this may prevent edit notifications and recommended at least 1 minute. Jason_Schleifer asked if the setting can be enabled by default; codinghorror confirmed it can be set in Admin > Site Settings, but only affects new users. Jason_Schleifer manually updated existing users’ preferences to reduce friction for their new community. codinghorror warned this may cause double notifications (email + in-browser) for active users, which Jason_Schleifer and fefrei acknowledged and accepted. mcwumbly raised a broader question about refining how ‘active’ is defined to improve notification accuracy. Notifications are delayed by the edit grace period, which can be shortened (but not below 1 minute) to speed delivery codinghorror.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
