# Users can change their preferences, not save them, and navigate away without warning
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [3월 29, 2015, 7:23오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952 "2015-03-29T19:23:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [3월 29, 2015, 7:23오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952/1 "2015-03-29T19:23:36Z")
As a user, I can change my email preference, not see a Save button (despite them being at the top & bottom of the page) and navigate away from the Preferences page with no warning that my preferences weren’t saved.
Not sure if they should auto-save, or have the same green/red boxes we have on the admin/settings.. or just warn them that settings weren’t saved…
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [3월 29, 2015, 8:03오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952/2 "2015-03-29T20:03:19Z")
The save buttons are at the top and bottom of the page. I don’t really support a big warning here. Updating your preferences is not a common activity, and the save button at the top and bottom of the page should suffice.
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [3월 29, 2015, 8:52오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952/3 "2015-03-29T20:52:04Z")
I first noticed when users complained that their settings weren’t saved.
They weren’t “newbies” to the internet, and one even showed me a screenshot of the desired settings, but when I went to his page, the stock settings were still in place.
(Sigh, I should have put that in my initial request.. )
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### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [3월 30, 2015, 2:17오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952/4 "2015-03-30T14:17:13Z")
> [@watchmanmonitor](#):
>
> As a user, I can change my email preference, not see a Save button (despite them being at the top & bottom of the page) and navigate away from the Preferences page with no warning that my preferences weren’t saved.
I always wondered why the UX was so different for site settings vs. user profile settings. The next-to-field save/revert buttons in the admin tools are quite nice and ensures things are changed as desired.
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [4월 2, 2015, 8:20오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952/5 "2015-04-02T20:20:44Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> and the save button at the top and bottom of the page should suffice.
The buttons at the top & bottom are hidden when changing that setting, and I get users who complain that our site isn’t doing what we want. IMO the best answer is exactly how the admin controls work. The second best would be showing the save button at all times & having it dimmed until a change needs to be saved.
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### Author:  [@jesselperry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jesselperry)
#### Post date: [9월 26, 2016, 4:33오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952/6 "2016-09-26T04:33:13Z")
I know this is an old topic, but I think as user preferences get longer and longer, with more options available — the “Save Changes” buttons at the top and bottom get easily lost.
Just throwing in my vote as well 😄
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [12월 4, 2025, 11:35오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-can-change-their-preferences-not-save-them-and-navigate-away-without-warning/26952/7 "2025-12-04T11:35:48Z")