Adding Members to a Card without Automatic Subscription

Question

Hi,
I’m developing a bot to manage Trello cards and I’ve encountered an issue. I want to assign members to cards in such a way that they are not automatically subscribed to them (i.e., subscribed: False). I’m working with the Trello API, but I can only see an option to change the subscription status for myself. Also, the change doesn't work on the first PUT request (Update a Card), but only on the second attempt.

My goal is to assign the relevant people to cards in a template without automatically subscribing them. The idea is that users can choose to subscribe themselves (subscribed: True) if needed, reducing unnecessary email notifications. This would significantly improve our workflow by minimizing irrelevant notifications.

Is there a way to achieve this through the API? Or is there a feature I might have missed? I would really appreciate your help and suggestions.

Thanks!

unknown · Answer

Yep. And if you add a member to a board, that doesn't cause them to be subscribed to the board.

Also, I wish they would change the name of the parameter in the REST API from subscribed to watching, to match what it's called in the GUI.

PS. If you think someone's answer is correct, mark it as such. This allows others who come looking for the same topic to know which answers are the correct ones.

Walenty Lupach · Answer

Hey @[deleted], it's such a shame that this is how it works. It's really a useful thing. I read this old article and I'm shocked that nothing has changed in 8 years :(

Thank you

unknown · Answer

Hello @Walenty Lupach

Simply put, you can't add a member to a card without also causing them to be subscribed, and the only person who can subscribe or unsubscribe themselves from a card is themselves; you cannot subscribe or unsubscribe others from a card.

This is just how Trello is.

Read this very old StackExchange > Web Applications article on the same topic.