Why can't I disable Confluence email notifications....

[Sherri Netherby-Cox]

Some of my users have complained about the "chattiness" of the Confluence notifications system.   So, I googled for the solution to this problem.

This was the solution that came up via Google

Resolution

1. Navigate to Confluence administrators menu.
2. Navigate to "Manage Add-on" menu.
3. Choose "System Plugins" from the drop down list.
4. Find and click "Confluence Content Notification" plugin.
5. Click the "<Number> of <Number> Modules enabled" button.
6. From there, find and disable the following modules.

When I tried to do this in my Cloud installation, I am unable to even select the modules listed - in gray text it says:  Module cannot be modified.  

Anybody have any thoughts on how I can go about disabling notifications for these events?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

You've found the wrong solution - that's about killing email off completely, and only on Server installations.

For Cloud, you don't have the option to turn modules off, it's a restricted function (because you could cripple it and Atlassian Cloud support really don't want to have to fix that sort of mistake - in general, not just the email part)

The answer for Cloud is to get your users to work through https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/email-notifications-145162.html and turn down/off the frequency of adds, autowatches and so-on.

[Steve Terelmes]

This is mentioned a few places below, but to clarify, Nic's solution reduces only a % of emails. Even if a user unchecks every box they will get the following emails (or so I have experienced). 

• Another user assigns you a task on any page
• Another user adds you to a team
• Another user @mentions you directly

Even when you stop watching the page you will still get an email for these. I'm still researching to see if there is anyway to prevent this. 

There is also this option which might help when turned off

[Rory Apperson]

Nic, your link brings me to info about server not cloud.

[kpink]

if a user is  mentioned on a page will they get an email any time anything is updated or just when they are mentioned?

[Steve Terelmes]

Currently, users will get an email if they are @mentioned. Emails for updates are tied to whether the user has selected the watching options I referenced above. The two appear to be independent of each other.

[kpink]

yes but do they only get the update if the update includes the @mention or once they are mentioned on a page they get updates anytime anyone updates anything on that page

thanks

[Jeremy Murray-Wakefield]

The problem with these solutions is that they disable notifications entirely. I have no problem with notifications within Confluence itself - I just don't want that stuff pouring into my main email inbox throughout the working day. 

I much prefer to go to confluence at a time convenient to me, and use the notification inbox at the top right of the screen to catch up on things.

The only way I can see to achieve this (which I do currently) is to have an Outlook rule to automatically throw everything from confluence into my Deleted Items folder.

I would prefer an email on/off switch in the preferences though.

[Jan Stähle]

Vote +1 - is it really true that Notifications by mail are set by the same option than "in Confluence notifications"? 

[Joel Young]

++ this is a GDPR nightmare for small businesses. whole pages being duplicated. email inboxes containing old/out of date data. The potential because we are in the cloud for users to use personal emails and have sensitive data sent unencrypted to personal mail boxes.... How do we get someone to look at this? @AnnWorley 

[Sherri Netherby-Cox]

Really?  That's pretty terrible actually - MOST of my users are complaining about this stuff - its way more efficient for me to fix it ONCE for everybody.  I am really starting to hate having a Cloud instance (at a previous company we had a Server install).   It seems as though all the stuff that makes JIRA and Confluence really great is just crippled on Cloud installs.

Sorry Nic - I don't mean to complain at you  - I really, truly appreciate that you take the time to answer so many questions 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Nope, I understand.  Lack of flexibility like this is one of the weaknesses of Cloud.

[Luc Debliquis]

This email notifications spamming is terrible.
You can manage space watches from any page you admin (good luck to find it by yourself :p)

[Karen Hayden]

I am an administrator of a space, but once I get to Manage Watchers, I cannot remove any of the other users.  Is that even a feature?

[AnnWorley]

Hey there, Karen. It is a feature: Manage Watchers

If you are a space admin, you should be able to remove a user by clicking on the little trash can next to their name. I look forward to hearing whether that works for you.

If it doesn't work, please let us know whether you are on Cloud or server and if server, what version.

[Karen Hayden]

Yes I have space admin permissions.  But when I get to the Manage Watcher pop-up, there are no trash can icons (even if I hover over the user name) that would allow me to remove another user (from watching the space).

I am currently a server install with version 5.9.4.  (Using latest Firefox as browser.)

Any suggestions as to how to get the trash cans to appear, that would be exactly what I've been looking for!!

Thanks!!

[AnnWorley]

Thanks for mentioning your Confluence version. The ability to manage space watchers was added in Confluence 5.10: Allow for adding or removing a Space Watch on behalf on another user

Please consider upgrading soon, to get the manage watchers functionality, and also because Confluence 5.9.x will be reaching end of life status 11/24/2017. Here are more details on that: Atlassian Support End of Life Policy

[Rochelle Levy]

The way I have ended up solving this for my team  (to at least reduce the amount of email notifications) is that when people publish a page they can choose to 'publish' by selecting the publish button or select 'publish without notifying watchers' in the three dots icon dropdown for a new page or for an old page, there is a checkbox at the bottom of the page to select where you can decide to notify watchers. 

[Peter Gao]

would be nicer to have each one setup their email setting to block email from confluence with certain title or some pattern.

[Rochelle Levy]

Hello, has anyone found a solution for this, I have a user who is complaining about being spammed. he receives a notification every time I create a new page, edit a page etc. He has turned off all his email notifications and now not watching the space until I actually have a solution. Please help

[Steve Terelmes]

Not yet - I teach Confluence classes at least once a month. So far there is no single solution to this problem. You can piece together solutions as suggested above. But some emails still sneak through...

This needs a serious, simple solution from Atlassian in future versions. 

[Wayne Cochran]

My morning routine is to get a cup of coffee and delete Confluence emails. I guess the designers didn't take large teams into account. 

[Rochelle Levy]

Not ideal ... but good to know, thank you :) Just a bit of an annoyance when we're trying to get people to change their habits and do things differently. 

[Peter Gao]

I am admin, I had ask my IT to completely block all email from confluence@COMPANY.atlassian.net because everyone agreed that every single email from it is deemed junk.

Oh, we use slack to receive notifications which user can fully customize how they see the email.

[Nancy Shao]

Hi @Rochelle Levy @Steve Terelmes @Wayne Cochran @Peter Gao I'm a PM on Confluence notifications and am currently working on the roadmap to make sure we we can get the best experience possible for notifications in the future. 

I'd love to get your thoughts and feedback if you're interested in talking with me for about 30-45 min on your use case around email notifications. Feel free to book a slot using this Calendly link if you'd like to chat. 

What’s involved? * Sessions are 30-45 minutes long and are conducted over video-conference.

• During the session, we'll chat and get to know you and the work you do in Confluence. 
• As a token of our appreciation, you'll receive an e-gift card worth $75 USD within 5 days of completing your session.

[Ashlee Toney]

@AnnWorley - We have this same issue and have tried several things. We have turned off the recommended updates email in admin settings. We have had individual users go into settings and deselect all of the settings, and nothing is working. They all still receive emails when someone creates a new page. We have several people constantly creating new pages so this spams the users like crazy (today in a couple of hours, someone will be creating 80 pages of documentation).

How do we proceed? If they all "unwatch" the space - what are the consequences of this? (i.e. what do they lose) We were hesitant to have them no longer watch the page as we wanted each user to be notified of certain things, but at this point, we cannot figure out how to be notified of what we ONLY need to be notified on.

Thoughts?

[Sonja Haavisto]

Hi, 

I am trying to find a solution to this but it seems like there is none. 

Is it possible to watch a page and not get the emails? I'd like to only have notifications in Confluence and not get spammed all the time. 

[Michelle Bachmann]

I use the add-on "No Email Storm."  It's a great option and your don't have to mess with the other email issues.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/42684/no-email-storm?hosting=server&tab=overview

[Alma G]

@AnnWorley we have on demand version of JIRA and when I go to Profile I do not see any Settings. I have only Summary. Can you pls advise? We would want also to sett notifications for @mentions only. 

[Ashlee Toney]

We found a work around for this. We had our employees stop "watching" the space, and turn off all emails (in their individual account settings).

Then we just tag them on the documents (Ex. meeting notes) or we send out a link in Slack as needed.

[AnnWorley]

Hi Ashlee,

The purpose of watching a space is to receive notifications for it, so it makes sense that ceasing to watch spaces reduced notifications.

Watch Pages, Spaces and Blogs

You can 'watch' a Confluence page, blog post or space. Confluence will then send you a notification email whenever anyone updates your watched content.

Happy to hear you found a strategy that works for your team.

Thanks,

Ann

[Austin Suchoval]

Hello,

I am new to Atlassian Cloud confluence.  I've never been a site administrator so forgive my repeat questions.   Can we confirm, there is no way for an individual user to un-subscribe from email notifications? 

I am building out the base to multiple spaces and my team says I am spamming them left and right.  I think it is happening even when I un-check the notify watchers page. 

Thank you!

Austin 

PS.  I a thrilled to have this product up and running, just getting it going.   

[AnnWorley]

Hi Austin,

I am thrilled to hear you have it up and running and are getting it set up, too.

Users may opt out of most emails by clicking their profile>settings then choosing email. As you can see from the screen shot it is possible to turn off everything but @mentions:

Thanks,

Ann

[Austin Suchoval]

This is perfect!  The one thing I would want them not to turn off are the @mentions so that works.  Thanks again. 

[George Samuels]

Hi there, we've done this on our Server install, but users are still receiving email notifications (I checked my own emails and it seems like I am as well). 

[AnnWorley]

I understand you un-ticked all the email options in your profile but still get notifications. Please let me know which activities in Confluence trigger the notifications so I can research more. If you can paste a copy of one of the notifications with personal information redacted that may give us a hint.

[Wayne Cochran]

i uncheck everything and I still get a deluge of emails. Super annoying feature. I spend every morning deleting a ton of these emails.