Didn't get email notification of reply to thread

A thread of mine was commented on recently and I didn't get an email notice.  It's this thread Can chickens "hold it".

I'm not sure if it's because I recently changed my email setting by deselecting the box for "... even if I haven't read all the previous messages in the thread yet".  I still have the box above it checked for getting an email when someone replies.

Or maybe it's because a moderator or someone with great powers changed the title to be more descriptive and that confused the program?  

At the top of the thread it has a button for "Stop Watching" so I believe it thinks it is sending me emails.  I notice that there is also a "Resolved" button that I'm not used to seeing.

Any thoughts?   Thanks!

Son of a biscuit.  The email just arrived (27 min after the post was entered by Maureen).  So I guess I pulled the trigger too soon.  Sorry  :)

(feel free to delete this thread if it serves no future purpose)

Thanks for letting us know.  Glad it worked out okay in the end.

I am super curious why it took 27 minutes.   Mine seem plenty instant.  

Mike, do you have other emails that take a while?

Permies email are the only ones that I have a good time stamp on (I can compare the time I received the email with when the post happened).  I don't know if I have a delay with any other emails.

Unfortunately I deleted the email notification that I did get between my first and second post so I can't check the time stamp that particular one.

The notification for your post to this thread came to me at 1:18 my time so it seems to be nearly instant.  All the other permies email notifications I've received today were also nearly instant.  I'll try to keep an eye out if it happens again and let you know.

Is there anything else I can do to help troubleshoot?

On the 26th, thousands of people reported that yahoo mail was having some type of melt-down.

That could be it.  I've had a number of email issues with Yahoo in the past few months...  

I've checked all my email notifications in the past day and they've all been instant.

Uh oh, it's happened again...  I'm not sure what info would be most helpful but I'll try to lay out what I'm seeing.

Hoop House post had a reply 10 and 2 hours ago and I didn't get a notice for either.  This post has the "Stop watching" button at the top so it looks like I should be getting notices.

Better late than never walapini worked perfectly.  Got a notice at 9:04 CST this morning and the post from the OP had happened at that same time.  

I've had other notices that came through in the past two days that seemed to be a-ok.  

Maybe it's just another Yahoo email issue and the email notices are delayed, but why did I get the walapini one?  And I'm getting other email from other sources that seems to be timely.  If there's anything else I can do to help troubleshoot, just let me know.  I won't delete any emails for a while in case they're needed for forensic work

Hmm, I just got an email notice on the Hoop house thread that was instantaneous to the post and it happened at 10:07 CST.  So now it is working again.  I'm guessing someone is flipping switches behind the scenes just to mess with me

Well crap, it just happened again.  I got an email about a post to Popcorn for chickens at 16:24 CST so I checked it out and saw the post from Bryant at that same time.  All good.  Now I check the main forum page and see that post has been updated.  I click in and see two more replies, one at 16:32 and one at 20:22 CST.  No email notice for either.  

I vaguely suspect my whole issue is because a couple weeks ago I changed my email setting by deselecting the box for "... even if I haven't read all the previous messages in the thread yet".  I still have the box above it checked for getting an email when someone replies.

Maybe the system is somehow not recognizing that I've looked at the post so it doesn't send me the next notice?  FWIW, when I get an email notice, I always click the link in the email to go to the post.  

Are you always logged in when you check the threads you're following?

Good question...  I am usually logged in.  Yesterday I believe I was logged in from late morning continuing through right now so I think I was logged in during the most recent occurrence.  Maybe there's a way behind the scenes to double check if I remember correctly?

I have noticed that I am not getting notified of thread activity on those I have chosen to follow. Why is that? I automatically log on every time I visit the site.

I am concerned that new members might get a bad impression of site activity if they suddenly stop getting email notifications. I know that I am a more active on this site when I am notified of activity as it happens.

-CK

I've noticed it several more times in the last month.  Sometimes on old threads that were resurrected.  Often when I find them there has only been one response from within the last day.  So that means the failure in the "system" would have happened recently.

Happily I did get an email about this thread being updated

Thanks guys for letting us know.

I feel like the IT help desk asking 'have you tried turning it off and on again?' when I say this... however, I'm going to ask the obvious.

Can you double check your spam folders?

Okay, now we got that over with, we can get to the real troubleshooting.  

There seems to be a correlation between yahoo mail and not getting thread updates.  I don't know why or if this is what's causing the challenge but it seems to be intermittent.  

What would really help pin this down is specific examples when it happens.  That way, someone with magic powers (more magic powers than me) can look at the log and see if there's something wrong on our end. Can you let us know when you notice it with a link to the thread?  That would be a big help.  Thanks.

No problem, I'll just watch for threads to pop up on the main forum page that I should've gotten an email about and post it here.

When the events above (earlier in the thread) happened I was watching my spam and trash folders.  And I am on Yahoo mail....  And I'll stay logged in......

Mike Jay wrote:No problem, I'll just watch for threads to pop up on the main forum page that I should've gotten an email about and post it here.

Excellent!  Much appreciated.

The more data we can gather, the easier it will be for them to find and fix the problem.  

I just noticed that this Apple Poll thread has been updated and I didn't get an email about it.  I remember getting an email about Kyle's post yesterday but I'm pretty sure I didn't get one for R Ranson's yesterday and I know I didn't get one for whatever triggered it to appear in at the top of the forum 39 minutes ago.

FWIW the "Stop watching" button is still at the top of my view of the thread which tells me the system thinks I'm getting updates...

Thanks for the examples.

Can you try this and see if it makes a difference?

Go to "my profile", then "email settings" then try " ... even if I haven't read all the previous messages in the thread yet."

Leave it on this setting for a day and see if you get the updates.  Then move it back to the regular setting.  I don't know why this works, but it worked for me about a year ago when I was having the same problem.

I know I didn't get one for whatever triggered it to appear in at the top of the forum 39 minutes ago.  

I think this is because the wiki got edited.  It bumps to the top of the recent list when that happens.  I don't know if everyone gets emails for that or just people who have edited that wiki in the past.  I suspect it's the latter.

Ok, I selected that box.  Let the inundation begin :)

Mike Jay wrote:Ok, I selected that box.  Let the inundation begin :)

Did you miss any email updates on this setting?

No, I haven't found any threads that a notification for update wasn't received by me.  Or to eliminate the double negative, the system is working so far.  So for the small sample size of a day (less than 10 emails) the updates are working with that box checked.  Should I leave it this way for another day or two to continue the test?

I've had a thought that may or may not explain it.  This is for when that box is deselected and I'm hoping to only get one notification per thread...

I usually leave my computer running for weeks at a time (sorry IT folks).  Sometimes my computer restarts on me or I've turned it off for some strange reason.  The first thing I do when I get it running again is check is my email.  When I click on a Permies notice it takes me to the thread.  As of that moment, I'm not signed in.  Usually I either attempt a reply or go to the main forum page and eventually figure out I'm not signed in.  So maybe by not being signed in, that click on the email isn't registered?  And maybe the system thinks I never clicked on the email so it never sends another notice?

Then again, per my 11/15 comment I believe I was logged in for a time period during which I didn't get notifications...

So maybe by not being signed in, that click on the email isn't registered?  And maybe the system thinks I never clicked on the email so it never sends another notice?

This is exactly what happens.  If you're not logged in, it won't know you visited the thread.

Then again, per my 11/15 comment I believe I was logged in for a time period during which I didn't get notifications...

That part worries me.

No, I haven't found any threads that a notification for update wasn't received by me.  Or to eliminate the double negative, the system is working so far.  So for the small sample size of a day (less than 10 emails) the updates are working with that box checked.  Should I leave it this way for another day or two to continue the test?

This is good.  Now we know the emails are getting through.  There's no hidden spam filter (my email server did that once even though I told it I want all my spam, thank you very much).  

I still can't find a reason why it's not working.  But, like I said, I had this happen about a year or so ago, and I left the box clicked for about a week and it worked okay again.  We could try that.  

r ranson wrote:

So maybe by not being signed in, that click on the email isn't registered?  And maybe the system thinks I never clicked on the email so it never sends another notice?

This is exactly what happens.  If you're not logged in, it won't know you visited the thread.

Then again, per my 11/15 comment I believe I was logged in for a time period during which I didn't get notifications...

That part worries me.

Ok, so if I don't log in before clicking on a notice, the system won' t realize it.  Then a month later when I am logged in and another update to that post happens, I won't get that notice and I'll have a 11/15 experience.  

Would it be possible/easy/worthwhile to change the email notifications so that there is another link?  Keep the current one to take you to the thread and add a new one that takes you to the log in page first and then on to your thread?  Hopefully if you're already logged in it would skip right to the thread?

Ok, just had another one and there's good data to go with it  Here's the thread Product Swaps

I was signed in overnight and this morning, never turned off the computer and I still have the check box checked for " ... even if I haven't read all the previous messages in the thread yet."

I have been getting dozens of notices a day for all the topics I've recently been involved with.  This morning I had two for this Product Swap post, they arrived in my Yahoo email at 9:38 and 9:24 CST.

The post itself has been updated three times today, at 9:24, 9:38 and 10:30 by Fc Hintz.  That last post by Fc did not trigger a notice to me.  I did check my spam and trash folders as well.

Anything I can check or do to further help troubleshoot?

Son of a biscuit...  The email just arrived (11:26 CST) for Fc's post.  Usually they are practically instant as Paul mentions above.  But now I've seen two where they were noticeably delayed.  

So I think I've experienced two problems:
1.  Not being logged in when I click on an email notification link and the system doesn't know I've looked at it so it doesn't send more notices.  Probably only happens when that check box isn't checked
2.  Occasional delays in receiving the notifications.  Maybe due to Yahoo or gremlins.