Cozy Mysteries discussion

In case anyone is wondering why they’re not receiving notifications, below is a message from GR (thanks to Emily for the info). I’ve noticed a significant decrease in activity in groups I’m in since they turned off this function.


[10/2] Email, in-app, and phone push notifications temporarily disabled
Hi everyone,

Goodreads has temporarily turned off email notifications, in-app notifications, and push notifications to your phone. These notifications include when you receive a new message from a Goodreads member, new friend additions, new followers, new group additions, and any other event, comment, or activity notifications you've signed up to receive in your Account Settings. We're working on bringing these back soon.

We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and will provide updates right here on Goodreads Help on when we’ll reinstate these notifications, so please check back for more information.
clock icon Oct 01, 2020 • Announcement

While you're waiting for GR to turn this back on, here's another, much more reliable way to find new posts. I've been using this method since the last time there was a glitch in the email notifications, and I'll never go back to relying on those emails.


At the top of the group's main page, click on the little gray unread link :



In the window that opens, you'll see a list of all the threads in that group that have new posts and how many posts there are :



If you click directly on the red number, it will take you to the first new post in that thread. (I *right-click on the red number, so I don't have to keep going back to the list of unread posts.) When you've checked all the threads you want to check, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on mark all read, so those posts won't show up the next time you check for new posts.

I don't use the e-mail notification. I rely on the Notifications Icon on the site to tell me when there are new notifications. I am distressed that even being on the site the Notifications isn't working. Not Good.

Thank you for detailing a different way to tell when the notification is new.

Thank-you so much for posting about this. I've been wondering all day where my Goodreads emails were and feeling a little lost as to how to find the new posts .

I'll follow Barb's excellent instructions until they get it sorted

I hope they get it sorted out soon, as the “silence” is killing me. I also just realized I haven’t had a Pinterest update in a couple days. Weird.😕

Heather L wrote: "I hope they get it sorted out soon, as the “silence” is killing me. I also just realized I haven’t had a Pinterest update in a couple days. Weird.😕"

I feel slightly bereft actually Heather as Goodreads is a lifeline that keeps me anchored during these awful times :-(

Notification seems to be back. Let’s hope it sticks! 😀

Hoorah, just catching up now. It's brightened my day.

In case you were panicking, it appears we lost comment notification again sometime Thursday. As with before, I for one am annoyed. For days prior I was frequently denied access because the site was “over capacity.” I can only assume the two are related. Hopefully they get their bandwidth issues sorted out soon! 😕

Makes me nervous about what they might be changing this time *shuddering*

So far 2021 has been full of tech problems. My cell phone didn’t change to 2021 so for the time being it’s stuck in 2020 until the manufacturer can figure out a fix......now my pvr box is on the fritz.
Don’t need GR probs on top 🤨

Thanks Heather. I was wondering why it was so quiet!

Is anyone else getting email notifications about new posts in threads they follow? I haven't gotten any for weeks. It's frustrating.

I'm getting my other email notifications from Goodreads, but not those.

They've turned them off Mark. They're 'working on it'. Something to do with spam. I've been in touch with support and that's all I'm getting with no timeline on when it'll be up and running again. Very frustrating!

Mark wrote: "Is anyone else getting email notifications about new posts in threads they follow? I haven't gotten any for weeks. It's frustrating.

I'm getting my other email notifications from Goodreads, but no..."
Yep you're definitely not alone. I never realized how much I relied on GR email notifications until they shut those off. The only way I can even attempt on the bell icon notifications is leaving that as an open tab in a separate window at all times, lol. I'm glad someone else is a fan of the email notices too!

Thanks for the update, Brenda. As a moderator I find the email notifications help me stay on top of spam posts, so it is a bit frustrating not to receive them. If they’re really interested in going after spammers, they should try to do something about the hijacking of dormant accounts. That’s been the latest ploy for a couple of months now.

I started receiving the daily update newsletter (what friends are reading) again last month for the first time since December. Really missed that!

Until GR turns email notifications on again -- if they ever do -- if you want to be sure you don't miss any new posts in any thread, you can use this method :


On the group's homepage, click on the little unread link




It will give you a list of all the threads in which there are posts that you haven't read




You can click on the name of the thread, which will give you ALL of the posts in that thread, or you can click on the number posted in red in parentheses (# new), which will take you to the first unread post in that thread. (NOTE: I always right-click on that number, so I don't have to keep returning to the page of unread posts.

When you're done reading the threads you're interested in, you can go down to the bottom right and click mark all read (shown in the second screen shot above), so those posts shouldn't show up again the next time you check the group this way.

Thanks to one of my GR friends who told me about this method, this is how I've been checking for new posts ever since GR started having issues sending notifications ages ago. It's easier and faster, imo, to do it this way :)

Thanks Barb, that's helpful. It sure is time consuming to do it either with the notification button, or using the 'discussion' link, (which I'm using at the moment.) I do wish they'd bring them back...

Heather L wrote: "Thanks for the update, Brenda. As a moderator I find the email notifications help me stay on top of spam posts, so it is a bit frustrating not to receive them. If they’re really interested in going..."

No worries Heather - and yes, I agree. It's more frustrating as a moderator to have to find new ways to do things which are normally straight forward!

Ohh I never would've thought of that, Barb! Brilliant idea and sure better than wading through notifications that mostly don't even pertain to threads I use. :)

You know you can turn off notifications on threads you're not interested in, right? But yes, thanks to BC in the CCC, I've been checking for new posts in this way for a couple of years now, and it's a lot less time-consuming ... and less worry about missing new posts too :)

Thank you all. Glad to know I'm not suffering alone.

I guess misery really does love company. :)

They're back!!! My first one came through at 5.27am (Thursday) so about 5 hours ago!! Yay!

Yes, I started getting them this afternoon. Hope it lasts!

Fingers crossed Heather! SO much easier!

I've had a few today as well. Here's hoping they continue.

I'm getting the emails, but there is nothing in them but a link to read the post.

Still, it's nice to have them back.

Mark wrote: "I'm getting the emails, but there is nothing in them but a link to read the post.

Still, it's nice to have them back."

Yes, I miss the comment preview, but it’s better than nothing.

Yes - I agree. I wonder if they'll reinstate that, or if we should just be happy the emails are back!!

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but it is about a Goodreads glitch. And sorry it's such a long post.

A few weeks ago I noticed 12 friend requests had turned up in my notifications on Goodreads and some of them dated back to 2017! I had read of this glitch on the boards so didn't think much of it. But then I went to my friends list and discovered that instead of 131 friends as I had previously I now only had 7. I contacted Goodreads but only received a generic reply saying that they were aware of problems with friends and followers.

I don't usually use the Goodreads app but thought I would check it to see what was going on there, so downloaded it. Although it only shows 8 friends in my list, the home page included notifications from Goodreads friends from my 131 so hope was kindled. If I click on any of these people in the app it shows them as friends although it doesn't on the website. But if I look up a book it doesn't show friends reviews first on either the website or the app.

So I think all my Goodreads friends are still there somewhere and have some hope that they may eventually be restored. I thought I would post about this in the groups where I have Goodreads friends (so you may see this in another group as well) just in case you were wondering why we weren't friends any more. Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen, and did it resolve itself eventually? It's a bit like being out in the Goodreads wilderness.

I got a friend request about three months ago, and I accepted it. It kept coming back for approval, and I gave up responding after the third try. It seemed to have gone through eventually, but in the last week or so the approval request came back again! 😂

Yep, the site is glitchy. But I keep on soldiering on...

Notifications are just trickling back in again after being off most of yesterday!!

I guess notifications are out again? Last one I have is from 20 hours ago...

They sure are Meg! So frustrating!!

Yes, it’s been a problem off and on all week. 😕

To be honest, it's been a problem off and on for years now.

Finally finding one of my groups talking about this problem of no notifications !
Over 24 hours now.
Does anyone know if a repair is being done?

The only way to follow is to note this discussion and come back periodically.
I saw someone, not here, say goodreads is going out.

Whoa, is that just a rumor? As in shutting down the site?

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. Two days and counting...

Meg wrote: "Whoa, is that just a rumor? As in shutting down the site?

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. Two days and counting..."

Rumor.
But certainly feels like no one running the site cares. There's no telling what's going on ...they don't communicate.

That's the worse of it, not communicating. Nothing is stopping them from either sending a mass email or posting a headline/notice across the top of the GR homepage. This cutting everyone off with no notice or acknowledgement is so disrespectful and has gotten very old.

Meg wrote: "That's the worse of it, not communicating. Nothing is stopping them from either sending a mass email or posting a headline/notice across the top of the GR homepage. This cutting everyone off with n..."

I agree !
No notifications since February 11th, late afternoon.

I just had a batch of notifications from Feb 11 and 12 drop into my inbox, and it’s now indicating that I have updates at top of the page, too. This issue is so frustrating.

I thought it was just me not getting notifications! LOL

Email notifications from 11th and 12th for me too Heather. I've seen them all anyway but it's so annoying!

We're finally back in business.

A little off topic-

Is anyone else facing any problem with Goodreads? I usually use it on my laptop but there I am not able to update my previous comments, add book/author or even comment anywhere. it's been like this since yesterday.

I'm not having that issue at the moment, but it's been happening from time to time. Usually things go back to what passes for normal within a couple of hours.

Keya wrote: "A little off topic-

Is anyone else facing any problem with Goodreads? I usually use it on my laptop but there I am not able to update my previous comments, add book/author or even comment anywhere..."

I had that happen the other day. I could see everything but not do anything.
It turned out that i had to sign in again. I thought i was, it looked like i was, but i guess i got auto signed out despite being on my account.
Weird.

yeah, i get signed out too couple of times. I am currently on phone. Guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow and see what happens.

Keya, If you’re on your phone, you might have to change the format. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and look for something like “full desktop mode” or “switch to desktop” — sorry, can’t remember exact wording. This has happened to me before, though not in a while (knock on wood) and that was what I had to do to fix the issue.

My latest annoyance is that book pages are now defaulting to their beta version, which is NOT cell phone friendly. The book covers take up the entire screen and the text does not adjust to fit the screen so is too large and goes off the edges of the screen. Getting tired of opting out every time I go to add or look up a book in order to actually read info about a book. 😠