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My inbox indicates that I have a message! I click it to see what that message is. My expectation is that the message would be cleared from the inbox's active queue (the red-circle number decrements and the inbox reference turns gray).

But it doesn't.

I've had to click my inbox entries in some cases in excess of ten times to get them to clear (and each time I click, the page must be reloaded to my browser). I apologize, but it's irritating. Is this a bug, or is it something like multiple comments piling up on a question, only the last one is shown in my inbox, and I have to click the inbox reference for each piled-on comment?

Please note that this appears to be a bug as I've encountered only a single comment on an answer and had to click the notification many times to get it to clear. It's as if there's a massive delay posting to the database that's exceeding some timeout.

  • I am not trying to open the linked comment/answer/etc. in a new tab or window. I'm simply left-clicking the notification.

  • I'm using Windows 10 and Firefox 117.0.1.

Related questions

This issue appears to be in now way new. The following posts appear to be previous complaints about this issue (both here and on other stacks).

Please note that, as mentioned by Joachim, the accepted answer for the second question doesn't actually resolve the problem, it just circumvents it. When, after a few weeks away from SE, I find 20-30 items in my inbox, using "Mark all as read" does make it all go away, but I lose all of the functionality the enhancements were meant to have in the first place. So I agree with Joachim that, due to it being an accepted answer, it's not officially a duplicate.

Improve this question
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  • 5
    Are you opening the link in a new tab? I've noticed it's somewhat weird but if I open in the current tab, it clears but if I open in a new tab, it stays unread.
    – Catija
    Commented Oct 4, 2023 at 15:58
  • 8
    There is also the still unsolved meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/424147/… It is really annoying that the notification stays unread more often than not. This ruins all the new features of the new inbox.
    – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz
    Commented Oct 4, 2023 at 20:17
  • 1
    @Catija No, I'm not opening a new tab. This has been going on for at least two weeks.
    – JBH
    Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 15:18
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    @samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz That Stack Overflow link is pretty much the problem I'm experiencing. Even the difference between title and inbox message body - though I thought I was just seeing things. I've worked for companies that don't solve obvious problems before moving on to the Next Big Enhancement, which appears to be happening here. It stinks.
    – JBH
    Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 15:21
  • 4
    @Thinkr I agree that "Mark all as read" works... but it defeats the purpose of having the notification list as designed in the first place. Sometimes my job takes me away from using SE for weeks and I return to find 20-30 inbox queries. The red-dot number and highlighted links are incredibly useful for keeping track of where I am in the list when reviewing it.
    – JBH
    Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 15:29
  • 1
    I truly get your annoyance, but your edit didn't add anything useful to the post, so I reverted it.
    – Joachim
    Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 17:22
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    @Makyen Workarounds are useful, but don't solve the problem. I consider them a band-aid that simply gets SE off the hook. I don't have the authority to add the status-review tag, so the info is interesting, but irrelevant. I'm doing what I can to highlight the problem. I've been a programmer for 30 years. This is not an issue with Firefox. It's far more likely an issue of a low-priority database update timeout or a queue-length limitation on the server side.
    – JBH
    Commented Oct 14, 2023 at 4:05
  • 1
    This problem is also in chrome.
    – Зонтик
    Commented Oct 18, 2023 at 15:10
  • 1
    Cross-site duplicate "Inbox notifications not consistently marked as read after clicking title" on which I posted an answer with more details as to what's happening and some workarounds.
    – Makyen
    Commented Feb 14 at 18:46
  • 2
    As have I in tried to do as well. But when the choice is between suffering while waiting or not, I'd rather not. Nobody is suggesting that a workaround means SE don't have to fix anything. But the reality is that you not using a workaround doesn't put any pressure on SE. Only ever makes you suffer for their non-action.
    – VLAZ
    Commented Feb 14 at 18:58
  • 1
    @JBH Given that this question still doesn't have a status-review tag, I feel I should remind you that questions like this one are ineffective at informing the company about the issue unless the question gets a status-review tag. An "in need of moderator intervention" flag should be raised on this question requesting that an MSE moderator add a status-review tag. [Note: For this specific bug, it's probably non-critical, because I did add a status-review tag to the cross-site duplicate I linked above on MSO, where I am a moderator and can add the tag.]
    – Makyen
    Commented Feb 14 at 20:37
  • 2
    FYI, this was marked as completed an hour ago. Posting a comment here so you're aware, as tag-only edits don't trigger notifications.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Jul 6 at 0:08
  • 1
    Thanks, @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog. I noticed last night that something had changed! I'm delighted that the feature is working again.
    – JBH
    Commented Jul 6 at 3:30
  • 2
    @JBH but the question itself is not the place to thank the developer or to say "fixed". The tag is enough for that. You can add a self answer saying it's fixed, there also mentioning the staff who marked it completed. Pretty much what you tried to write in the question.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jul 6 at 6:44
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    @QuackE.Duck meta.stackexchange.com/a/390795 When there are multiple comments on my post, have the notification lead to the oldest
    – VLAZ
    Commented Jul 6 at 18:56

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