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Is there a way for me to get email notifications when comments are posted on my answers or when answers are posted to my questions (mostly the former...)?

I have looked all over in my preferences and I have the box "Allow email notifications when I subscribe to questions or tags" checked. I don't see any "subscribe" button on questions that I answer in order to follow up on them. (Other than subscribing to the answer rss feed... but that seems a little heavy handed.) I just want to make sure I am on top of responding to people! I know there is the little notification center in the upper left, but I am hoping for emails, because I don't check my Stack Overflow tabs often enough.

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  • Isn't that going to be way too much email? Is it actually going to be manageable for you or just as hard to notice as RSS, the site itself etc.?
    – djechlin
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 17:19
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    Too much email? No. Manageable? Yes. My phone dings, my browser has a little pop up and my dog barks every time I get an email. I have to open up my rss reader to see those. They aren't "pushed" to me (at least not as loudly). I guess I don't answer/ask enough questions for that to be too many emails.
    – xbakesx
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 19:38
  • Yeah I think once you have just a few questions open it's annoying and overwhelming. -1 because I don't think many users at all will need this to be expanded.
    – djechlin
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 19:49
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    @andersr seems to disagree with you. The question may also help people understand how to get fewer emails and where those settings reside. I request you reconsider your vote.
    – xbakesx
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 21:17

4 Answers 4

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You automatically subscribe to your own questions and receive inbox messages. You can edit your email settings from your profile, or click here to go to the menu directly. Unfortunately, that's the best Stack Overflow can offer.

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    Why would you say that is the best Stackoverflow can offer? Are you saying that it is not technically possible for them to send en email notification when someone responds to a questions that I posted?
    – andersr
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 0:33
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    1. There is subscription on certain topic questions, but for separate questions, I couldn't find any button(only button for "favorite"), could you point out the exact position? 2. Also could you point out the position for email settings?
    – Mathieu
    Commented Nov 17, 2014 at 10:42
  • @andersr I guess sending individual emails each time an answer is posted may produce way too much server load and not much of a benefit anyway.
    – Petruza
    Commented Oct 17, 2018 at 0:13
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I have my email address entered into the StackExchange email options and have it set to email me unread messages every 3 hours. However, the only notifications I receive are for updates relating to Meta Stackoverflow (ie this thread.)

I'd very much appreciate a clear set of instructions as to how one can be notified when someone responds to a question one has posted on Stack Overflow. This seems like it shouldn't be very complicated.

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Sounds like StackOverflow email is busted, as I have this problem too, though set for 3 hr emails.

The way to get notifications pushed is with their mobile app. My iphone now shows notifications of responses, etc, as they happen! Try that out. And StackOverflow, please add an option to send every individual notification as an email. Those of us who don't live on SE would appreciate it, and yes, we can handle the email. That's why we're asking :)

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  • Three and a half years ago this probably wasn't an option, but at this point I think this is the method to get updates as soon as they happen on SO. It does mean you need an app on your phone you rarely used... but it solves the problem.
    – xbakesx
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 17:33
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I too have this problem that I don't get the emails. I have checked the setting for getting emailed when there're updates to my questions and answers, but all I can get is a list of new activity and nothing spec related to my questions and answers. I though this was going to be fixed but either I've misunderstood or it's a bug. See also: How does one get email notifications from Stack Overflow?

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