# How do I manage automatic subscription behavior?

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-i-manage-automatic-subscription-behavior/77879>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [April 16, 2026, 4:43pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-i-manage-automatic-subscription-behavior/77879 "2026-04-16T16:43:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zygy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zygy/32/1134_2.png) [@zygy](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zygy)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 4:43pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-i-manage-automatic-subscription-behavior/77879/1 "2026-04-16T16:43:06Z")

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I’m about to add an observation field to about 25,000 observations via the API, but I don’t want to subscribe to any of these observations. The last time I did this, I didn’t realize it automatically subscribes you, and it completely ruined my subscription feed, which I’ve been slowly trying to repair ever since then. Is there a way to prevent this automatic subscription behavior or should I create a dummy iNaturalist account to make the edits? (I know creating multiple iNat accounts is prohibited, but if I don’t have another choice…)

And if you want to suggest that I just edit my subscription list afterwards, I can’t even load my subscription list any more because it always times out due to how long it is.

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**Author:** ![jwidness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jwidness](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jwidness)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-i-manage-automatic-subscription-behavior/77879/2 "2026-04-16T16:59:28Z")

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> [@zygy](#):
>
> add an observation field to about 25,000 observations via the API

I’m going to assume you’re still abiding by the “no machine generated content” rule

> [@zygy](#):
>
> Is there a way to prevent this automatic subscription behavior

You can’t prevent the subscription, but you can use the API to unsubscribe from each observation as you go (similar to what the [third party metadata extension](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/announcing-the-universal-metadata-tool-beta/53182) does).

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**Author:** ![zygy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zygy/32/1134_2.png) [@zygy](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zygy)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-i-manage-automatic-subscription-behavior/77879/3 "2026-04-16T17:02:41Z")

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> I’m going to assume you’re still abiding by the “no machine generated content” rule

Yes, this manually compiled data, nothing machine generated.

> You can’t prevent the subscription, but you can use the API to unsubscribe from each observation as you go (similar to what the [third party metadata extension](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/announcing-the-universal-metadata-tool-beta/53182) does).

Ah, that sounds like what I need! Any chance you can point me to the code that does that or the API endpoint that handles it?

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**Author:** ![jwidness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jwidness](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jwidness)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 6:00pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-i-manage-automatic-subscription-behavior/77879/4 "2026-04-16T18:00:40Z")

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[https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/docs/#!/Observations/post\_subscriptions\_observation\_id\_subscribe](https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/docs/#!/Observations/post_subscriptions_observation_id_subscribe) (for observation ids)

[https://api.inaturalist.org/v2/docs/#/Observations/put\_observations\_\_uuid\_\_subscription](https://api.inaturalist.org/v2/docs/#/Observations/put_observations __uuid__ subscription) (for observation uuids)

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-i-manage-automatic-subscription-behavior/77879/5 "2026-06-15T18:01:03Z")

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