# Is there a way to see previous (already viewed) notifications? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Tags:** web, question\ **Created:** [April 2, 2023, 8:27pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549 "2023-04-02T20:27:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cazort](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cazort/32/7446_2.png) [@cazort](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cazort)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 8:27pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/1 "2023-04-02T20:27:41Z")
Sometimes I clear all my notifications, but I later in the day want to go back and pull up the page for a recent notification, and I can’t figure out how to do it. Unlike virtually all other social media, like FB, IG, Twitter, and Tumblr, I cannot seem to access a full feed of all notifications. Under the newest notifications there is a link “View your dashboard” but when I click that, it shows me. The best I’ve been able to figure out is checking all the notifications until I have none, then reloading any page, and re-opening the notifications tab. This seems to usually show the most recent 10 notifications, including ones I’ve already viewed. Sometimes this is sufficient and I can find what I’m looking for. But if what I’m looking for is more than 10 notifications back, I’m stuck. Is there something I’m missing here? I would expect this to be easy to access, somehow, but I can’t figure it out. I also tried searching these forums but didn’t find any previous post about this, so apologies if this has already been discussed. ---
**Author:** ![jasonhernandez74](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jasonhernandez74/32/33615_2.png) [@jasonhernandez74](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jasonhernandez74)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/2 "2023-04-02T20:36:37Z")
Of the four tabs on your dashboard, “All Updates” has every notification, in the same order as they were in your notifications dropdown. ---
**Author:** ![cazort](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cazort/32/7446_2.png) [@cazort](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cazort)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/3 "2023-04-02T20:52:41Z")
This is not at all helpful. My notifications list, in order, links to: [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90039693#activity\_comment\_cbcdc273-d510-4f89-a98b-95a42d200bc2](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90039693#activity_comment_cbcdc273-d510-4f89-a98b-95a42d200bc2) [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90039693#activity\_comment\_9cd1fe55-3739-424b-a860-1f5701c9f9ec](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90039693#activity_comment_9cd1fe55-3739-424b-a860-1f5701c9f9ec) [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/52819890#activity\_comment\_b721144a-cca2-4acc-b45d-8dea1b0bdb50](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/52819890#activity_comment_b721144a-cca2-4acc-b45d-8dea1b0bdb50) [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61711654#activity\_comment\_abf59d20-4aaa-478f-83ff-43c23ab3ae42](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61711654#activity_comment_abf59d20-4aaa-478f-83ff-43c23ab3ae42) The fourth one here was the one I was looking for. However the “All Updates” tab does not just have notifications, it has a ton of other stuff and the notifications can be buried very far down. For example, the first three items in “All updates” are about people I follow adding new observations. Then the fourth item is the first notification above. Then there are four more items about adding of observations. Then I have to click “more”. When I click “more”, it doesn’t just load below, it clears the page and shows more items individually. So I cannot repeatedly click “more” and then use the in-page search to use a keyword to locate a notification I remember. For example I was searching for the fourth notification which was about a scarlet oak identification. So I would want to search for “scarlet oak” but I cannot load multiple pages. And I don’t know on what page the notification is. Looking through the second page I have four more “user added observations” posts. Then the third page? four more such posts. Fourth page? Five more such posts. Fifth page? Four more such posts. I have now looked through a whopping FIVE pages of results and I haven’t even gotten to my second notification. How many pages do I need to look for to find the buried notification? Who even knows. I don’t have the time to go through this stuff. For all I know it could be 20 pages, or 100 pages? And if I miss it? Well then I’m totally screwed. I have to be actually reading each and every one of these items to make sure I don’t miss it. It’s **completely unusable** for the purpose of finding the buried notification. I want a list of notifications and only notifications, just like appears in the pop-up on the top right when I click the notifications icon. ---
**Author:** ![cthawley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cthawley/32/1445_2.png) [@cthawley](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cthawley)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/4 "2023-04-02T21:03:50Z")
This tool may work for you: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-an-easy-way-to-open-all-notifications/25913/35](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-an-easy-way-to-open-all-notifications/25913/35) I know some people find the Android app good for looking back through notifications. ---
**Author:** ![cazort](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cazort/32/7446_2.png) [@cazort](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cazort)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 11:09pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/5 "2023-04-02T23:09:19Z")
Thanks, wow! It took some fiddling but I was able to get it to work and it is very fast and does exactly what I want! I’ve bookmarked and can now use this! Side note, this interface is so clean and snippy, relative to the mind-numbingly sluggish iNat interface, which makes me think that it is packed with unnecessary bloat. I’d love if iNaturalist would have this sort of feature built-in. I’d love even more if the whole site were a bit faster and more responsive…when I use it I lose huge amounts of time to just waiting for it to respond. ---
**Author:** ![optilete](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/optilete/32/1908_2.png) [@optilete](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/optilete)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2023, 4:38pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/6 "2023-04-03T16:38:29Z")
> [@cazort](#): > > However the “All Updates” tab does not just have notifications, it has a ton of other stuff and the notifications can be buried very far down. Would be nice if there was a tab with only my own notifications. ---
**Author:** ![Manassas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/manassas/32/12999_2.png) [@Manassas](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/Manassas)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 1:18pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/7 "2023-04-06T13:18:35Z")
Generally I am receiving notifications both on iNat and my email box. It’s very convenient because they will sent them as email in time every day so that I can check it by date. But a bad thing is that notification will fill up your email box… ---
**Author:** ![cazort](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cazort/32/7446_2.png) [@cazort](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cazort)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 7:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/8 "2023-04-11T19:14:30Z")
> [@Manassas](#): > > a bad thing is that notification will fill up your email box Yes, and I have them turned off for this reason. It’s frustrating though that turning them off leaves me in the situation where I can potentially lose track of notifications without consulting an external tool. ---
**Author:** ![jasonhernandez74](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jasonhernandez74/32/33615_2.png) [@jasonhernandez74](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jasonhernandez74)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 9:48pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/9 "2023-04-11T21:48:24Z")
I find that having notifications only on iNat is sufficient. That way, I see a count of them whenever I log in or refresh the page. ---
**Author:** ![cazort](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cazort/32/7446_2.png) [@cazort](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cazort)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 1:03pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/10 "2023-04-12T13:03:34Z")
That would be great and I would prefer this solution if it were possible to consistently / reliably view already-viewed notifications. As I explained above, I’m not able to do this on-site. ---
**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 11, 2023, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-previous-already-viewed-notifications/40549/11 "2023-06-11T13:04:25Z")
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