Settings Icon missing after adding observation to project

[kyle_eaton_photography]

I often add posts by other users to traditional projects, including mine, but sometimes misclick and add to the wrong project (like searching “insect” and adding an African insect post to the “Insects of America” project instead of “Insects of the World.” Until this week, there was a settings icon next to the project you added it to, allowing you to remove the observation from that project. That icon is now missing. I’ve tested that this occurs on the iNat website and on the Android app, and across multiple users, so it’s not a user privacy setting thing (one of the users is someone I know).

Platform: Website, Android app

App version number, if a mobile app issue:

Browser, if a website issue: Google Chrome, Vivaldi

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311403978 (example)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71947225 (2nd example)

Screenshots of what you are seeing:

The first screenshot shows the problem.

The 2nd screenshot shows how it used to look, and still looks for my own observations, where I can still remove them from projects. Note the gear icon, which has the “Remove from project” option within:

Description of problem:

Step 1: Add another user’s post to a traditional project

Step 2: Look for the settings icon next to the project name to remove it.

Step 3: Icon is missing, cannot remove the observation on the observation page.

[felicia54513]

I’m having the same issue, I just posted about it. Not collection projects, I added some by mistake that I can’t remove. I don’t know if commenting will help IT staff prioritize this if they see its affecting multiple users. Not sure, commenting in case it does.

[brennafarrell]

I’m having the same issue too, also using Chrome. The gear icon does still appear for any project that I’m a curator/manager/admin off, however.

Edit: Forgot to mention that it’s specifically the observation’s page it’s not showing up. If I add an observation to a project using the Annotations tab in Identify the gear icon shows up (but then if I click on the observation, the gear doesn’t show).

[rebelnerd7]

I’m also experiencing this issue. I’ve tried multiple browsers on my laptop and iphone. The gear icon is available to edit or delete projects or observation fields on my own observations, but not on projects or observation fields added by myself to another user’s observations. I believe this started occurring on September 4.

[felicia54513]

Curator? I’m not seeing that in my case. I’m not a manager or admin of anything though, so wouldn’t know there. As rebelnerd below said, I’m only seeing it on my own, not ones that I added from other people.

[brennafarrell]

Yes; for example I’m a curator of the Found Feathers Project. I added both projects to this observation, but only the Found Feathers Project has the gear icon:

[felicia54513]

Hmmm, ya, I’m not seeing it for ANY of mine, curator or not. I wonder if it’s a browser difference, I’m referring to the Samsung Internet app. I’ll check another browser, but if that’s the case, it tells me more that this is a bug, not a feature update.

[tiwane]

I can replicate and I’ve made a bug report.

[tiwane]

Also, we recently updated observation pages to use API v2, I suspect it’s related to that.

[kyle_eaton_photography]

That lines up with my experience as well. For projects I’m admin of/created I can remove them.

[kyle_eaton_photography]

Thank you Tony.

[kyle_eaton_photography]

As of today, the gear icons are visible when adding to projects in the Identify screen, but lacks them on the observation page, even if I’m looking at the same observation in each screen. Here’s some screenshots. Not sure why it’s slightly different now.

Identify page view:

Observation page, still missing the gears:

[npenhollow]

Platform: Website.

App version number, if a mobile app issue: N/A

Browser, if a website issue: Chrome, Firefox

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108473502

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/44836674

Screenshots of what you are seeing:

Description of problem:

Earlier yesterday (9/20/25) I initially saw someone else complaining of this issue. In one of the projects I frequent, there was a nonsensical observation added (it’s a project that focuses on a specific taxon, and this observation was of something totally different). The user left a comment explaining that they had mistakenly clicked to add the observation to the project, but were now unable to remove the observation. Then, a few minutes later, the same thing happened to me.

I was hoping to add an observation to a certain project, but mistakenly clicked on the “Salamander Search: Striped or Unstriped” project in the list instead, adding it (this is, thankfully, an appropriate project for this observation, but that’s not important to the issue at hand). Usually, when you add an observation to a project on the web, a grey “settings” button appears on the right side of the Projects list that allows you to reverse your action and remove the observation from the project again. This still appears when the project I’ve added it to is a project I own (In my case, Iridistic Plethodon cinereus). However, it does not appear for “Salamander Search: Striped or Unstriped” on this observation for me.

I tried it again today (9/21) on another browser with a different observation (this time being careful to add it to the appropriate project, but still not a project that belongs to me: “Plethodon cinereus variation”). Once again, the “settings” button does not appear and I am unable to reverse my action and remove the observation from the project. However, the settings button does appear as normal for the project that I own.

It may be important to note that this is true whether the project is a Traditional project or a Collection project.

Step 1: Go to any observation.

Step 2: Under “Projects”, click on “Add to a project”.

Step 3: Pick any project from the list that you are a member of, but are not the owner or a curator of.

[jwidness]

I merged your report with this existing one.

[npenhollow]

Thank you! I hope a solution can be found.

[tiwane]

This should be fixed now. Working for me.

[kyle_eaton_photography]

Thanks Tony, it appears to be working for me as well!