# Why aren't my observations being IDed anymore **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [April 1, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269 "2026-04-01T21:38:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chezron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@chezron](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/chezron)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/1 "2026-04-01T21:38:51Z")
I have a bunch of observations that lack verifying IDs. I entered what I thought was the organism’s identity, but I have no other verification from anyone else. How do I fix this? ---
**Author:** ![maite39](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/maite39/32/68647_2.png) [@maite39](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/maite39)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 9:50pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/2 "2026-04-01T21:50:38Z")
Maybe there aren’t many identifiers who know about what you observed. ---
**Author:** ![jhbratton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jhbratton/32/3718_2.png) [@jhbratton](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jhbratton)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/3 "2026-04-01T22:00:47Z")
Assuming you are on the same name in the records data, you only have six recent obs that aren’t research grade and two of those were only put on today. That doesn’t indicate a boycott. I’d expect the hummingbirds and Odonata to soon get a second opinion. ---
**Author:** ![AdamWargon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/adamwargon/32/44649_2.png) [@AdamWargon](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/AdamWargon)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/4 "2026-04-01T22:01:35Z")
Welcome to the forum, Sharon! In terms of how to get more IDs on your observations, this is a common question here on the forum! Here are some helpful threads with great answers and suggestions: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/question-about-response-time-for-ids/](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/question-about-response-time-for-ids/) [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/little-interaction-by-the-community/](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/little-interaction-by-the-community/) [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/waiting-for-id-s/](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/waiting-for-id-s/) ---
**Author:** ![yongestation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/yongestation/32/56696_2.png) [@yongestation](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/yongestation)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/5 "2026-04-01T22:04:35Z")
Looking at your Needs ID observations many are of insects, which are often very hard or impossible to ID to species from photos, and suffer from many observers and few identifiers. Some of your Needs ID observations are birds missing diagnostic features. E.g. you have several observations of Allen’s/rufous hummingbirds, but these species are often impossible to separate without a clear view of the tail. You have at least [one observation](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/267806223) which is a photo of four different species, where you did not indicate which individual you wanted identified and did not reply to a comment asking you this, which makes it impossible for identifiers to help you. Remember that identifiers are unpaid volunteers who represent a much smaller group than the observers with hundreds of millions of observations submitted on iNaturalist, some of which do just slip through. ---
**Author:** ![pnwcoasthiker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/pnwcoasthiker/32/36498_2.png) [@pnwcoasthiker](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pnwcoasthiker)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/6 "2026-04-01T22:17:41Z")
I just took a look to see if I could help with some IDs for you, but found that many I could not ID with confidence (I’m more of a west coast –plant– person). It looks like your verifying ID rate is over 75%, which I think might be pretty good compared to some of us. My observations have less than a 50% RG rate (I also have about 2200 more observations than you, so that might explain it). I will say that I’ve notice that I tend to receive IDs in fits and starts. Sometimes there is a long time between any IDs coming my way and then suddenly a bunch will receive verifying IDs. I’m also lucky that we have a hardcore group of people who like to help with IDs on Oregon’s west coast. I think having your information in iNaturalist is still valuable in the sense that you are creating a record of plant or animal that existed in a certain place at a certain time and someday someone may come along who needs that information for something important. If you are having fun interacting with nature and sharing your observations, I say, stick with it! Glad to have you sharing. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![dendroleon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dendroleon/32/27658_2.png) [@dendroleon](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/dendroleon)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:24pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/7 "2026-04-01T22:24:13Z")
your green lynx spiders can’t be reliably taken to species, the two possible _Peucetia_ species overlap in your area ---
**Author:** ![sedgequeen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/sedgequeen/32/1928_2.png) [@sedgequeen](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/sedgequeen)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/8 "2026-04-01T22:32:26Z")
With your lynx spiders, if you get two ID’s to the genus (Peucetia) you can click on “No, it can’t be improved” in the data quality area and it will go to RG at the genus level. ---
**Author:** ![Vireya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/vireya/32/10901_2.png) [@Vireya](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/Vireya)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:53pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/9 "2026-04-01T22:53:32Z")
There are far more observers than there are identifiers. I notice that you have done zero identifications yourself. You might like to start identifying things you are familiar with, which would help in two ways - it helps the people waiting for IDs, and it lessens the load on people who are already identifying, freeing time they might use to ID your observations. ---
**Author:** ![bouteloua](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/bouteloua/32/1180_2.png) [@bouteloua](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/bouteloua)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/10 "2026-04-01T22:57:14Z")
check out [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-get-identifications-for-your-observations/26429](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-get-identifications-for-your-observations/26429) ---
**Author:** ![quyksilver](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/quyksilver/32/71674_2.png) [@quyksilver](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/quyksilver)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 2:07am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/11 "2026-04-02T02:07:44Z")
Yep, I’ve had it happen where I have observations sitting for weeks or even months and then someone will ID a dozen or more. Unless I think it could be a potential lifer I don’t sweat it. ---
**Author:** ![pnwcoasthiker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/pnwcoasthiker/32/36498_2.png) [@pnwcoasthiker](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pnwcoasthiker)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 3:12am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/12 "2026-04-02T03:12:30Z")
> [@Vireya](#): > > There are far more observers than there are identifiers. I notice that you have done zero identifications yourself. You might like to start identifying things you are familiar with, which would help in two ways - it helps the people waiting for IDs, and it lessens the load on people who are already identifying, freeing time they might use to ID your observations. Also, when someone takes the time to ID a lot of my observations, I often try to return the favor by looking through their observations and adding IDs where I can. ---
**Author:** ![vbjanos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/vbjanos/32/28910_2.png) [@vbjanos](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/vbjanos)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 4:57am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/13 "2026-04-02T04:57:14Z")
I had a look. You have different photos of the same organism loaded as separate observations. If you combine them during upload, that gives different views and makes identification easier. There are also observations that look like duplicates - same photo. It could be a software bug or just oversight. At least you could look back and identify based on what was the photo identified as before. If you try to identify for other people, that would give you an insight what needs to be captured by the photos. Have fun! ---
**Author:** ![opisska](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/opisska/32/11191_2.png) [@opisska](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/opisska)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 9:16am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/14 "2026-04-02T09:16:56Z")
I have thousands of observations that have only tentative ID. Sometimes they get an ID years later and it’s always such a happy moment! There is just not enough experts for the harder taxa, so I am happy for every ID I get. It’s a real person looking at my observation, for free, just out of sheer niceness, what better news to get? ---
**Author:** ![vladimir\_fuka](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/vladimir_fuka/32/20618_2.png) [@vladimir\_fuka](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/vladimir_fuka)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 9:40am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/15 "2026-04-02T09:40:08Z")
There are more and more observations. I made some observations in Norway still before the vegetation season started (when the number of observations explodes) and many of them are not IDed by anyone else anyway. ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 10:09am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/16 "2026-04-02T10:09:09Z")
> [@chezron](#): > > How do I fix this? Depending on where and what interests you - you help to ID. iNat has [half a million Unknown obs awaiting an ID, any ID](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?iconic_taxa=unknown&place_id=any), even something as broad as plant, no wait a flower! or animal, has legs, has wings, has … and then (including Unknowns) [111 million in Needs ID](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?place_id=any) which may just need a second (informed) ID to reach RG, or trapped at a broad ID in limbo, or [needing erudite discussion](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/322939816) (we will, get there, one day) And consider that those IDs rest on ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/b/d/bde7e71fe2082459e28cb204972dc16c79e35bbd.jpeg) from [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Summaries-of-identification-effort-on-iNaturalist-Panels-a-and-b-summarize\_fig1\_372310054](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Summaries-of-identification-effort-on-iNaturalist-Panels-a-and-b-summarize_fig1_372310054) ---
**Author:** ![earthknight](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/earthknight/32/32879_2.png) [@earthknight](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/earthknight)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 1:27pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/17 "2026-04-02T13:27:24Z")
> [@quyksilver](#): > > I have observations sitting for weeks or even months Try years to nearly a decade. Some observations get lost in the sea of them, others are to difficult to bring to species level, others lack people who know enough about the genus to bring it to species, etc. ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/18 "2026-04-02T14:37:36Z")
Currently working thru the trapped at dicots backlog. Have finally escaped 2023. January 2024 … only 2 and a bit years to go. My filter is [Western Cape](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?order_by=observed_on&order=asc&place_id=6987&disagreements=true&lrank=class&taxon_id=47124) PS and that is only the DISagreements. There are far too many more !! ---
**Author:** ![Naturephotosuze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de053/32.png) [@Naturephotosuze](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/Naturephotosuze)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 11:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/19 "2026-04-02T23:14:19Z")
As others have said, many, many observations and not enough identifiers. I’m going thru observations just for Los Angeles County and there are over 600,000 that need IDs. And that’s just a tiny sliver of the planet. I’m just getting some ID’s on stuff I observed 5-6 years ago. So it takes time. And patience. ---
**Author:** ![noah\_vale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/noah_vale/32/59920_2.png) [@noah\_vale](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/noah_vale)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2026, 10:41am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269/20 "2026-04-03T10:41:41Z")
Observation quality is important to, an observation with clearly photographed identifying features generally gets ID’d fairly quickly [Next page](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-arent-my-observations-being-ided-anymore/77269.md?page=2)