How to disable email notification by default on Confluence 6.8+
Asked by Diego Figueroa:

Hello,

We would like to add a mail server to our Confluence instance but in the past people have complained about the amount of spam they receive when changes are occurring on any space.

Is there a way to make the notification system opt-in by default or to at least turn off all e-mail through code or a setting unless the user specifically asks for email notifications?

Thanks!


Answers:
author: AnnWorley
body: Hi! We don't have a setting or code to set the default email settings in the user profiles.

However, Confluence is not as spammy as it used to be, partly due to batching multiple edit notifications in one email. The defaults in Confluence 6.9 don't sign you up for much:

![Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 1.08.12 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/22234iEAB446DAD1842492/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2018-05-16 at 1.08.12 PM.png")For more details on how each setting works, please see [Email Notifications](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/email-notifications-145162.html)

To weigh in on a suggestion ticket that resembles your use case, please vote or comment on [As an administrator, I want to be able to set default values for user Email settings](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-41296)

comments: author: Diego Figueroa
body: Thank you Ann for your insightful post. I will check the options you provided.


author: AnnWorley
body: I appreciate the kind words and welcome any follow-up questions. :)


author: Diego Figueroa
body: Actually I was wondering if there is way that I can go check all these email options off for all users directly in the database or if you know if there is a way to do the same with a macro?


author: AnnWorley
body: I am not sure but I suspect that the settings are stored in the database as part of each user's profile. You would need to edit the Java code of Confluence to change the default settings. My point is you could possibly run a query to change everyone's settings but new users would get the default settings.

I would not expect a user macro to work as most user macros are content related and not related to the user settings. There may be a way to do it with an API tool like [Confluence Command Line Interface (CLI)](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/284/confluence-command-line-interface-cli?hosting=server&tab=overview) or [ScriptRunner for Confluence](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1215215/scriptrunner-for-confluence?hosting=server&tab=overview) but I did not find it.


author: Diego Figueroa
body: Thank you again for your help Ann, I will probably explore the Java code.

Cheers!


author: AnnWorley
body: In that case, I should let you know there are a lot of Java developers on the [Atlassian Developer community](https://community.developer.atlassian.com/). They mostly work with writing plugins which may be an option for your use case.

Cheers,

Ann


author: AnnWorley
body: [@Diego Figueroa](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/351338) we found this knowledge base article you may be interested in, as well: [How to Audit Personal User Email Settings Using the Database](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-audit-personal-user-email-settings-using-the-database-940114451.html)  


author: Diego Figueroa
body: Thank you again Ann, appreciate the extra help :)


Tags: confluence-server

email

server