Email notifications not arriving

Start with cause number one, because it explains most reports of a “missing” email and it is not a fault at all.

1. You are never notified about your own action

The person who does something is excluded from the notifications about it. Approve a timesheet and you do not get an email saying a timesheet was approved. The person whose week it was does. This is deliberate. You just did it – you already know.

You did this	Who hears about it
Approved Sarah’s timesheet	Sarah
Assigned a task to Jonas	Jonas
Commented and mentioned Priya	Priya
Sent an invoice	The client contact

How to test it properly: ask a colleague to do the thing, and watch your own inbox. Doing it yourself and waiting for an email will always look broken.

There is one deliberate exception: your export is ready is about you, so you do get that one. If nobody would be left to notify, no notification is created at all. A one-person workspace where you do everything yourself will be quiet, and that is correct.

2. Your own notification settings

Notification settings live on you, not on the workspace. Yours can differ from everyone else’s.

Open your notification preferences

Go to your notification preferences.

Find the category

Settings are per category – approvals, assignments, reminders and so on – not per individual event.

Check email is on for that category

You may have it going to your in-app inbox only.

Check the delivery mode

See digests below.

3. The workspace defaults

A workspace sets the starting point for everyone. If a category is off by default and you never changed it, you are following the default. Check workspace notification defaults. You need workspace.updateSettings to change them – Owner or Admin.

4. You are on a digest

Each category can arrive immediately, daily or weekly.

Mode	What happens
Immediate	Each notice is emailed as it happens. This is the default.
Daily	Batched into one email a day
Weekly	Batched into one email a week

Digesting is opt-in. If you never touched the setting, you are on immediate. But if you did set daily or weekly and then forgot, an email you expected right away is sitting in tomorrow’s batch.

Security and account notices are never batched. A sign-in alert or an email change always arrives immediately, whatever the setting says.

See digests.

5. The app is switched off

Switching an app off stops its background messages. That is usually what you want, but it is worth knowing before a month-end.

App off	What stops
Reports	Scheduled report deliveries
Time Clock	Missing clock-out reminders
Timesheets	Submission and approval notices
Time off	Leave request notices
Webhooks & API	Deliveries to your endpoints (they queue, they are not dropped)

Check Settings → Apps.

6. Spam, filters and the wrong address

Search your whole mailbox

Search for “TimeTracker” including spam and junk, not just your inbox. Rules and tabs move mail quietly.

Allow-list the sender

Add TimeTracker to your safe senders so future mail lands in the inbox.

Check the address on file

Open your profile and confirm the email is the one you read. An old work address is a common cause.

Ask your IT team

Corporate filters quarantine mail without telling the recipient. Ask them to check the quarantine and allow the sender at the gateway.

7. The person has no email address

Someone can be added to a workspace without an email address. They appear in reports and you can log time for them, but they cannot sign in and they cannot be emailed. If a teammate never gets anything at all, check their record. See add a member directly and member record.

8. They were never a recipient

Some notices go to a specific person, not to everyone.

Notice	Who gets it
Timesheet submitted	The approver it was routed to
Timesheet approved	The person whose week it was
Task assigned	The assignee
Comment mention	The person mentioned
Approval overdue	The approver, and their escalation route

When someone submits a timesheet they pick one approver. A different manager who expected the email was never a recipient. See approve a timesheet. Scope applies too – a notice about a person outside your supervision scope does not reach you.

Work through it in order

Did you do the thing yourself?

Then there is no email. Ask a colleague to test it.

Are you a recipient at all?

Check who the notice is aimed at in the table above.

Is the category on for email in your settings?

Your notification preferences.

Are you on a daily or weekly digest?

Switch that category to immediate.

Is the app on?

Settings → Apps.

Is it in spam?

Search your whole mailbox.

Is the address on file correct?

Your profile.

Still nothing? See contact support and include the exact event, the date and time it should have fired, and who was expecting it.

Common questions

Why do I never get emails about my own work?

Because you did it. The actor is excluded from the recipients of their own action.

My in-app inbox shows it but no email arrived.

They are separate channels. The inbox entry exists and email is off for that category, or you are on a digest. See inbox.

Can I turn all email off?

You can switch email off per category in your own preferences. Security and account notices always send.

Can an admin change my notification settings?

No. Settings live on the person. An admin sets the workspace defaults that new people start from.

Why did I get one email covering several things?

That category is on a daily or weekly digest. Switch it to immediate.

Reminders stopped after we changed plan.

Check whether the app that sends them is still on, and whether the feature is Pro. See when a plan lapses.