Not getting "Watchlisted Shows on Tonight" notification emails

@Sally​ Thanks for letting us know. Hope it comes up and running soon. Too many great shows to keep track of :)

@Sally​ 

Any updates?

I have been getting some notifications (compared to none) but not all... guestimate is about 50%.

Thanks

@Jason​ I'M still getting ZERO notification emails... and it's been 8 months. Have you checked to see if all of us who are having problems have anything in common? Same city, same shows, anything?

@JustWondering​ Please see our reply below at https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/not-getting-watchlisted-shows-on-tonight-notification-emails/62afdd5cae73c605a687046c?commentId=63ef269b0a803f3817a53c2c&replyId=63ef95e8a5589135ff2b8535 as the same may apply to your case.  If not, please provide example titles where we failed to send a notification and there’s a recent US release date stored on IMDb.  The example titles you gave earlier in the thread are all re-runs and we would not notify in such cases. 

@Jason​ Please see our reply below at https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/not-getting-watchlisted-shows-on-tonight-notification-emails/62afdd5cae73c605a687046c?commentId=63ef269b0a803f3817a53c2c&replyId=63ef95e8a5589135ff2b8535 as the same may apply to your case.  If not, please provide example titles where we failed to send a notification and there’s a recent local release date stored on IMDb.

@Col_Needham​ this does NOT apply to my case, since almost none of the things on my notifications list are new releases of movies or TV series episodes. I have answered this specific question at least a couple of times before, lol… Examples from this morning where I should've received notifications and did not, where the shows are old, are Touched by an Angel and Star Trek the Next Generation. These shows are on almost every day, and I have NEVER received a notification for them.

@JustWondering​ Sorry, but these example titles do fall exactly into the situation we describe below and in the help pages. We do not support notifications for re-runs, sorry.

To receive a notification for a show, the show must have an episode with a release date stored in the IMDb release date section on today’s date in the country of origin specified by the customer. In your case, you have indicated you are based in the US. If we take an example ST:TNG episode of S1.E1 then its release dates are shown on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094030/releaseinfo/ so the US release is 26 September 1987 and it therefore predates the launch of IMDb by three years and it would never have generated a US notification. The latest broadcast / internet release date for this episode is 5 October 2017 in Thailand, so in order to receive a notification for ST:TNG based on a broadcast of S1.E1, you would have to have your country preference set to Thailand and it would have had to have been October 2017. It is possible that later ST:TNG episodes first aired in other countries on later dates, but hopefully this example highlights the requirements for a notification. The show’s last episode was first broadcast in the US in May 1994 -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111281/releaseinfo/

Using your other example of Touched by an Angel and taking its last episode of S9.E22 then its sole release date is for the US on 27 April 2003 so it has not been eligible for a notification for 20 years based on this episode, sorry -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0732065/releaseinfo/

Do you have examples of more recent shows airing new episodes in the US where there’s a release date listed on the title/releaseinfo page for an episode and we did not send a notification?

@Col_Needham​ so, you're not actually giving notifications of preferred shows, you're only giving notifications for RECENT preferred shows? After what date can a movie or episode be released and we still get a notification for it?

A currently running show is The Good Doctor, for which I have NEVER received a notification. Another currently running show is BattleBots, for which I have NEVER received a notification... Not for new shows, not for repeats, not for ANY date range.

@JustWondering​ 

After what date can a movie or episode be released and we still get a notification for it?

We only notify on first broadcast / release in your country (and only when that date is available on the corresponding title/releaseinfo page for the title), as it states on https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/general-information/manage-your-email-subscriptions-and-watchlist-notifications/GFSALECHJBMR4U5B

• IMDb only stores release information for the date of first release, so particularly for TV-shows, notifications will only be sent for the date of first broadcast. Re-runs are not supported.

You wrote:

A currently running show is The Good Doctor, for which I have NEVER received a notification. Another currently running show is BattleBots, for which I have NEVER received a notification

Thanks. We can work with this.   First, please visit:

https://www.imdb.com/registration/logout

to logout. Next visit:

https://www.imdb.com/preferences/email

Please uncheck the option:

[  ] Watchlisted Shows on Tonight - When a show from your Watchlist is airing, we will send you a short message.

then press the "Save" button. You should see a note in green at the top of the page in green stating "Success" now check the same option again:

[X] Watchlisted Shows on Tonight - When a show from your Watchlist is airing, we will send you a short message.

and press "Save" again.  

This will confirm everything is up-to-date.  Ideally, please could you post a screengrab of the whole of this page here so we can confirm which other options are checked.  It should just then be a case of waiting until Monday (The Good Doctor) for https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26690687/releaseinfo/ to be airing and for a notification email to be triggered (we may have missed the cut-off for tomorrow's episode of BattleBots). 

Finally, can you confirm that you are still regularly receiving some of the other emails from IMDb and which one did you last receive and on what date?

@Col_Needham​ what exactly is the purpose of having a control on the page of EVERY movie and TV show to add it to the Watchlist when the Watchlist completely ignores everything except the first broadcast of brand new episodes, lol? Also, notice that, as you quoted above, what the website actually says is: "When a show from your Watchlist is airing, we will send you a short message"... it doesn't say anything about ONLY the first showing of NEW episodes!

I don't receive ANY emails from IMDb; I'm not signed up for anything except these notifications. I think I received 1 or 2 emails at random during all these months of struggle, but they're long since thrown away and gone, sorry.

The page is too long to screen cap the whole thing, but here's the screen cap showing that I have the Watchlisted shows thing checked, to prove that I'm not lying, hallucinating, or psychotic, lol:

@JustWondering​ Thanks for the details and the screenshot above. To help us rule something out here, over on https://www.imdb.com/preferences/email please can you (temporarily) uncheck "Do not send me informational emails" and instead check the "Send me emails from the following categories" instead, and check all of the options in that top section from "Weekly Picks" down "IMDb What to Watch App" -- this is just to help us with the debugging. 

Let us know as soon as you receive one of these other emails, and of course, we are eagerly awaiting Monday for the notification for The Good Doctor. 

Thanks for your patience here and your willingness to help us get to the bottom of the issue. 

@Col_Needham​ with GREAT reluctance, lol, I went and signed up for all those emails that I REALLY don't want, in the hopes that this will lead to a solution... not really for me, since there's almost nothing I'm watching that is producing new episodes, but just as part of the IMDb community which has benefited me over the years. Rest assured, I will let you know when the spam starts coming… and I'm also eager to see what happens Monday!

@JustWondering​ Thanks; this will help to isolate the source of the problem. 

@Col_Needham​ amazingly, I DID receive a notification for The Good Doctor! The other stuff in the email that was supposed to be about other items in my watchlist was just random spam, of course… and speaking of spam, lol, I have NOT received ANY of the other IMDb emails that you had me sign up for! That's not a hardship, but it does point to a continuing error in your system.

@JustWondering​ Good to know on the notification on The Good Doctor.  The solution was in the help text all along -> https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/general-information/manage-your-email-subscriptions-and-watchlist-notifications/GFSALECHJBMR4U5B where it states:

Make sure Do not send me informational emails is not checked (under IMDb Informational Emails).

We are following-up with the appropriate team to understand why this option is placed with the first group of email notifications when it actually applies to all of the email alerts (sorry).  You can now uncheck all of the individual emails in that top section, but please leave "Send me emails from the following categories" itself selected.   As to why you have not received any of the emails in this section, these are low-volume lists and it looks like we have not sent any of them since you subscribed. 

@Col_Needham​ I'm cautiously celebratory that this has actually been solved! While the tech people are changing how that page works so that this doesn't happen again, could they possibly also change the explanation of what the notifications actually are, so people don't spend hours looking up favorite programs and adding them to the notification list when in fact only NEW episodes generate alerts? Or maybe remove the control that's on the page for every program and movie to add it to the notification list when there's actually no benefit whatsoever to doing so unless it's something with new episodes coming out? Or ideally, just send out notifications for everything, at least for whatever channels you're getting information about new episodes from…?

@ArtR​ Please see our reply below at https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/not-getting-watchlisted-shows-on-tonight-notification-emails/62afdd5cae73c605a687046c?commentId=63ef269b0a803f3817a53c2c&replyId=63ef95e8a5589135ff2b8535 as the same may apply to your case.  If not, please provide example titles where we failed to send a notification. 

@AiM11​ Please see -> https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/general-information/manage-your-email-subscriptions-and-watchlist-notifications/GFSALECHJBMR4U5B

Please confirm you are in a country which is supported. If you are, please supply links to ideally 2-3 title pages where we (a) have a local release date stored for your country on a specific recent date and (b) we did not send you an email.  

It appears many of the missing notifcation issues are due to IMDb not having the local release dates for the newly aired episodes or newly released movies rather than a system problem.  For example on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14659486/releaseinfo/ right now:

This means we can only send an email notification for the most recent episode of The Last of Us (2023) to customers whose country of residence is set to either the US / UK / Bulgaria via the page -> https://www.imdb.com/registration/details for this episode. 

Hope this helps. 

Thanks, I switchted from AT to US for now. Will let you know if it helps. Anyhow that does not explain why it did work previously. And if I may kindly request I would just like to get a notification on the first release date

@LozzLabrooy​ Please see our reply above at https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/not-getting-watchlisted-shows-on-tonight-notification-emails/62afdd5cae73c605a687046c?commentId=63ef269b0a803f3817a53c2c&replyId=63ef95e8a5589135ff2b8535 as the same may apply to your case.  If not, please provide example titles where we failed to send a notification. 

@Col_Needham​ ​ so are you saying even tho I’m in Australia I need to change my country/region of residence to US to receive email notifications from my watch list? 

@LozzLabrooy​

so are you saying even tho I’m in Australia I need to change my country/region of residence to US to receive email notifications from my watch list?

No, sorry, we are not saying that in your case. If you have seen references to the US in this thread it is because those customers have already told us they are based in the US. 

What we are saying (in your case) is that in order for you to receive notifications of local releases in Australia, IMDb needs to have Australian release dates recorded for the titles for which you wish to be notified.  It is a subtle but important difference.   

Hope this helps. 

@Col_Needham​ I don’t mind if it’s US release date for new seasons or new episodes or movies or Australia . All I want is to be notified so if the US release date is always entered then that seems appropriate.
like I used to be …

 

@LozzLabrooy​  Thanks; if you do not mind receiving US notifications then please do set your country to United States via https://www.imdb.com/registration/details 

Also then just to reset a few things,  please follow the advice we gave earlier in this thread to another customer ...

First, please visit:

https://www.imdb.com/registration/logout

to logout. Next visit:

https://www.imdb.com/preferences/email

where you should be asked to login first. 

Please uncheck the option:

[  ] Watchlisted Shows on Tonight - When a show from your Watchlist is airing, we will send you a short message.

then press the "Save" button. You should see a note in green at the top of the page in green stating "Success" now check the same option again:

[X] Watchlisted Shows on Tonight - When a show from your Watchlist is airing, we will send you a short message.

and press "Save" again.  

This will confirm everything is up-to-date. 

Finally posting a screenshot of https://www.imdb.com/preferences/email would be helpful here. 

@Col_Needham​ Thanks, I've followed you instructions above. 

screenshot of email preferences as requested 

Please don't close ticket yet - I will be able to confirm if this has fixed the issue on the 27th Feb as The Good Doctor https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6470478/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

next episode is released then. 

Thanks

Lauren 

@LozzLabrooy​ Thanks (and hoping this fixes things). 

@Col_Needham​ Hi Col, unfortunately I didn’t receive an email for The Good Doctor :(

@LozzLabrooy​ Sorry to hear ... we have opened a new ticket for your case. 

@Col_Needham What is the new ticket for my case? 

@LozzLabrooy​  Yours is a different case which the team is still investigating, sorry.  Your account has been opted-out of receiving our watchlist emails and the software is, of course, honouring your opt-out.  However, we cannot determine the source of the opt-out as, wherever it was located, it has since been removed. 

@hayelbar​ Please follow the steps in https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/general-information/manage-your-email-subscriptions-and-watchlist-notifications/GFSALECHJBMR4U5B and let us know if this does not help. 

@hwurscht84​ Great to hear and thanks for confirming. 

@Jason​ If you are getting the email notifications for some titles yet not others and the missing titles have release dates listed for your country in IMDb, then unfortunately on those days we are likely over the quota of emails which Amazon are permitted to send to you in a single day (since we use Amazon’s email services).  We are hoping to move to a difference email service in the very near future which will not be subject to the same quotas.  Sorry about this new issue.

The above can happen if Amazon have already emailed you about other products / services on the day on which a notification was due,  sorry. 

@Col_Needham​ Just checked and that wasn't the case. I received no emails from IMDB on March 8, the date of the new releases mentioned.

@Jason​ Thanks for the info. How many emails did you receive from Amazon (or other subsidiaries) in the previous seven days? 

If you're talking prior to the 8th, my trash bin doesn't go back that far.... but it appears roughly 3.

If you mean the last 7 days, I've had lots of notifications about this thread and it's up to 10 total.

@Jason​ Thanks; three should not be enough to hit the quota so we will pass this along to the team (Sprinklr emails do not count as they come from sprnklr.com and not us). 

@Jason​ We have investigated your case and confirmed that the problems are due to the volume of non-notification messages which were sent on/around days when you were due to receive a notification, sorry. 

A fix for this issue is in-progress and is due to be released with the next few weeks.  

@TuneOut​ As we just posted above …

If you are getting the email notifications for some titles yet not others and the missing titles have release dates listed for your country in IMDb, then unfortunately on those days we are likely over the quota of emails which Amazon are permitted to send to you in a single day (since we use Amazon’s email services).  We are hoping to move to a difference email service in the very near future which will not be subject to the same quotas.  Sorry about this new issue.

The above can happen if Amazon have already emailed you about other products / services on the day on which a notification was due,  sorry. 

It also did not work for me this week: Shows are The Simpsons & Family Guy. Country setting is US

@Col_Needham​ So if I get an email about a new show coming or movies, I will not get notifications on the shows I got on my list? So to bypass this, I could simply turn off everything except for the notifications for the shows from my list?

@TuneOut​ The best thing to do is wait for us make the pending fix mentioned above. The notifications themselves unfortunately count against the quota themselves.  

@Col_Needham​ Okay, I will wait for further updates. I really do not want to go through 30 series just to see if they have new episodes hehe

@TuneOut​ We have investigated your case and confirmed that the problems are due to the volume of non-notification messages which were sent on/around days when you were due to receive a notification, sorry. 

A fix for this issue is in-progress and is due to be released with the next few weeks.

@Col_Needham​ Thanks for the update. Much appreciated

@Col_Needham​ Thanks for the update. Much appreciated. Hopefully it is fixed soon

@hayelbar​ We have looked at your case and on 19 March you changed your country on https://www.imdb.com/registration/details from US so you will now only receive emails for your new location (which will be significantly fewer). 

Please see https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/general-information/manage-your-email-subscriptions-and-watchlist-notifications/GFSALECHJBMR4U5B for more details. 

@Col_Needham​ I changed my country wishing to receive watchlist emails! 

Should I change it back to USA?

@hayelbar​ If you would like the best coverage then USA would be the best, but obviously there could be variances between release dates there and where you are actually located. 

@Jason​ Thanks for the updates (and thanks everyone else).  The team are still looking at this.