There can be some confusion about why a post is marked as "read" automatically in the Moodle forums and when they remain "unread" until you read them.
First, for unread posts to be tracked and highlighted, forum tracking must be turned on. Forum tracking is enabled by default.
![forum tracking](http://media.royalroads.ca/owl/media/knowledgebase/Moodle-Forum-Information-on-unread-posts/forum-tracking.png)
Second, tracking can be affected by the email digest type:
- If the Digest type is set toĀ No DigestĀ then the forum post will be marked as "read" as soon as the email is sent (30 minutes after it was posted).
- If the Digest type is set toĀ Complete PostĀ then the forum post will be marked as "read" when the digest is sent (5pm PST/PDT) every day.
- If the Digest type is set toĀ Subjects OnlyĀ then the forum posts will not be automatically marked as "read" when the email is sent.
IfĀ SubscriptionĀ is set to "No", then no emails will be sent out and posts will not automatically be marked as "read".
![email digest type](http://media.royalroads.ca/owl/media/knowledgebase/Moodle-Forum-Information-on-unread-posts/email-digest-type.png)
You may override email notification marking posts as read. If you do not want posts marked as read when emails are sent you, you can override this behaviour:
Navigate to the User menu in the top right and then click on Preferences.
![](https://royalroads.atlassian.net/wiki/download/thumbnails/5835134/preferences.png?version=1&modificationDate=1690250149073&cacheVersion=1&api=v2&width=247&height=250)
Click on Forum preferences.
![forum preferences](http://media.royalroads.ca/owl/media/knowledgebase/Moodle-Forum-Information-on-unread-posts/forum-preference.png)
If you do not want email notifications marking posts as read, set this to Do not mark the post as read.
![do not mark as read](http://media.royalroads.ca/owl/media/knowledgebase/Moodle-Forum-Information-on-unread-posts/do-not-mark-post-as-read.png)
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