Watchers

Subscribe to issues and wiki pages to receive notifications when they are updated.

Watchers are users or groups that have subscribed to a specific item — such as an issue or a wiki page — to receive email notifications whenever it changes. Watching an item does not give you any additional permissions; it only controls whether you receive notifications about it.

What you can watch

Issues

Watch an issue to receive notifications whenever it is updated, commented on, reassigned, or has its status changed.

Wiki pages

Watch a wiki page to be notified when its content is added or edited.

News

Watch a news item to receive notifications when comments are posted.

Forum messages

Watch a forum thread to be notified when new replies are posted.

Watching an issue

You can watch or unwatch an issue directly from its detail page.

1. Open the issue

   Navigate to the issue you want to watch.

2. Click Watch

   In the sidebar on the right side of the issue, click the Watch link. The link changes to Unwatch to confirm you are now watching the issue.

3. Confirm your subscription

   Redmine creates a Watcher record linking your user account to the issue. You will now receive email notifications for all subsequent changes to the issue.

To stop receiving notifications, open the issue and click Unwatch.

Watching a wiki page

1. Open the wiki page

   Navigate to the project wiki and open the page you want to watch.

2. Click Watch

   Click the Watch link that appears in the page toolbar. The link changes to Unwatch once the watcher record is saved.

Adding watchers to an issue

Users with the appropriate project permission can add other users or groups as watchers on an issue. This is useful for keeping stakeholders informed without requiring them to find and watch the issue themselves.

1. Open the issue

   Navigate to the issue detail page.

2. Open the Watchers section

   In the sidebar, find the Watchers section and click the + icon to add watchers.

3. Search for a user or group

   Type a name to search. Redmine uses autocomplete to suggest matching users and groups from the assignable_watchers scope — this includes active users and givable groups who are members of the project.

4. Select and save

   Click a user or group to add them as a watcher. They will begin receiving notifications immediately.

Only active users and givable groups can be added as watchers. A user is considered a valid watcher if they have permission to view the watchable item. Redmine validates this using the valid_watcher? method on the watchable object.

Removing watchers

To remove a watcher from an issue, click the × next to their name in the Watchers section of the issue sidebar. You must have the delete_issue_watchers permission for the project to remove watchers added by others.

Watchers are automatically pruned from items they are no longer allowed to view. For example, if a user loses access to a project, their watcher records for items in that project are cleaned up by the Watcher.prune process.

Who can be a watcher

Redmine uses the Principal.assignable_watchers scope to determine who can be added as a watcher. This includes:

• Active users — any user whose account is active
• Givable groups — groups that can be assigned roles on a project

When searching for watchers from within a specific project, the list is restricted to members of that project. When searching globally (outside a project context), Redmine searches across all assignable principals.

Managing watched items from My Page

You can view all the items you are watching from your personal overview.

1. Click your username in the top-right corner and select My account, or navigate to My Page.
2. Add the Watched issues block to your My Page to see a consolidated list of all issues you are currently watching.
3. To stop watching an item, open it and click Unwatch, or remove yourself from the Watchers list.

If you only want notifications for items you are explicitly watching, set your email notification preference to Only for things I watch (only_my_watches) in your account settings. See Email notifications for details.

Watcher notifications

When a watched item changes, Redmine adds watchers to the set of users to be notified. The exact behaviour depends on the item type:

Item type	When watchers are notified
Issue	On creation and on any update (status change, comment, reassignment, attachment, etc.)
Wiki page	When wiki content is added (wiki_content_added) or updated (wiki_content_updated)
News	When a comment is posted (news_comment_added)
Forum message	When a reply is posted (message_posted)

Watchers receive notifications via the same email delivery pipeline as other notified users. The notification includes a link back to the changed item.