All Board Activity Notifications Re-enable After Permission Changes

Answer to the Core Question

In Trello the “All board activity” tier is stored per user. Whenever the board’s permission model changes – for example, a member is added, a role is updated, or a board’s access level is altered – Trello automatically resets each affected user’s notification tier to the board’s default. The default is normally All board activity, so the setting effectively re‑enables itself.

There is no mechanism in the UI or API that lets a board administrator set a different default that will survive future permission changes. The only way to keep a user’s preference stable is to change it again after each modification, or to use the Trello API to programmatically update the preference for that member.

Confirmed Facts

• Notification tier is per‑user, not inherited from board settings.
• Permission changes trigger a reset to the board’s default tier.
• Board admins cannot enforce a persistent default via the UI or API.
• Power‑Up alerts (e.g., Card Aging) are independent of the core notification tier and cannot be suppressed by it.

Practical Steps to Verify and Restore the Setting

1. Log in as a board member and enable All board activity in Account → Notifications.
2. Trigger a permission change: add a new member or change an existing member’s role.
3. Check the user’s current tier:

   GET https://api.trello.com/1/members/{memberId}/notifications?key=YOUR_KEY&token=YOUR_TOKEN
   

   The tier field should now show all again.
4. If you want to keep a different tier (e.g., none), update it immediately after the change:

   PUT https://api.trello.com/1/members/{memberId}/notifications?key=YOUR_KEY&token=YOUR_TOKEN
   Body: {"tier":"none"}
   

What Administrators Cannot Do

There is no hidden setting or API flag that locks the notification tier across membership changes. The only workaround is the per‑user update above.

Power‑Up Considerations

Some Power‑Ups emit their own notifications (e.g., Card Aging). These alerts bypass the core tier and will still appear even if All board activity is disabled. Administrators should review each Power‑Up’s documentation for its own notification controls.

Follow‑Up Question

To tailor the guidance further, could you tell us whether you’re using Trello’s free tier or an Enterprise subscription? The behavior is identical, but Enterprise may expose additional API scopes for bulk updates.