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The Watchlist Legend seems to contain items that are somewhat misleading or perhaps out-of-date:

• The "r This edit may be damaging and should be reviewed (more info)" line is not covered at section of this help page covering legend items, and moreover requires the user to install a beta extension, through a somewhat advanced process that most users are not likely to do, to actually display in one's list. That's not immediately apparent (even when clicking "more info"). It seems misleading to include it as a legend item for all users, who may reasonably interpret the lack of r flags in their watchlist to indicate that none of the edits are potentially damaging (we know how true that is, of course).

• "D This edit was made at Wikidata" - I no longer see the option to show Wikidata edits (which I remember existing at one time, and it's still described in the Options section of this help page); is this still a flag that can ever show up on the watchlist? I know I haven't seen it anytime lately.

• Related: under "Options" is the ability to show/hide "page categorization". I don't know what that functionally means and it doesn't seem to be covered here.

I don't know if this is the right place to raise this issue, please let me know if it's more appropriate elsewhere. FWIW, I have my watchlist Expanded and Enhanced. Antepenultimate (talk) 20:36, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't even know of the existence of those flags before you mentioned them here. I guess I don't look at the watchlist legend often enough. That said, I could see this being a minor problem to some. Dustin (talk) 21:16, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, to be clear, I don't think this is a massive issue. Though I figure if it's confusing to me (I consider myself to be reasonably experienced), then I'd worry about how it may appear to a brand-new user, who would be most likely to need the legend and help pages to try and figure out this crazy place. At the very least, there's an opportunity to update this Help page to stay current with what users are encountering, but I don't consider myself enough of a Watchlist expert to make changes myself. Antepenultimate (talk) 21:36, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm working on an update. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:46, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Does [1] help? Your link "somewhat advanced process" is about how a wiki powered by MediaWiki can install the Ores extension. It's installed here at the English Wikipedia and users can easily enable it for their account at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:58, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, thank you! That is a very thorough update and answers all of my questions. (I'll admit that I Ctrl-F'd "Page Categorization", and therefor missed the guidance that already existed that did not use that exact phrase - so that was my bad, though it's easier to find now, for sure.) And definitely my ignorance of extensions shows in that I did not realize that the process for ORES was for wikis, not users! Thanks for clearing up why "Wikidata" changes are no longer an option as well. All in all, thanks for such a quick yet thorough response! Antepenultimate (talk) 23:15, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The page says "Tab at top of page: When viewing a page, click the star symbol between the 'View history' tab and the search box at the very top of the page, to respectively add or remove the page from your watchlist." but I don't see any marker for watching, and as far as I know, I'm using the default skin. There doesn't seem to be a "watch" item under the adjacent "Tools" pulldown either. DWorley (talk) 22:59, 7 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

OK, my mistake: I was looking at Wikipedia in a tab that I had not refreshed since I had logged in. DWorley (talk) 23:04, 7 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Could the "green markers" on watchlists be enlarged severalfold? On my watchlist, the markers' tiny size makes it hard to spot the blue markers that indicate items which I have reviewed. Thanks. Nihil novi (talk) 05:31, 12 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think just a tiny dot in blue or green is not enough of a difference between 'processed' and 'unread' items on the watchlist, especially for people who are colourblind. I know this has already been discussed here, but I don't think it's solved. Can someone please help? Laurier (talk) 07:17, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I just found this page and section. So it is possible to change this setting. But I think this is way too complicated for most users (including me), so the default should be changed. I hope you agree. Laurier (talk) 07:37, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

JFYI: there are 24 proposals in the current community wishlist that you can vote for here: m:2016 Community Wishlist Survey/Categories/Watchlists.

Personally I think that making it easy to quickly see all changes (in a single diff) since one last visited a page would be of most use which is why I suggested it here.

--Fixuture (talk) 00:52, 3 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for notifying everyone about this. Of course, I'm partial to the idea of hiding edits from editors you trust in Watchlists and RC pages to make our watchlists (and RC pages) much more manageable, which I proposed. :) Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 04:02, 4 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is there? Bertdrunk (talk) 04:14, 4 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't found a way to do it until now. It will be very useful though to have that, especially we ourselves revert our edits due to trivial error (e.g. typo). Chongkian (talk) 03:00, 13 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, is there a way to bypass the question screen when adding a page to my watchlist via the little blue star at the top? It used to be pretty straightforward once, but now it takes me away from the page I am reading, I have to click on a yes button and even so I am not brought back to the page I was reading but have to backtrack with navigation. I find this very annoying and I am surprized there is no option to bypass this in my preferences. Thanks. Hoverfish Talk 20:01, 18 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I rarely get a question screen but don't know what determines it. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:54, 19 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

So far I have never seen/received any question screen when adding a page to my watchlist via that little blue star. Chongkian (talk) 03:01, 13 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Foolish me, but I've only just become aware that the Watchlist even had personal preferences options. I think other editors would find it helpful to have it "Watchlist Preferences" button right there, to clue them in. --Hobbes Goodyear (talk) 00:00, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently, in the last 20 minutes a new watchlist design have been deployed. I do not have a strong opinion whether the design itself is an improvement or not, but it considerably slows reloading of the watchlist, like if a heavy gadget was deployed. This slowing down is smth I would like to avoid.--Ymblanter (talk) 16:42, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

+1 - I kid you not it takes mine a whole 10 seconds to load after each refresh - The previous took a mere second if that, Any chance this can be reverted atleast until the time it takes to load is fixed?... –Davey2010^Talk 17:13, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I do object to the design as it appears to use the space less efficiently. Not only am I having the same speed problems as above my computer is using considerably more processing power on it. --Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 17:16, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I am gone now for several hours but if someone wants to take the problem up (Village Pump technical?) please feel free to do it.--Ymblanter (talk) 17:20, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

My load time isn't that bad but it is still considerably longer than it used to be. I also agree about the non-effective use of space. Why the drop downs for number of changes and how far back to view can't be in the same line as the mark all changes as read button I've no idea. Nthep (talk) 18:17, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Someone's helpfully filed a Phabricator task about the slowness already, with a suggestion for how we might fix it. We'll take a look at that today. In the meantime, the new watchlist UI comes from the "New filters for edit review" beta feature (it previously only applied to the Recent changes page, but starting today it applies to the watchlist too), so you can disable the beta feature if it's causing issues for you. --Roan Kattouw (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Roan Kattouw (WMF):, thanks for that. Is there anywhere we can feedback about the layout? Nthep (talk) 19:51, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Nthep: Yes there is! Your feedback is welcome at mw:Talk:Edit Review Improvements/New filters for edit review. --Roan Kattouw (WMF) (talk) 21:06, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The article information in my watchlist is now double spaced. This is the first time this has ever happened. I didn't changed any of the settings for my watchlist. Is this a glitch or an intended change? I want my watchlist to return to being single spaced. SMP0328. (talk) 01:37, 29 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#crazy watchlist. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:41, 29 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Try as I might, even toggling "7 days", I can't shift my watchlist longer than the last 1000 edit barrier. I'm going on vacation-is there any way to set it so I can catch up when I return? If you're going to send me to the "Customizing Watchlists" page, please provide specifics. Thanks--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 13:40, 29 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The top of the watchlist has the link Edit raw watchlist. When you return you could use this to temporarily save the watchlist elsewhere and copy different parts back at a time. Make sure UTF-8 characters are stored correctly. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:38, 29 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have 55000 articles on my watchlist-is there no less-horrific way?--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 13:36, 30 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Like a way, for instance, to do "older 500" as is common on user;contributions? Like we used to have?--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 13:37, 30 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I think the only method without editing the watchlist is to use watchlists settings to hide some edits or only show one namespace at a time, so the maximum 1000 edits can go further back. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:09, 30 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I just tried adding &limit=2000 in the middle of the URL, it works for me.--Ymblanter (talk) 17:29, 30 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There used to be little colored radio buttons which showed which you had reviewed and which you hadn't.

What happened to them? This is on google chrome. Also does not work on Firefox. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 16:09, 19 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It's discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Watchlist problem? PrimeHunter (talk) 16:22, 19 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Doc James: Same is the problem here. How to fix it? --Saqib (talk) 12:54, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

User:Saqib it has been fixed for me... Are you still having problems? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:32, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Doc James: This issue began for me just yesterday. --Saqib (talk) 14:58, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Can you upload a screenshot? Have you tried a different browser? And have you tried clearing your cache? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:11, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Doc James: Here's the screenshot. I tried different browser and clearing cache. --Saqib (talk) 15:41, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I recently added a page to my watchlist. I don't remember the exact title, but now I want to go back to it. It apparently hasn't been edited since I added it, so it's not showing up on Special:Watchlist. Is there some way to view my watchlist in order of when I added things? I imagine I could do this in Quarry, but I'm thinking through the normal wiki interface. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:53, 17 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, would anyone please be able to help me get rid of the annoying new dotted underlining for the D, m and b flags? Thanks very much! Dr. Vogel (talk) 08:09, 8 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed something strange with my watchlist after I refreshed it to view the latest changes. The pages I had checked were still bold after I hit the refresh link. I reloaded the page, and the only page that was not bold (with the exception of the pages I had checked several hours before) was the last one I checked. I checked another page and reloaded the watchlist again, and that page was not bold but the all the others (including the one that was not bold before) were. See the images for an example. - ZLEA _T\^C 22:34, 7 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, this is a known bug which has been on Phabricator for quite a while. At some point, the developers claimed they have solved it, but the issue is indeed recurrent, I also had this for a brief period yesterday.--Ymblanter (talk) 16:40, 8 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know where to say it, so I am trying here. It seems that in the watchlist, and maybe other places where edit summaries appear, there is no space between the page name and date. I believe this is new, as I would have noticed it before, but maybe I wasn't looking. Gah4 (talk) 01:45, 8 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Bad separators on multiple pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:59, 8 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi - in Help:Watchlist#Limitations, it suggests you can't watch categories. Yet isn't this what [[2]] does, if you put in a category name? TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 23:04, 13 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm probably late to this, but my ability to quickly see diffs without leaving the watchlist or history page has gone missing. I finally went to investigate and believe this function was part of the Watchlist Gadgets in Preferences. I have this option checked, but it also says: "Display green collapsible arrows and green bullets for changed pages in your watchlist, page history and recent changes (unavailable with the improved Watchlist user interface)." What improved Watchlist interface? When did this happen? Can I use the old one, or is there a way to do something similar with the new one? Thanks! -Reagle (talk) 14:17, 22 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Add this to user:name/common.js importScript( 'User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/commonHistory.js' ); // Backlink: [[User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/commonHistory.js]] -- GreenC 15:32, 22 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi - the watchlist is extra slow to fully load on mobile, and I found out why - it's the JavaScript interface. It meant clicking on links while loading ended up moving the page, making me constantly load the wrong pages. And sure, removing the interface in Preferences works, but then I can't have it enabled on my desktop/laptop. Can there be some way to disable just on the mobile site? ɱ (talk) 15:42, 13 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've been having a couple issues with my watchlist.

I currently have 1,061 pages selected for my watchlist. My settings are to display most recent edit only, hide bot edits, hide own edits.

Everything with my WL has worked perfectly fine up until late last year when it suddenly began showing only two or three individual edits (results). I changed my 'results to show' settings from what I believe at the time was 3 days, 50 edits, to higher values. I was able to get just a few more to load, maybe seven total. At that time, my WL had grown to over 1,500 pages so I thought that was the problem. I trimmed it down to about 900 and that seemed to have only a small immediate effect. However, later on, and over the next several days, the results started to grow as more results trickled in. In the meantime I was playing around with the 'results to show' settings to try to get more to display. I found the only way to get it to display more than a dozen or so for more than 1 or 2 days was to set it to 30 days and 500 results. With that setting I typically get edits 4 to 6 days old, totaling 20 to 40 results. It's been that way ever since.

Lately, since Ive been paying closer attention, I consistently get around 40 results but never anything more than six days old. I'm hesitant to tinker with the results setting any more because the last time I did so (back last year when I was still trying to figure it all out) it again reduced the number of results significantly and it took a couple days to repopulate.

Possibly related: Template:OS/doc is on my watchlist but this edit did not appear on it.

Here's what happened: On the March 25, I had just checked my WL. There were about 40 edits from the last six days, and only a few new ones from the last time I visited it. None of those new edits looked suspicious or even particularly interesting, so I moved on. The next thing I did was go to recent changes. I selected a saved filter of mine where it displays edits filtered 'may be bad-faith' from Template namespace. [3] I was immediately drawn to the edit in question on the page Template:OS/doc. It was bolded as it should be because the page is on my WL. However, I found this very odd because I had just checked my WL and I didn't remember seeing any template/doc edits, nor any edits from IPs. So before doing anything else, I went back to my WL just to double-check if the edit was there or not, and indeed the edit was still not there. I then went back to the page Template:OS/doc and I reverted it and issued a warning on the IP's talk page.

Soon after, I posted at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Watchlist because that is the suggested forum for such matters. I got two questions and I answered them both. I conducted a couple tests by changing my settings based on one suggestion and eventually was able to get the edit to display on my WL. I concluded it was probably just an isolated glitch, but I got no explanation from anyone why it happened in the first place. I decided to post here while the incident is still semi-fresh in my memory. --DB1729 (talk) 16:15, 27 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

. Hallelujahknowledge (talk) 18:47, 16 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This is an extremely common form of vandalism. There is never a reason to change numbers without leaving an edit summary. —DIYeditor (talk) 18:30, 29 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I've started a discussion at WP:Village pump (technical)#Numerical changes without edit summary should be flagged "r" in watchlist. —DIYeditor (talk) 19:22, 29 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This is Vivian Vance, not Mason. Editornick56 (talk) 23:42, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Could someone please add an explanation of the difference between watching an article or subscribing to an article? I see the words as synonyms. David Spector (talk) 20:17, 29 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I am still seing "subscribe" links on sections, but no explanation of how subscribing is different from watching. "Subscribe" seems to be undocumented and mysterious. If it is similar to Watching, why isn't it described in this Help article? David Spector (talk) 01:19, 27 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

When I'm reviewing my watchlist on my Windows 10 laptop in Chrome, and I click to expand the list of revisions for one of the pages on it, the watchlist has begun shifting downwards so that the entry I just expanded scrolls half the height of the browser window below where it had been when I clicked the expander icon. This appears to happen when the item I'm expanding is within maybe five or six lines of text from the top of the window. There is no shift when I click on item that's farther down.

I've been using my watchlist for years and years. Therefore, either it's always been like this but it took me all those years to notice something I'm now finding jarring each time it happens, or else it's new. Has something changed? Largoplazo (talk) 12:05, 9 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Probably due to phab:T172618. Nardog (talk) 06:03, 12 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The article says that the max temporary time on a watchlist is 6 months, but 1 year is an option in the UI. The article also doesn't mention the one-year length when it lists the possible temporary lengths.SPA5CE! talk about it 16:36, 2 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@SPAAAAACE: Well spotted. I've added it. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:42, 2 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]