Feeder adds a post as new when it finds an ID it hasn't seen before in that feed. If a site changes the IDs or dates of old posts, Feeder can't tell they're old, so they arrive again as unread and can send notifications. The cause is usually on the site's side, and a few things in Feeder help.
How does Feeder decide a post is new?
Each post in a feed normally has a fixed ID: the guid in RSS or the id in Atom. Feeder remembers every ID it has seen for a feed and adds a post only when its ID is new. If a feed has no IDs, Feeder makes one from the post's title and date, so a changed title or date makes the post look new.
Why do old posts come back?
| Cause | What you see |
|---|---|
| The site changed its post IDs, for example after moving to a new website system | Many old posts at once, usually one time |
| The feed has no IDs, and the site edits titles or dates, or starts adding dates | A post you read comes back with a small change |
| The site republishes old posts with new dates | Old stories at the top with a recent date |
| An AI feed or custom feed of a web page that shows no dates | Posts dated by when Feeder found them, and old items coming back |
| You just followed a feed with a long archive | Posts from months or years ago |
What can I do about it?
Follow the site's real RSS feed
AI feeds and custom feeds read a web page, and a page often has no dates or IDs for its items. If the site has a real feed, follow that instead: select Add feed and paste the site's address, or try the address with /feed or /rss at the end. Then delete the old feed. For YouTube, follow the channel's RSS feed, not the channel page. See YouTube feeds.
Hide repeats with Filter duplicates
This rule hides a post that has the same link or title as a post from the same feeds in the last 7, 14 or 30 days, with no notification. Put two feeds in one rule, and a story they both carry shows up once. It's part of Professional ($14.99 per user a month billed yearly, or $19.99 monthly) and Enterprise.
- Select Rules in the left sidebar, then New rule.
- Under What should happen?, choose Filter duplicates, and pick the feeds under Select feeds.
- Set the Duplicate window and Consider unique by, then select Save rule.
More in Duplicate filters.
Clear old posts in one go
When you follow a feed, Feeder shows the posts that are in it, and some feeds list years of posts. To clear them, select Mark all as read (the round check mark button above the post list). Under Mark as read older than..., choose 24 hours, 1 week or 1 month. This covers all your feeds, not only the one you have open.
Report the feed
E-mail support@feeder.co with the feed's address and a screenshot of a post that came back. When we can, we change how Feeder reads that feed.
How do post dates and order work?
Feeder shows the date the feed gives each post and sorts posts by it. A post with no date gets the time Feeder found it, so it can look newer than it is. To choose the order, select Display above the post list and set Order to Newest first or Oldest first. See Customize the post list.
If the feed has the right date and Feeder shows another one, tell us. That's a bug on our side.
Common questions
Why do I get notifications for old posts?
Feeder notifies you when it adds a post it sees as new, so the causes above apply. Following the site's real feed or adding Filter duplicates stops the repeats.
Why does one feed show every post twice?
The feed probably gives each post two different IDs or links. Report it, and we'll take a look.
Still stuck? E-mail support@feeder.co with the feed's address, and we'll look at what it sends.