Controlling member unsubscribes
By default, members can unsubscribe from your group at any time — when they do, they're removed from the group. The Members can unsubscribe setting lets you change this, so that unsubscribing stops a member's mail without removing them from the group.
You'll find it in Settings → Member Access, next to Members can change their email.
- Yes (the default): unsubscribing removes the member from the group.
- No: the member stops receiving mail but stays in the group. Only an administrator can remove them.
Setting it to No suits organisations whose membership list is managed elsewhere — by an association, club, or external system — where the group should mirror your official records and members shouldn't remove themselves.
This setting is only available on the Premium plan. On other plans it's visible but locked, and unsubscribing removes the member — except in groups synced from a membership system (below). If a Premium group downgrades, unsubscribes go back to removing membership, but members who had already stopped their delivery stay stopped.
Groups synced from a membership system
If a group's member list is synced from a membership system such as Wild Apricot, unsubscribing always works as if Members can unsubscribe were set to No, on every plan: the member's delivery stops and they stay on the member list. This applies for as long as the sync is active.
Removing them wouldn't last — the next sync would add them straight back and they'd start receiving mail again. Keeping them with delivery stopped means their choice sticks. If they should no longer be a member, update their record in your membership system and the sync will remove them.
Members can always stop their mail
Even with the setting on No, members can always stop the group's mail in one click, using any unsubscribe link. Their delivery switches off immediately; they simply stay a member. This is required — Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook mandate one-click unsubscribe for bulk senders, and blocking it would lead to spam complaints that harm delivery for the whole group.
So the setting changes what unsubscribe means — "stop my mail" rather than "remove me" — but members still can't leave the group themselves. To remove someone, an administrator does so (usually by updating your own membership records).
What members see
A member who unsubscribes is told their delivery will stop, that they remain a member, and how to contact the administrators. Their membership page shows a Delivery Stopped notice with a Resume Delivery button. They can still send messages and use the group website — only their incoming mail stops.
What administrators see
- In the Members view, these members show an Unsubscribed tag.
- Delivery reports list them under their own Unsubscribed category — an expected skip, not a failure, so they don't count against your delivery statistics.
- You can restore delivery with the Unblock action, but only when the member has asked for it. Re-mailing people who opted out leads to spam complaints.
If an unsubscribed member is later removed and re-added — by an admin, import, or sync — they come back with delivery still stopped. Being re-added never silently re-subscribes them.
FAQ
A member unsubscribed but is still on the list. Is that a bug?
No — that's the setting working as intended. Their mail has stopped; their membership stays. An administrator can remove them if needed.
Do unsubscribed members still get digests?
No. Stopping delivery stops all group mail, including digests.
Does this affect groups set to "Yes"?
No. For those groups (the default, and all non-Premium groups), unsubscribing removes the member as before — unless the group's members are synced from a membership system, where unsubscribing always stops delivery and keeps the member.