The number on the bell is read once, when the page loads, and then it sits there. It is a snapshot of how many unread notifications you had at that moment, not a live counter. If someone likes your project, replies to your comment or your competition result lands while you are on the page, the badge does not move, because nothing on the page is watching for it. The count is not wrong. It is old.
There is no live connection behind the bell
UNI does not push notifications into a page that is already open, and there is no background timer re-checking the count every few seconds. The page asks the server for your unread total only when something tells it to ask, and nothing tells it to ask again on its own.
None of this loses a notification. Notifications are recorded when they happen and every one of them is waiting in the panel. It is only the number on the bell that goes stale.
Three things make it read the count again
- Reloading the page.
- Moving to a different section of UNI. Projects, competitions, journals, profiles and the rest are separate applications, so moving between them loads a fresh page and the count is read again. Moving between pages inside one section does not.
- Opening the bell. The panel re-reads the count and reloads the list every time it opens.
That third one is the useful one. If you want an accurate number, open the panel: the act of opening it is what corrects the badge.
Two things change the badge without asking the server for a new total
- Opening a notification marks it read and takes one off the badge on the spot.
- Mark all as read sets the badge to zero on the spot.
Both are also saved on the server, so they survive a reload. These are the only cases where the badge moves without a page load.
The badge stops counting at 99
Above 99 unread it reads 99+ and stays there until you are back under a hundred. That is a limit on what the badge can display, not a limit on how many notifications are kept for you.
If the bell shows no badge at all
When the count cannot be read, because your session expired or the request did not get through, the bell falls back to showing nothing rather than showing an error. So an empty bell on a page you have had open for hours is worth one reload before you treat it as correct.
What a stale badge is not
It is not a sign that notifications are switched off for your account, that your membership lapsed, or that activity on your work went unrecorded. Open the panel and read the list. The list is the record. The badge is a copy of it taken earlier.
If the list itself is missing something you expected, that is a different question: what appears in your notifications covers what does and does not generate one.