---
url: /patch/usage-guides/utilities.md
description: >-
  Quick-access utilities in rotki, including global search for fast navigation,
  taking notes in-app, and monitoring long-running background tasks.
---

# Utilities

## Global Search

You can use global search provided to speed up your actions by clicking the icon on the top bar, or using the shortcut `Control-/` (`Command-/` if you are using Mac).

![The global search box before anything is typed](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/global_search_empty.webp)

Some actions provided by this global search:

* Navigate to any page in rotki.
* Quick-add actions, such as `Add a manual balance`, `Add blockchain account`, `Add an exchange` or `Create Tag`. These take you to the relevant page with the add dialog already open.
* Go to a certain owned asset overview page.
* Go to a certain location overview page. Your connected exchanges and the chains you track both appear here.

One query returns all of them together, ranked in a single list.

![Search results for "bal", mixing pages, a connected exchange, a quick-add action and an owned asset](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/global_search_results.webp)

## Taking Notes In-App

You can now take notes in various sections of the application. Note taking is categorized into two types:

1. **General Notes**: These are notes available & visible across the application.

   ![General notes](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/general_notes.webp)

2. **Location-specific Notes**: These are notes restricted to the location in which they were created in the application.

   ![Location specific notes](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/location_specific_notes.webp)

You can also pin notes; the pinned notes will appear at the top.

## Notifications

rotki reports what it is doing, and anything that needs your attention, through the **notification
area** in the toolbar. Opening it shows every notification received this session, grouped into four
tabs: `View All`, `Needs Action`, `Reminder` and `Error`. Many notifications carry an action, such as
adding a missing API key or opening the dialog that resolves what they are about. Any task still
running is shown above the tabs, with its progress.

![The notification area](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/notifications.webp)

Notifications also appear briefly as a **popup** in the corner of the window as they arrive.

### Silencing popups

If the popups interrupt you, click **Silence notification popups** in the notification area. The
button then reads `Popups silenced. Click to allow them again`, and you can turn them back on the
same way.

![Silencing notification popups](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/notifications_silence.webp)

Nothing is lost while popups are silenced. Every notification still arrives in the notification area
with its actions intact; only the transient popup is suppressed. The setting is stored with your
account, so it stays as you left it the next time you log in.

### How often a notification repeats

Notifications about a condition that persists — a missing API key, or a chain with no indexer
available — would otherwise greet you at every login. Instead each one backs off: you see it
immediately, then again a day later, then two days after that, then a week after that, and after
that it stops interrupting you.

It still appears in the notification area with its action, so you can deal with it whenever you
like, and the schedule starts over if you change that chain's indexer order or that service's key.
Chains and services are tracked separately, so silencing one never affects another.

To stop the "No indexers available" notification for a chain you have no intention of configuring,
see [Suppressing indexer notifications](/usage-guides/settings/blockchain#suppressing-indexer-notifications).

### Clearing notifications

Use the clear button to dismiss all active notifications at once; rotki asks for confirmation first.
The area holds a maximum of 200 notifications, after which the oldest are dropped.

## Background Tasks

A list of processing tasks is available on the notifications tray, headed by a count of how many
jobs are currently running. A task that reports its progress also shows how many of its steps are
done.

![running background tasks](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/pending_tasks.webp)

It is possible to cancel a long running task, but use this feature sparingly. rotki asks you to
confirm first, and warns that cancelling leaves the underlying process in an unfinished state.

![cancel background task](/images/usage-guides/utilities/index/pending_tasks_cancel.webp)