diff --git a/migrations/20190206000000-notifications-drop-eventid-constraint.js b/migrations/20190206000000-notifications-drop-eventid-constraint.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..288405c4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/20190206000000-notifications-drop-eventid-constraint.js
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+'use strict';
+
+var async = require('async');
+
+exports.up = function(db, callback) {
+    async.series([
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'START TRANSACTION;'),
+        // WARNING in the future always give constraints proper names to not rely on automatic ones
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'ALTER TABLE notifications DROP FOREIGN KEY notifications_ibfk_1'),
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'ALTER TABLE notifications MODIFY eventId VARCHAR(128)'),
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'COMMIT')
+    ], callback);
+};
+
+exports.down = function(db, callback) {
+    async.series([
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'START TRANSACTION;'),
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'ALTER TABLE notifications MODIFY eventId VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL'),
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'ALTER TABLE notifications ADD FOREIGN KEY(eventId) REFERENCES eventlog(id)'),
+        db.runSql.bind(db, 'COMMIT')
+    ], callback);
+};
diff --git a/migrations/schema.sql b/migrations/schema.sql
index 4620e89b1..c18a94ceb 100644
--- a/migrations/schema.sql
+++ b/migrations/schema.sql
@@ -215,14 +215,13 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tasks(
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS notifications(
     id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
     userId VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
-    eventId VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
+    eventId VARCHAR(128),
     title VARCHAR(512) NOT NULL,
     message TEXT,
     action VARCHAR(512) NOT NULL,
     acknowledged BOOLEAN DEFAULT false,
     creationTime TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
 
-    FOREIGN KEY (eventId) REFERENCES eventlog(id),
     PRIMARY KEY (id)
 );
 
diff --git a/src/test/database-test.js b/src/test/database-test.js
index 0717590aa..9455c6715 100644
--- a/src/test/database-test.js
+++ b/src/test/database-test.js
@@ -163,6 +163,14 @@ describe('database', function () {
             action: 'usually a url'
         };
 
+        var NOTIFICATION_3 = {
+            userId: USER_0.id,
+            eventId: null,
+            title: 'third one',
+            message: 'some message there',
+            action: 'usually a url'
+        };
+
         before(function (done) {
             async.series([
                 userdb.add.bind(null, USER_0.id, USER_0),
@@ -286,6 +294,14 @@ describe('database', function () {
                 done();
             });
         });
+
+        it('can add notification without eventId', function (done) {
+            notificationdb.add(NOTIFICATION_3, function (error) {
+                expect(error).to.equal(null);
+
+                done();
+            });
+        });
     });
 
     describe('domains', function () {