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Email sending issues are usually not directly related to our membership plugin. If the plugin sent the email but the recipient didn’t get it, then that means the email got blocked or marked as spam during transit.
Emails must pass through several filters — first on your server, then across multiple networks and mail servers before reaching the recipient. If your server’s mail configuration (such as SPF, DKIM, or SMTP setup) is not properly configured, there’s a higher likelihood that the email will be blocked or flagged by spam filters.
Our plugin relies on your server’s email infrastructure for sending emails. Delivery success can be influenced by several factors, so following this step-by-step checklist will help you pinpoint the source of the issue.
In this post, I will explain how you can determine if the plugin successfully executed the email sending or not so you can troubleshoot the issue on your server’s end.
How to Verify if the Plugin Sent the Email or Not
- Go to the settings menu of the Simple Membership plugin.
- Enable the debug logging option by checking the “Enable Debug” field. Then save the settings.
- Do a test membership signup and check the debug log file.
If you see entries like the following then that means the plugin successfully sent the email:
Member signup/upgrade completion email successfully sent to: john.doe@yahoo.com
When our plugin executes the email sending code, it will typically add an entry in the debug log file saying the email was sent. That gives you confirmation that the plugin executed the email sending code.
What Can I do to Fix the Email Issue?
If the plugin is sending the email but the recipient is not getting it then that means the email that is sent from your server is getting blocked somewhere (or being marked as spam). You need to fix that so the emails sent by the plugin doesn’t get blocked.
Try doing the following:
Step 1) Ensure Proper SPF and DKIM Configuration on Your Server
Ensure that your server’s SPF and DKIM records are correctly configured. In many cases, incorrect or missing SPF/DKIM settings are the primary reasons emails get blocked by mail servers. Contact your hosting provider and ask them to verify that your domain’s SPF and DKIM records are properly set up.
Step 2) Use Correct From Email Address
Make sure you are using an email address that uses your domain name as your “From Email Address” field value. Some servers won’t deliver the email if you don’t send it from an address that uses your domain name.
Example: Lets say you can use the following two addresses as your “From Email Address” field value (the 1st one is an email address on your domain, the 2nd one is your gmail address):
1. ABC Company <jedi@abc-company.com>
2. ABC Company <jedi@gmail.com>You should use the 1st example in your plugin settings.
If you are using the 2nd example as your from email address value then there is a good chance that this email will be blocked (or get marked as spam).
Step 3) Use SMTP to Send Emails from Your Server
Some servers only allow emails with SMTP configuration. You can get a WordPress plugin to configure SMTP for your WordPress install. You can use the following SMTP plugin:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-wp-smtp/
Once you configure SMTP, all the emails that gets sent out by WordPress will use this configuration. This will result in a high deliverability of your emails.
Make sure to test the email sending functionality from this plugin. Then use those exact configuration (that works) in the plugin’s email settings.
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The original post from @admin is excellent. Unfortunately, there are always more hoops being added into the mix if you want to send mail from your server. You have to worry about things like reverse DNS, SPX records, authorized MX records for your domain, etc. Sometimes your hosting platform restricts your ability to send SMTP directly from your server. Sometimes your server/droplet/ec2 instance/whatever doesn’t come with an SMTP service installed–leaving you to install and configure an SMTP service.
I’m going to share the secret I’ve discovered that has eliminated all my mail sending challenges.
First, like @admin shared, install an SMTP sending plugin. He suggested easy-wp-smtp:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-wp-smtp/I’m sure any SMTP plugin will do.
This adds SMTP options to the WordPress Settings menu item.
And here is the secret sauce. Simply use the Mailgun service from Rackspace as your SMTP server. It is free to create an account and free to send mail up to 10,000 messages per month. Most folks are going to fall WAY under that limit. If you need to send more than 10,000 messages per month, well maybe it’s worthwhile to pony up the low fees.
Mailgun’s SMTP is extremely fast, reliable, and the best part, you can log into your Mailgun Dashboard and look at your sending logs. If there is a problem sending the message, it’s right there in the log. You can look at stats that show you how many messages have failed, etc.
You do need to follow the Mailgun instructions very closely to configure your DNS to allow Mailgun mail servers to have authority to send mail on your behalf. The instructions they provide are very clear. In fact, if you want to use your own SMTP, these instructions might help you understand the bits you need to configure to get your own mail sending working.
I use Mailgun SMTP for all my WordPress and phpBB systems. If you are a developer, you can actually send mail using the Mailgun API instead of standard SMTP. It’s lightning fast and you get feedback on the success of your sending.
Hi
I have set up e-mail according to the documentation.
The log records SUCCESS but no mails are received.Then I installed the easy-wp-smtp plug-in and configured it.
Still no success.Any more suggestions?
/ErikHi @ErikDal, have you checked the spam box in your e-mail software? Sometimes e-mails land in our spam box.
Thank you
Hi Erik, you might have to contact your host about this issue. See if they can share some light in regards to your e-mail issue. I am curious to know myself.
Kind regards
Hi,
Did you get resolution for this problem? I am having the same one. I have numerous contact form 7 forms set up, and I’m getting the emails for those. I’ve used exactly the same details in the SM set up. I’ve tried using the WP SMTP plugin with every configuration possible – to no avail. How is it that I can get the emails from the CF7 submissions but not the SM ones?
I am working on a local build, not a live site.
To clarify, I am assisting on a site, adding SM to it as well as a lot of other work. BUT while I do have admin rights, it isn’t set up in cpanel, I can only access files through ftp. I’m not having any luck (so far) getting the proper smtp credentials – I’ve got all my fingers & toes crossed that once I have those my issue will be fixed. The site goes live in 9 days and I’m getting very nervous. Everything else is working. I had to figure out a work-around as I couldn’t use the email activation link. The work around is obviously not ideal but I’m testing it, works so far (using the partial protection add on to hide the payment button till they register). I am NOT an experienced develop, this is the first time I’ve used this plugin. I’m hoping it will lead to more work….For what they need, it would be perfect – if I could just get the email side to work!
Any suggestions very gratefully received.I have followed all the steps in the above tutorial and used the debug option to see that according to the plugin emails were sent to both the sign up address and the admin email.
However, I have gone through all the junk and deleted folders for all the different email accounts and there is no sign of any emails anywhere.
I have WP Mail SMTP plugin installed and it works a treat with USP Pro, but not at all with WP Membership.
I have contacted the server (Siteground) and they cannot see the problem because the WP Mail SMTP plugin is sending test emails fine.I am using the Form Builder addon to build my forms.
I don’t want to use Mailgun because they demand a Credit Card.
What else can I do to make this work?
Many thanks.
Because you are using the Form Builder addon, please create a premium addon support ticket.
Thank you
Hi,
Thanks for a very nice plugin, HOwever, I have spent hours now trying to solve an email related issue, and I can’t fix it.
I have the option “email-activation” checked for ALL membership levels, one Free, and some paid ones.
I use the SMTP plugin – works great with test emails from plugin – no problem. Mail is sent and received.
When registering as a FREE user:
1.the activations email is sent – great.
2.after registering, an email is sent to the free member with his email and password by the system.
When registering as a PAID user, using PayPal (account or credit card – no difference), I get the confirmation from PayPal that the money arrived and the member gets a mail saying he has paid. All great! But no emails are sent out by the system about account activation or completing the registration, when the payment is successful 🙁
What is wrong here?
Thanks for any help!Hi, I think I can now answer my own question, after some additional reading…
I am running on a test server, which cannot be directly reached from the internet (localhost only).
So the IPN (Instant Payment Notification) doesn’t work – PayPal cannot send a signal to the plugin after a successful purchase.
See IPN details on PayPals website for more info.Thanks for reading.
Hello, thanks for the great plugin.
It seems I am experiencing the exact same problems as LA22.
The emails are send fine when using other plugins, but the completed registration mails are not send with SWMP.The log says:
[04/04/2020 8:42 PM] - SUCCESS: Member registration complete email sent to: XXXX@XXXX.XX. From email address value used: XXXXXXHowever, no mail is sent. I tried different email adresses and different providers.
When checking my personal mails (I test every now and then) I could deduce that the last time everything worked for me was on 11 July 2019.
Please let me know if you can think of any solution.
@Thijzie, did you check your spam folder? Did you also followed the troubleshooting steps mentioned above?
We offered you a full refund since the addon wasn’t working correctly on your site (we couldn’t pin-point the source of the conflict on your site). Did you not get the refund?
Please note that there is always going to be a small percentage of sites where things are setup in a complicated manner and things just doesn’t work correctly. We will try our best to investigate for the paid addon but there are many things on your site that are completely beyond the control of our plugin. So sometimes we will fail to identify the exact source of the conflict and we will refund you in that case.
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