E:mail notificationof comments left not being sent/received

  • On 1/1/2020 we became the new administer for the above site using the GreatWP theme. All of our plug-ins and themes are up-to-date.

    Recently, the authors notified us they have not been receiving e:mail notifications when comments are left on their Posts. Comments are moderated prior to appearing for the individual Posts.

    I went back and checked my own e:mail and found the last notification I received that a comment was left was 12/20/2019.

    JetPack had been uninstalled by the prior owners in 8/2019, when we objected to the Posts automatically being uploaded the FB page, not realizing there were other features our subscribers used. JetPack was re-installed on 1/10/2020 and activated the features giving the readers/commenters the option to check that they 1) wish to be notified when new stories are posted and 2) when an author responds to their comment. On 1/17 one of our Editors commented that she had received an e:mail notification of a new story posted.

    As a side note, we have either changed or redirected the old e:mail administrator’s address used to a new e:mail set up.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Are these about email notifications of new comments being sent to the post’s author, or email notifications of new comments being sent to commenters who subscribed?

    Thread Starter bluewindfarm

    (@bluewindfarm)

    These are about the original comments being sent to the Post’s author.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Ok, then that doesn’t have anything to do with Jetpack.

    It sounds like your hosting provider has disabled PHP’s mail() function, which is used by WordPress to send you email notifications, and is also used by contact form plugins and more.

    This is a common safeguard employed by hosting providers when they suspect that another customer on the same server is sending spam emails directly from the server.

    Another alternative is that PHP’s mail() function is still active, but spammer activity from the server has already caused any email sent from it to be blacklisted. This would result in the emails being sent, but never received by any email address with basic anti-spam capabilities.

    You can check this by leaving a comment on your site and checking if you receive an email. Another alternative would be to use the Health Check plugin and sending yourself a test email from the plugin’s Tools tab to see if it works.

    If you didn’t receive a test email, you could try using an SMTP plugin to configure your WordPress site to use your email’s outgoing mail server instead of PHP’s mail() function.

    Thread Starter bluewindfarm

    (@bluewindfarm)

    I previously did send a test message to myself that wasn’t received, and the e:mail system already is set up using SMTP.

    Since our readers are spread out over the world and use a variety of different e;Mail providers, it’s a sign that the problem is somehow related to our setup configuration.

    I’m a newbie at this, so I’m struggling with what might be wrong and how to fix.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Did the email test in the Health Check plugin work?

    Thread Starter bluewindfarm

    (@bluewindfarm)

    Using WP e:mail SMTP testing this time returned an error message that it could not authenticate the SMTP account. j

    Scrolling down the listing, it appears the password command failed.

    Where do I go to fix?

    Thread Starter bluewindfarm

    (@bluewindfarm)

    Here’s the report:

    Versions:
    WordPress: 5.3.2
    WordPress MS: No
    PHP: 7.3.13
    WP Mail SMTP: 1.8.1

    Params:
    Mailer: smtp
    Constants: No
    ErrorInfo: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.
    Host: mail.bonanzabrand.info
    Port: 465
    SMTPSecure: ssl
    SMTPAutoTLS: bool(false)
    SMTPAuth: bool(true)

    Server:
    OpenSSL: OpenSSL 1.0.2k 26 Jan 2017
    Apache.mod_security: No
    SMTP Debug:
    2020-01-22 10:28:10 Connection: opening to ssl://mail.bonanzabrand.info:465, timeout=300, options=array ()

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 Connection: opened

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220-mi3-ls3.a2hosting.com ESMTP Exim 4.92 #2 Wed, 22 Jan 2020 05:28:10 -0500 220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited, 220 and/or bulk e-mail.

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO bonanzabrand.info

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-mi3-ls3.a2hosting.com Hello bonanzabrand.info [68.66.216.16]250-SIZE 52428800250-8BITMIME250-PIPELINING250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN250 HELP

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 CLIENT -> SERVER: AUTH LOGIN

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 CLIENT -> SERVER: ZmFuZmljdGlvbkBib25hbnphYnJhbmQuaW5mbw==

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6

    2020-01-22 10:28:10 CLIENT -> SERVER: YnJuZHN0cnMjMjAkMTg=

    2020-01-22 10:28:12 SERVER -> CLIENT: 535 Incorrect authentication data

    2020-01-22 10:28:12 SMTP ERROR: Password command failed: 535 Incorrect authentication data

    SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

    2020-01-22 10:28:12 CLIENT -> SERVER: QUIT

    2020-01-22 10:28:12 SERVER -> CLIENT: 221 mi3-ls3.a2hosting.com closing connection

    2020-01-22 10:28:12 Connection: closed

    SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    It sounds like your SMTP password is not correct. Consult your hosting provider’s documentation for changing the SMTP password, then add the new password to the plugin.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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