Email sent in Plain Text Format

Hello – Some SMTP plugins work by overriding the core pluggable wp_mail() function. When BuddyPress detects that this is the case, it skips BP’s HTML email system and sends as plaintext instead. See https://github.com/buddypress/buddypress/blob/8cfca1802adeeb85fff69b8848deec6996d49e39/src/bp-core/bp-core-functions.php#L3871

BPGES piggybacks on this value when deciding whether to use plaintext emails: https://github.com/boonebgorges/buddypress-group-email-subscription/blob/efb91a1553d21a609e60aa7c739e423106c6e765/bp-activity-subscription-functions.php#L1010

As such, you can probably force BP to use HTML emails as follows:

add_filter( 'bp_email_use_wp_mail', '__return_false' );

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback and for pointing me to the code section. I was able to investigate the source of the problem.

First, let me give you some background. A few years ago, I successfully installed your plugin, and my site was able to send emails without needing a specific SMTP configuration. However, a few weeks ago, my site stopped sending emails. I assumed that my provider had increased SMTP security by requiring authentication. To address this, I installed a plugin called Gmail SMTP, which allowed me to configure my new mailbox correctly. This plugin uses the native wp_mail function. Although I was able to send emails, I couldn't receive emails from BuddyPress (BP). To fix this, I had to install another plugin called Vibe BuddyPress to WP Mail Fix, which resolved the issue.

However, the emails I received were in plain text format.

I then started analyzing your code. Despite using the latest version of BuddyPress, since I’m now using wp_mail, the code branch being used is the one for older BuddyPress versions:
https://github.com/boonebgorges/buddypress-group-email-subscription/blob/efb91a1553d21a609e60aa7c739e423106c6e765/bp-activity-subscription-functions.php#L1091

Instead of the branch used for BuddyPress 2.5+ versions:
https://github.com/boonebgorges/buddypress-group-email-subscription/blob/efb91a1553d21a609e60aa7c739e423106c6e765/bp-activity-subscription-functions.php#L1011

To avoid HTML being converted to plain text, I removed the convert_html_to_text function on line 1355:
https://github.com/boonebgorges/buddypress-group-email-subscription/blob/efb91a1553d21a609e60aa7c739e423106c6e765/bp-activity-subscription-functions.php#L1355

Question: Why is the content being converted to plain text when using wp_mail()?

Additionally, this is more of a cosmetic issue, but when using this branch, the email content format differs from the format used with bp_send_mail. Why is that? Is it possible to have the same format for both methods?

Form information, when I forced BP using add_filter as you advice, no email was sent. Moreover, after removing the code, I had to uninstall and install again your plugin to have it up and running. 

Thanks for your help and support.

Best regards,
Nicolas

Question: Why is the content being converted to plain text when using wp_mail()?

Because wp_mail() only sends plaintext messages by default https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/trunk/src/wp-includes/PHPMailer/PHPMailer.php#L79 Your plugin must modify those headers to allow for HTML email content.

If you want to remove the conversion, you can probably do it like this in a theme or separate plugin file. This will avoid future instances where you accidentally break the plugin:

add_filter(
  'bpges_wp_mail_content',
  function( $plaintext_content, $original_content ) {
    return $original_content;
  },
  10,
  2
);

Hi, Thanks for you answer.

I add this code in the snippet and you are right the email is sent in HTML. However, there is no carrier return meaning the nl2br() function is not used in that case.

Best regard,

Nicolas.