Problems with emails

  • Resolved unklee

    (@unklee)


    4 years, 4 months ago

    Just recently I have started having problems receiving emails from my two self-hosted WordPress sites. This is both emails from an on-page email form and email notification of new comments, both of which have worked fine until recently.

    I think the comment notification has stopped working altogether. But the email form still is working, but many of the emails are ending up in my Gmail Spam folder because “Gmail could not verify that it actually came from [email protected]”.

    Now the email doesn’t actually come from that address, which is the email provided by the commenter, but from my website on the server of my hosting company. The email quite clearly says that it comes from https://sitename, and only lists the xxxx@yyyy email address as the email of the person sending.

    This is really an issue I should take up with Gmail (I guess), but I don’t have much hope of getting a reply, so I thought I’d ask here first.

    1. Are other people having problems just recently with either type of email?
    2. Have you experienced Gmail labelling emails as spam for this reason, and have you a simple workaround please?

    Thanks

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by unklee.

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

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    Use one of the SMTP plugins to run your mail through a proper mail server associated with your account:

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search/smtp
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search/gmail

    Unfortunately, a lot of the mail sent by WP looks sorta spammy. So, using gmail’s servers will let your existing SPF and DKIM rules (if you have set those in your DNS) validate the mail your site sends.

    Thread Starter unklee

    (@unklee)

    Hi Steven, thanks so much for your reply. I am happy to try one of those plugins, but I wonder if you’d mind me asking a couple of other questions please?

    1. I have tried to avoid using too many plugins, to keep my site as lean as possible, and I have managed to code in a number of features that might otherwise require plugins. So for many years now I have used a contact form by thesitewizard.com, and it has worked well up to now. Reading the documentation, that site recommends avoiding using Gmail for because of its spam filtering, and using my host’s email facility instead (which I haven’t been using). Would you recommend this as an alternative, or is that just leaving me exposed to spam?

    2. Do you know anything about why the WordPress comment notification email doesn’t work now for me (not even getting to the Gmail spam folder)?

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    Gmail has excellent spam filtering. I’ve been using it for years and see very little spam. If your site is not sending mail properly, however, you need to work through that with your host.

    Good for you for coding your own stuff, but pay close attention to security… sanitize, validate, and escape all input. Because you don’t have the plugins team checking your code for you, this is something you really need to keep in focus.

    Thread Starter unklee

    (@unklee)

    Hi Steven,

    Thanks for taking the time. I think I am part way to solving my problem and it turns out it ISN’T a WordPress problem at all.

    I have discovered that Gmail has an issue of some incoming emails bypassing the Inbox and so I don’t see them unless I look elsewhere on Gmail where (up until now) I didn’t know I had to look. The issue is complex and I haven’t worked out how to resolve it but I now know that WordPress is sending the emails correctly, it is Gmail that is the problem.

    Sorry to have bothered you, but I only just discovered this on the Gmail forum.

    Thanks again for taking the trouble.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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