WTF? Lite doesn’t save the form data!?

Hi?@patricktttt,

Thank you for you honest feedback!

Entries in WPForms Lite are not stored by default. However, enabling the Lite Connect option will back up the entries submitted through your forms. This means that if you decide to upgrade to WPForms Pro, you can restore your entries and have instant access to reports. Please check this guide for more details about this feature.

Please also know that you should be able to set up form notification emails in WPForms Lite so that you will receive the entries submitted by your users. Here’s the tutorial with all the details. In Lite, you’re able to set up one notification email — however, you can send this one notification to as many different email addresses as you’d like.

If you are not receiving the email notifications, I’ll recommend you to check that your form notification settings are configured correctly by following our tutorial.

If your notification settings are correct, the issue is likely because the emails sent from WordPress are not authenticated (unlike emails sent directly from dedicated email service providers). As a result, they are likely to be filtered by the receiving mail server.
To resolve email delivery issues like this, you can configure an SMTP plugin on your site so that emails are sent as authenticated. We have an article with a list of recommended SMTP options and links to their setup tutorials.

And if you’d like more help with the email delivery issue or using WPForms Lite in general, please feel welcome to post in our WPForms Lite support forum.

Thanks!

So basically, you’re holding this entry hostage till I pay for Pro…

Hi @patricktttt,

I am sorry if the above message was not very clear. I can surely provide more details.

Lite Connect is an optional feature for WPForms Lite users, so they can opt in to backup the form entries on the cloud for future use. This is because WPForms Lite does not have a feature to store form entries.

With Lite Connect, once you choose to enable it, you are basically keeping your data secure for future use, in case you happen to switch to the paid version later. The primary function of Lite Connect is to assure users that their form entries and relevant data are safely stored and retrievable whenever needed. Lite Connect captures entries, encrypts them, and stores them securely in the cloud. (Even the WPForms Lite team won’t be able to see them.). This means that even if your form notification emails don’t work, a backup will always be accessible for retrieval.

Again, this is completely optional and you can decide whether to use it for your website.

Thus, we want to clarify that we do not hold any information hostage, but instead we give you the option to chose whether you would like to securely backup the form data when you are using the free version and get access to them later when you upgrade to paid because only the paid version has this capability to manage and process those information.

Additionally, if you would like to take on the extra safe side, you could reach out to your hosting provider and check with them whether email backups have been enabled for your side. With it way you can ensure that the hosting providers have a backup of your emails from the website and you don’t loose any information.

I hope this helps to clarify any confusion.

Regards!

So the entry is gone now?

And why is there one email with the information about a new entry – but no information WHAT was entered?

Hi @patricktttt,

Apologies for the delay.

Could you please create a new support ticket on the WPForms support forum with the screenshot of the email you received where you had no information about what was entered? And, you could also share the URL of your site as well. That way we can help you investigate the issue and check it further.

Once you let us know more details, we will be happy to help you there.

Regards!

Wow, this is concerning “Lite Connect captures entries, encrypts them, and stores them securely in the cloud.” this means the user input is never stored locally in WP db as metadata or post. So the idea here is that nothing locally unless you pay, only a pass input values from user form data to email, is that correct?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by mballew.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by mballew.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by mballew.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by mballew.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by mballew.

Yes. That’s the hostage situation.
I receive a reminder mail every few days, that there is 1 entry that I can only see if I pay for the backup upgrade. In Germany, we have a word for that: “L?segeldforderung”
(And I did not receive any mail with the entered data!)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by PatrickTTTT.

Hi @mballew and @patricktttt,

Apologies for the delay on this. It seems that the functions of WPForms Lite are being misunderstood here. I am happy to clarify again.

WPForms Lite does not have a feature to store entries locally. This feature is only available in the paid version. However, WPForms Lite has a feature: “Lite Connect”, and this allows it to store entries on the cloud. But this is not enabled by default. After you install the WPForms Lite plugin, you get to choose where you want to store entries securely on the cloud or want to get that information in the emails.

If you choose to not enable Lite Connect and do not receive emails as well, then I recommend you check that your form notification settings are configured correctly by following our?tutorial.

If you’d like more help with the email delivery issue or using WPForms Lite in general, please feel welcome to post in our?WPForms Lite support forum.

Thanks!

No, no, there is no misunderstanding:
If we don’t pay, we will not get our data.
Simple as that.
And pretty F-ed up.

Hi @patricktttt,

Thank you for your response and I am sorry to hear that WPForms was not able to meet your expectations.

I have taken a note of pain-points and your feedback. I will be sharing this within our team to discuss more about it.

Thanks again for sharing it!

Any Feedback for me?
There are several new entries now. I never got an email with the form data, only the ransomware-style “There are 5 entries, pay if you want to see them” mails…

Hi @patricktttt,

I am sorry to hear that you are still facing issues with the Email delivery.

My previous suggestion was to check and ensure the notification settings of your forms are correct. If all of your notification settings look correct, and you’re still seeing delivery issues, this can result from a broader email issue. Please see the explanation of the issue below:

Why doesn’t WordPress seem to send emails?
As spam gets worse (and more clever), ISPs and email service providers tighten their restrictions. We’re seeing that they are starting to block and/or spam many emails that previously would have gone through and been delivered with no issues. This often includes WordPress emails.

When you send an email directly from Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, or similar services, that email is “verified” that it’s legit and did indeed come from that source.

By default, when your web server sends an email (which by proxy includes WordPress and WPForms), that email is not authenticated or verified. Instead, it is sent anonymously on behalf of your email address. This is one of the metrics email providers are starting to leverage as they combat spam.

In short, emails that are not sent with an authenticated account or service often experience issues with deliverability. Sometimes they go through, other times they end up in the Spam folder or don’t get delivered at all.

Here’s a short video that nicely explains the?idea of email:?‘What Happens to an Email After You Click “Send”?’

How to fix it?
The way to resolve these deliverability issues is to configure WordPress to send authenticated emails. Essentially, that means installing and configuring a plugin on your WordPress site that tells it to send emails authenticated instead of?anonymously. This is why I had recommended to install an SMTP plugin previously.

But, if you are still facing issues after installing the SMTP plugin as well, then we need to troubleshoot the issue as it could be site specific issue and the best place to work on it is our WPForms Lite support forum. You can post the issue about email delivery there and our WPForms Lite support team will help you with it.

Thanks!