Changing notification email address?

  • Resolved Doodlebee

    (@doodlebee)


    13 years, 1 month ago

    Okay, I know this is an odd question – especially coming form someone who’s been working with WordPress for such a long time. But I’ve finally been driving to the point where I simply much ask.

    I’ve done numerous WordPress sites for clients over the years (so this question isn’t *just* for WordPress 3.3.x – it’s for every client I’ve ever had). When I do these sites, I set WordPress up for them by using on of my generic email addresses to set up the site. I do my thing, then turn the site over to the client. One of the things I do is go through the settings and change the admin email address from the email I used to set WordPress up with to the client’s email address. (I’ll also go through and, any plugins that require this change, I’ll do it there, too).

    yet here it is, years later, and I’m *still* getting notifications of all kinds from these sites that I have nothing to do with anymore. Comment notifications, user registration notifications, change password notifications, even subscription notifications. (That last one’s probably a plugin thing though.)

    I’m REALLY tired of getting these things. Just last week, I was at a point with it (one of the old clients had some kind of event, and my inbox was FLOODED with registrations, comments and lost password notices) that I went into my old client’s WordPress accounts – yep, they still had me in the system – and made 100% sure my email address was nowhere to be found, save in my own user profile. But still, I’m getting these notices.

    What *is* it that’s set to make WordPress send all of these notices to people? Id’a always thought it was the admin email address (in Settings), but apparently it’s not. I just want to know what needs to be changed, and where, so I can get rid of all of this junk in my inbox. requests for these old clients to remove me have resulted in nothing. They say they will, then they don’t. (Not a priority to them.) I just want to know what I can change (for future reference) so I don’t have to keep going through this again.

    Any also, *why* is WordPress set up to handle it this way? It seems to me, if you change the admin email address, then the email address you set WordPress up with should be forgotten.

    Anyone? Bueller?

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • That’s odd. There’s the email in general settings which you mention. Do you have an admin user left on the sites with your email address?

    Also, if you dump the DB can you scan it for your email address to see where it appears, if at all?

    Finally, does it appear anywhere at site.com/wp-admin/options.php?

    I can only find one db record for the admin email – the admin_email option in wp_options. And that is updated by any change of email address in Settings -> General

    Thread Starter Doodlebee

    (@doodlebee)

    yeah, that’s what’s getting me. it’s one of the first things I do when I hand a site over, is change that email address to theirs in the settings. Yet I’m still getting all the notification emails.

    I don’t know, maybe it’s the older sites then – because the one’s I’m getting are from clients I did sites for quite a while ago (and they don’t update. Some of them, I don’t think they even use the site anymore – and I can tell – especially with the comments – that these are spam stuff coming through.)

    I just know the last site I finished (which was last week, and it’s 3.3.1), I *did* do a database dump and removed my email address from *everywhere* save my own profile – and I’m still getting user registration notifications. I just got three this morning (and one of the guys lost his password already. LOL)

    Could it be that I’m getting them because I’m an *administrator* on these sites? that’s something I’ve never looked into – if notifications just go to admins (no matter how many there are)? If that’s what it is, then maybe there’s some way to have it set to notifications go to just the *one* email address, not *all* admins….

    I just know the last site I finished (which was last week, and it’s 3.3.1), I *did* do a database dump and removed my email address from *everywhere* save my own profile

    Do you happen to have a record of what tables & fields?

    Thread Starter Doodlebee

    (@doodlebee)

    No, I don’t, sadly. I just made the changes and popped the SQL file back in. We were using Gravity Forms, so I know several of the items were on those (there’s something like 7 forms on the site for various purposes), but there were some other fields that had my email address in there. I know _options was one of them. But I do recall that there were a couple of spots where the email address was within a serialized array – and it wasn’t part of the plugins.

    Something to do with a theme option, perhaps? I follow the same general process as you do with your sites and I’ve not noticed any problems with comments except on sites where I have forgotten to switch the admin email over.

    Thread Starter Doodlebee

    (@doodlebee)

    I’m not sure. I custom-wrote the themes, and I don’t have any options for emails. I dunno. it must be *something* I did! ?? I’ll keep digging.

    I custom-wrote the themes

    Ditto. And I have to say that storing an email address as a theme option would be rather strange. Next time it happens, try browsing https://deity:8080/wordpress/wp-admin/options.php It won’t unserialize (de-serialize?) arrays but it might give you some clues.

    Thread Starter Doodlebee

    (@doodlebee)

    Okay, now I feel like an idiot. it happened again, and I finally figured out why.

    The client I did this site for had a “test server” that I did all the code and such on, so they could check and make sure everything was going how it was supposed to be going before we made it live. When I made it live, I moved the site, and then went through (as I do) and made the necessary changes.

    However the client – being as clients are sometimes – passed out the link to the *testbed site* to everyone, instead of the real *live* link. Why? I don’t know. People do weird things. i found this out last night when they were freaking out they *they* weren’t getting the notifications they were supposed to be getting, and everyone they sent to sign up didn’t sign up (but was telling them they did). They were all signing up on the wrong site.

    So THAT is now straightened out, anyway. (and i’m so glad to know it’s not MY fault. LOL) So the only ones left are old, old clients that I don’t even speak to anymore, and they don’t even use the sites anymore, and I can’t get them to remove me from the sites, so I’ll just have to deal, I s’pose.

    Thanks for the help! ??

    Rev. Voodoo – Also, if you dump the DB can you scan it for your email address to see where it appears, if at all?

    Great idea! I was going through the same problem and that solved the email issue. Inside of the table ‘options’ it sets an ‘admin_email’ value and it appears that it is not always updated on admin account update. Changed it in the DB and now no more notifications.
    Thanks for the assist!

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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