Confusion around new configuration error message

https://contactform7.com/best-practice-to-set-up-mail/

I must agree with Mr. Kaufer, and I’ll go further. You’ve made this plug-in almost unusable and your laughable excuse for an FAQ and Best Practices guide offer not help at all.

Even following your instructions I get syntax errors for the ‘From” field when the only thing I’ve got in that field is [your-email]. How, exactly, could that be an error when that’s the most basic function of the field?

I’m now looking for an alternative to Contact Form 7. Thanks for nothing.

I got that error now on more than 560 domains, from small to big clients. What can i do in that case?

It was working great but after update we recivied more than 80 calls/free fix requests in same hour from coustumers just because all contact form stop worked!

Sorry but now after update i recive spam messages from working forms too (bot message).

Do you offer any fix?

I can’t fix existing forms. I can create only wnorking new form scratch. Really unusable now. ??

Apparently the code that used to be given for the From field, for example, is now different.

The example code that was put in the From: field section of the CF7 interface has changed over a few recent versions of CF7.

This was done in response to changes made by a number of prominent hosts (Cahoo, Gmail, Hotmail) to control email spam over the past couple of years.

CF7 users over this time period have been having been increasing issues sending emails due these spam prevention measures.

The CF7 Configuration Validator is designed to warn CF7 users of problems in their particular form setup that can cause their form emails to not be sent.

I am so confused. Having the same issue and no idea how to fix it.

@rosycheeksmua – if you can supply your CF7 Form & Mail sections in a separate question, I will help you understand and solve your particular problems there.

This will help you and others that read your separate question.

Thanks so much @buzztone ! I actually just ended up deleting the CF7 Plugin altogether and implementing the Contact Form within my Jetpack Plugin. Easy solution / zero hassle. Thanks anyways though, I appreciate it!

I’ve found the solution to this, well, call it a work around. On the Mail tab it had changed [your-email] in the from field to my email address, the one that is in the to field. I simply changed it back. It gives me an error telling me that this address is not from my domain, but that’s fine because it NOT SUPPOSED to be from my domain. So now I have that error, and one on the subject field telling me “This field can be empty depending on user input.” No kidding! Takayuki, you’ve got some work to do here, but it doesn’t look like anything insurmountable. Hate to have to go to a different solution, I’ve been using contact form 7 for a very long time.

After well more than 2 hours of reading multiple pages of FAQ and best practices from Contact Form 7, I seem to have gotten it fixed for ONE of my sites.

If a plug-in author wants to make changes to their product, fine, and I accept that English might not be their first language, but if your plug-in is a featured component of Jetpack, then spend the time and money to hire a GOOD, English speaking technical writer to handle your help sheets. This was simply ridiculous.

And another tip…”this field contains a syntax error” is an extremely unhelpful warning message.

Anyone looking for assistance should supply your CF7 Form & Mail sections in a separate question – I will help you understand and solve your particular problems there.

Thanks, buzztone. My problem is that I don’t understand why the “from” field wouldn’t be the name and email address that the user has submitted on the contact form. That has been working fine for years for me. I understand the spam issue; in fact, my subsequent emails to those who have first contacted me via the Contact Form often do end up in their spam folder. So I’m thrilled that there is a solution at hand for that. I just don’t understand what I am supposed to put in the “From” mail field instead of [your-name] <[your-email]>. I always thought “your” meant the user’s so maybe I’ve never understood how this works.

@lanny Kaufer – I’ll try to clarify the explanation I gave above.

It’s important to realize that when a form gets submitted you are sending a regular email but you are doing it from WordPress via PHP on your web server.

The To: From: & Subject fields are all normal email fields. Just like normal emails your form email needs a valid To: From: and Subject: field.

When you use the users submitted email address in the From: field you are trying to send an email from that address – e.g [email protected].

But you form is hosted at yourdomain.com.

So what your host and other email hosts see is an email from [email protected] sent from yourdomain.com.

.. and that mismatch in domain names looks like spam.

But if use something like [email protected] in the From: field then you don’t look like a spammer and all is good in the world again.

Thanks. I am not a developer, just a guy who learned how to use WordPress. I think I understand the explanation. So I assume I will still see their email address since that is the point of the form. I’m used to seeing the message come from them at their address. Please tell me then exactly what code goes in the To and From mail fields now. Thanks again.

This is a simple safe method.

FORM section:

<p>Your Name (required)<br />
    [text* your-name] </p>

<p>Your Email (required)<br />
    [email* your-email] </p>

<p>Subject (required)<br />
    [text* your-subject] </p>

<p>Your Message<br />
    [textarea your-message] </p>

<p>[submit "Send"]</p>

Mail section:

To: [your name] <[your email]>

From: [email protected]

Subject: [your subject]

Additional Headers: Reply-to: [your email]

The Reply-to: [your email] in the Additional Headers section allows you to hit Reply to reply to the form users email address.