E-mails not being sent to some recipients

When email goes through to some addresses and not others, it’s often because your sending email address isn’t the same as the domain name for the server you’re sending from, and the anti-spam measures the receiving server uses rejects it. You can avoid that by using a sending email address that matches your domain name.

If you’ve confirmed that the email settings in each of your site’s plugins that use email are correct, the first thing I would try is to switch to SMTP. In my experience, it is not only more reliable in terms of getting email to target servers, but it’s easier to debug if there are issues as there will be records in your server’s email logs for each transaction.

You can use a plugin like Easy WP SMTP to easily set up and test SMTP, and then later set up SMTP in a child theme’s functions.php if you prefer that to a plugin.

If that doesn’t work, you’re in a better position to contact your web host and tell them about the problem, because with SMTP they can look at the logs and help you figure out where the problem may be.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by linux4me2.

Hello, thanks for your answer.

I am using Easy WP SMTP now but I have an issue setting it up. When I use the e-mail address I want to use (info@…) for the SMTP settings, I get an error. However, when I use another one on the same server (wordpress@…) it works. And when I use my own e-mail address (from another server), it works too.

So apparently there is a problem sending mail via SMTP with the desired e-mail address. I think this may be because this e-mail is configured as a Microsoft Exchange account. Would you know anything about this?

Kind regards!
Nick

I don’t know anything about M$ Exchange. What’s different about the info@ and wordpress@ email accounts that don’t work/work for you? That may hold the answer.

The key to setting up Easy SMTP, or SMTP in general, is to use an actual email account on your domain in the SMTP user name and password, then use whatever you want–as long as it’s an email from your domain–for the “from” address. I usually use an alias for the “from” address that goes to a blackhole (discards replies automatically).

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by linux4me2.

When you use an Exchange account, your email messages are delivered to and saved in your mailbox on a business’s Exchange server. This is handy for when you want to synchronize mails, contacts, tasks and calendar between several devices.

My client has been using an exchange account for almost a year now, because he wanted more synchronizing options. When he activated it, he also had some mail issues (on the previous website), that’s why I think this is the problem.

The info@ account is an exchange account. The wordpress@ account is an e-mail address I have created just for this issue. Sending mails via wordpress@ works fine, but most mails end up in SPAM. That’s why I want to use the exchange account.

I have already contacted the hosting provider for more info.

Kind regards,
Nick

You may be able to deal with the spam problem by checking the SPF settings for the server and be able to use an account on your server to send mail, then set the “reply-to” on each contact form/plugin to the Exchange account. You may also need to look at your SPF and DKIM settings for the Exchange account; they may explain why it is failing.

Hello there,

Just to let you know that the problem has been solved. Apparently, when using a Microsoft Exchange account, it’s impossible to send mail via your own server. It works only when sending via Microsoft’s Exchange server.

Kind regards,
Nick