Form not sending email

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to us today. I understand your concern regarding the email delivery issue with Formidable Forms. I can understand how frustration this issue may be.
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?To begin, please note that Formidable Forms does not send emails directly, but rather composes the message and passes it to WordPress for sending. Therefore, troubleshooting issues with email delivery requires checking your WordPress email-sending configuration.

In most cases where email issues are reported, we find that emails leave the website correctly but are sanitized or deleted before delivery by internet spam protection measures. Spam protection rules are constantly getting stricter, and a form can sometimes stop working without any changes on your website.

If you’re currently not using an SMTP plugin to send your emails, I highly recommend installing and configuring one. Most SMTP plugins will do the job, but I’d suggest looking for one that includes message logging. The logs can help if further troubleshooting is needed.

Using SMTP to send your messages can make them appear more legitimate than the built-in WordPress mail service, which can help them pass spam filters.

It’s also important to ensure that your email messages are configured correctly. Here are eight essential things to check:

• The SUBJECT line should not be blank.
• The FROM address MUST match the domain of your website. It’s best to set up a dedicated email for this, such as?[email protected].
• The TO address should never match the FROM address as this looks unusual and can trigger spam deletion.
• If you specify a REPLY-TO address, it should never match the TO address.
• While you can include multiple addresses in your TO field, it’s best to use the CC and BCC fields for additional recipients.
• Many spam filters are triggered by too many recipients in one email. For large lists (50 or more recipients), consider a service like Sendgrid or SendInBlue.
• Minimize the number of links you include. Email messages with lots of links may trigger spam filters.
• Finally, contact your hosting provider and ask if the SPF record for your email address is properly configured.

Please let me know if this helps.

Best,

I understand about the SMTP issue, but that doesn’t explain why WP Forms actually works, but Formidable doesn’t. Is there any other setting that would affect a form submission not being processed through WP’s mail routine?

Hi Larry,

I’m not aware of any difference between how these plugins handle mail sending – but the SMTP plugin logs would be the best way to get more information about this and figure out what is going on.

Best,

I did notice that when I first set up everything, I used the original Contact Us form. After I had configured it and changed the settings and styling, the dashboard was still telling me that I had created no forms yet. I duplicated the original form and the message then went away. Would that have anything to do with it? Is there some reason the original default contact form would not get sent?

Hi Larry,
It is doubtful that would have any impact on email deliverability at all.

99% of all issues we see are caused by spam filters. The logs usually show that the message was sent correctly, so fixing the issue involves taking steps to make the email configuration look more legitimate to spam filters.

Installing a plugin to log outbound emails is an essential step in troubleshooting this though. If the log shows messages are being sent, then configuring them to pass spam filters is the only way to solve your issue.

Best,