Jamie

Good to hear Matt!

I’m still using the plugin, rolled back to 0.8.2, and not having any issues with it at all.

No, it wasn’t just Wordfence emails that were the issue.

I was having delivery failure problems with ALL emails coming from the site. From Woocommerce, Wordfence, a coupon plugin (I spoke to the developer and he had no idea why it wouldn’t work), a reminder plugin, and test emails from the WordPress admin itself when changing the email address in general settings. So it was virtually everything.

The only error I ever saw in the logs was: Expected ‘;’, got “:”, and I haven’t the foggiest idea where that originates. I tried looking at the Offload SES plugin files but gave up pretty quickly, lol.

One thing I discovered that’s a bit odd is this:

One of my sites has a different theme installed, and I tested the whole troubleshooting process on it with the exact same plugins the problematic sites have. Same exact settings, same everything, same caching settings, just different theme. Had zero problems with Offload SES on that one site.

BUT, my Divi site and TheGem sites had nothing but problems. So perhaps it’s a theme compatibility issue with the current version, hence the reason why some people have critical issues and some don’t? Just wanted to mention that in case it helps.

I really love the Offload SES plugin, and I meant what I said above about being interested in the pro features, so I’m holding out hope that you guys can get to the bottom of the problem. (insert praying hands emoji here.)

Thanks for responding.

Thank you for this! Rolling back worked for me too! I guess there’s a reason why 65% of this plugin’s users are *not* using v1.1 or 1.2.

Awesome!!

I totally agree with you 100% about the original interface. This situation reminds me of Apple. I always want to tell them “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”

Glad to hear it worked for you, and hopefully it will work for others in the same boat.

Ok it looks like I found the solution, which was proposed by another user who posted problems many months ago.

I rolled the plugin version back to 0.8.2 on two of our websites (using the free plugin WP Rollback), created two new IAM Amazon users, generated new keys, and then tested both sites using Wordfence, and two different plugins- send email and check email, and all appears to be working as it should. (Finally…)

This leads me to believe that it’s an issue with the latest version of the plugin. Some code gone awry.

Side note- when you send test emails using Wordfence (very bottom of the diagnostics tab in tools) it actually tells you right then and there if the result Wordfence receives from the WordPress wp_mail() function is true (success), or false (delivery failure). With the current version of WP SES Offload enabled, the result is false every time. After rolling back it’s true every time.

Hopefully it stays that way! I just have to remember to NOT upgrade to the latest version!

Hope that works for you x1ngxang, and anyone else reading this.

I’ve been searching but haven’t found the perfect alternate solution. This would be an ideal opportunity for another developer to jump in and create a competing product that works.

The only alternate I can find is to set up SMTP in Amazon SES and then use one of the SMPT plugins like WP Mail SMTP by WPForms (which has 1+ million downloads and a 4.5 star review average, which is phenomenal.)

I just read a couple of other ‘resolved’ support threads for this (offload SES) plugin where the people’s only resolution was to switch to SMTP.

So I guess that’s it! I’m off to create my SMTP credentials.

One last thing:

In the warning message that you can’t get rid of that appears at the top of every page in your WP admin, the line:

‘check out our doc for debugging failed emails.’

Leads to a 404 not found page on the developer’s website.

If this is the strategy they use to try and get people to upgrade in order to get any kind of support, it’s not working.

I also wanted to mention that this behavior is occurring on three different websites, each with different plugins and different themes, and two with e-commerce and one without.

All emails and domains are verified with Amazon SES.

I’m convinced it’s the plugin and am abandoning it for something that inspires more confidence in purchasing a premium version.

There’s definitely an issue with the Plugin.

I sent multiple test emails directly from Amazon SES and they delivered fine with no issues.

I also sent test emails through Wordfence and they delivered fine with no issues, but in the WP Offload SES admin there is a delivery failure notice next to those emails.

I also changed the email address in the WordPress admin in general settings and had no problems with the verification and confirmation emails getting through.

But, there are some emails that are being marked as failed by WP Offload that are *not* delivering, and those are the ones I care most about, because they are emails that get sent after site users subscribe to an optin form.

I tested the same optin form with WP Offload disabled, and they went through just fine.

So the only constant problem in all these scenarios is WP Offload SES.

It’s really unfortunate, because my business has recently switched to a full-service agency providing web services to clients and I had planned on upgrading the plugin and also asking our clients to upgrade to the premium plugin on their sites. But that’s not going to happen now since I can’t reliably count on an plugin that doesn’t work even with the simple free version.

Anyone have any idea what/where this problem is originating?

InvalidParameterValue (client): Expected ';', got ":"

The plugin stopped working for me as well. Where/how did you find v0.8.1. TIA.

I so feel for all of you guys.

My blog has been hit twice in the last week, the 2nd time this morning.

Last Friday it was by the zettapetta virus, and this morning by the holasionweb.

I did everything swytch did above, and it didn’t work- everything was still completely screwed up, especially the admin. I was nearly suicidal by the time I fixed it last week.

I had deleted all of the files, did a new install of the latest WP version, checked every folder and every main php file, and my blog was still fubared.

BUT, the good (of not great) news is there is a fix, and one that is quick, easy and works really well.

If you use GoDaddy that is, but I suspect that you’d be able to do this with other hosts too if you just contact their tech support and ask them how.

What you need to do is a restore to history in your hosting control panel. Why, in the several times I talked to GoDaddy, they didn’t recommend this process (instead just repeating- you must upgrade your WP version- as if it’s a WP fault- it’s not!!), is beyond me.

I just wrote a loooong post on my blog about how to (successfully) fix it using the GoDaddy restore to history. (But don’t worry- the process itself will only take about 15 minutes!)

here is the link to my blog post:

https://www.cowbellyblog.com/2010/05/12/the-best-way-to-remove-malware-from-a-wordpress-blog-using-godaddy/

And if I ever, ever, catch someone writing, or using, malware code, I swear to god I will pour gasoline on them and light them on fire. I am that angry about this. Which is why I’m now trawling the internet trying to help other people. I went through hell and hopefully you won’t have to too.

Comment back here if the restore to history worked for you!!