Support

May 21, 2016 at 2:59 pm

Before I started this thread, I just want to let you know: I searched and searched these forums and tried all suggestions in regards from staff AND others who has similar issues in regards to Event Espresso and the mailing situation. I am at the point now where I might be using that support token I purchased “just in case”.

Last week, my client thought that 3 emails being sent by Event Espresso was too many.

1. Registration
2. Payment
3. Ticket

She asked if I could merge them all into one. It seemed very possible, but that is what seems to have stopped all emails completely. Do all emails need to be sent in order for the entire Event Espresso email system to work?

These were the steps I took to merge all emails into one.

In Messages:

1. I removed all Recipient information (To*) from the Payment Received message and took the data from there.

2. I removed all Recipient information (To*) from the Ticket Notice message. The customers do not need to receive any ticket because a list is printed and they are checked in at the door. So this message was eliminated completely.

3. I put the Payment information into the Registration Approved message template.

This was successful, as far as saving goes, and there were no errors.

I put this information along with a personal “we looking forward to seeing you message” into: Primary Registrant and Registrant Message templates.

As far as which one works — I tried both, than one, and then the other, and I even tried using the Event Admin email area for regular Registrants — I had come across an email suggesting that there is a filter to ensure duplicates are not sent. Unfortunately, no emails are being sent at all. I tried sending a test email. At first, it was working, but all emails seem to have suddenly stopped.

Troubleshooting:

1. I tried using the Contact Form which uses the Contact Form Builder plugin. The email was sent.

2. I added some manual PHP code into a shortcode and used the mail() function and this was successful in sending an email to me.

3. I installed the Check Email plugin.
Success: This test email proves that your WordPress installation at …. can send emails.\n\nSent: Sat, 21 May 2016 20:22:42 +0000

4. Sending a test email through Event Espresso messages does not go anywhere.

5. I contacted the web host who claimed that the MX mail record settings were originally set to “local” but have now been set to “remote” which is what the setting should be. Unfortunately, this did not fix the problem for Event Espresso.

a. In this call, I also asked the host if there were any restrictions on the sending out of any emails using the PHP mail() or WordPress mail code and they said they had no restrictions.

6. I enabled the Email Log and it looks like all emails are being sent, but nothing is actually going out. The Email Log DOES SHOW that Event Espresso IS sending emails. However, these emails are not being received and they are not showing up in any inboxes, including spam, at all.

7. I attempted to change the SMTP settings, but it keeps failing, so this may not be an option for me. I tried using 3 different plugins (WP-Mail-SMTP, WP SMTP, and SMTP Mailer) along with several different ports. I even changed the password of my email just to make sure it was correct. This was unsuccessful for the most part, with SMTP Mailer being the only one that the Email Log shows that it was sent, but in fact, it failed, like the others, on the authentication.

8. I tried resetting the templates back to their defaults and sending a test email and this did not work at all.

9. I tried changing [CO_EMAIL] (which is set in the General Settings) to the actual email address and this did not work.

10. I tried changing [RECIPIENT] email to [PRIMARY_REGISTRANT_EMAIL] and vice versa. This was unsuccessful.

11. I tried disabling the Event Espresso plugin along with the Event Espresso Ticket plugin and this did not resolve any issues.

12. I tried restoring the templates back to their defaults and setting up a Custom Message email with the Registration Approved template. No test email was received nor any email at all.

In suggestions, the staff has posted to use Mandrill or other servers, but some of these services are not free. I also am not sure I really want or need to use them.

I have spent the last few days trying to isolate the issue, and it is all being narrowed right down to Event Espresso, as other plugins have no problem sending email, and although it seems slightly slower, the mail() code is working from my own scripts.

The website is hosted on a shared server so I’m sure, in the sharing of resources, it possibly could cause some slowness, but for emails to never send out, especially by a specific plugin? I don’t think there is that kind of abusing happening on the shared server, as the host would probably resolve that quickly.

We went from having too many emails being sent to now having none sent at all. I am at a loss at the moment about this email issue.

I was hoping you guys had other suggestions from what I have tried so far, or might you suggest it would be best for me to just give you all the details in a support ticket so you could login and try to pinpoint the issue. I do need this email issue resolved, as customers DO need to receive a confirmation email to let them know that they have paid and additional details that aren’t on the website.

Please help.