How to Fix Emails from WordPress Not Sending on SiteGround

Are emails from WordPress not sending on your SiteGround website?

You might be having trouble with:

• WordPress emails not sending email after moving your site to SiteGround.
• Emails from WordPress contact forms going to spam.

We’ll walk you through the steps to fix both of these issues.

Fix Your SiteGround Emails Now

How Do I Send an Email From a WordPress Site?

You can send emails from WordPress using the WP Mail SMTP plugin. It improves email deliverability and it also gives you more control over the emails sent from your site.

On many hosts, wp_mail() doesn’t work so well because it doesn’t authenticate the emails WordPress sends. This typically causes them to wind up in the Junk Mail folder. Sometimes, the emails are discarded by email servers because they look like spam.

WP Mail SMTP reconfigures WordPress to use an external email service instead of the default wp_mail() function. That means every email generated by WordPress will have the authentication needed to get through spam filters.

Let’s move on and look specifically at WordPress emails not sending on SiteGround.

How to Fix Emails from WordPress Not Sending on SiteGround

1. Check Your SiteGround Mailbox Quota

Are you trying to receive emails to a mailbox you created on SiteGround?

Unlimited email mailboxes are included on most SiteGround hosting plans, including:

• Shared hosting
• Managed WordPress hosting
• Managed WooCommerce hosting

But on all plans, the maximum mailbox size you can create is 10,000 MB. If you manually set this to a lower amount, you’ll run out of mailbox space quickly.

Before diving into WordPress, it’s worth checking that your mailbox is correctly configured and has enough space to receive your WordPress contact form emails.

To start, log in to your SiteGround Client Area and click Websites.

Then click on the Site Tools button for your site and go to Email » Accounts.

Look for the email mailbox that you’re using to receive emails from WordPress. Click on the 3 dots on the right and click Change Quota.

You can also click Log in to Webmail and check the remaining allowance.

If everything looks okay here, let’s check your WordPress settings.

2. Check Your Contact Form Plugin Notification Settings

For most users, the #1 issue is emails from contact forms going to spam.

If you’re having difficulty with a specific contact form plugin, we’ll help you review all of the settings to make sure the notifications are set up correctly. We created guides specifically for the most popular form plugins.

Click the link below to jump to the contact form plugin you’re using:

• WPForms
• Contact Form 7
• Elementor Form
• Ninja Forms
• Gravity Forms
• Jetpack Contact Form
• Formidable Forms
• Beaver Builder Contact Form
• Contact Form by BestWebSoft
• SiteOrigin Contact Form

And if you’re using WooCommerce on SiteGround, you can also check this guide on how to fix WooCommerce not sending order emails. We’ll show you some solutions for issues with your WooCommerce order notifications.

If you’re using a different plugin to send emails in WordPress, let’s install the WP Mail SMTP plugin on your SiteGround website now.

3. Install WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP will solve emails from WordPress not sending on SiteGround. You can use the plugin with free mailer services, or pay for an account if you need more capacity.

To start, download the zip file from your WP Mail SMTP account so you can install it on your website. You’ll find it in the Downloads tab.

Next, open up your WordPress dashboard. Head to the Plugins page and upload the plugin to your WordPress site.

If you’re not sure how to do this, check out this guide to installing a plugin in WordPress.

As soon as you activate the plugin, the WP Mail SMTP Setup Wizard will open.

You can also re-start the wizard at any time by clicking the Launch Setup Wizard button in your WP Mail SMTP settings. Just know that re-starting the wizard later might reset your SMTP settings.

Choose Your Email Service Provider

Now we can choose a new provider to handle outgoing WordPress emails.

Click the Let’s Get Started button to begin.

On the next screen, click the mailer you want to use in the list.

We recommend SendLayer, SMTP.com, or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) because they’re reliable, and they’ll work well with most websites. In particular, these mailers are awesome for busy SiteGround sites that generate a lot of transactional emails.

If you have a small site, you can use Gmail or the Other SMTP server option.

The Other SMTP option lets you use any mail server that you already have access to. If you choose this option, be sure to enter the SMTP port carefully.

When you’ve chosen your mailer, open up our documentation to complete the setup steps on the provider’s side:

• SendLayer
• SMTP.com
• Brevo
• Amazon SES
• Google Workspace / Gmail
• Mailgun
• Microsoft 365 / Outlook.com
• Postmark
• SendGrid
• SparkPost
• Zoho Mail
• Other SMTP

You can open the documentation in a new tab, then come back to this guide when you’re done.

Want to set up multiple mailers? You can do so in the Additional Connections settings once you’ve finished the Setup Wizard. Then you can select a Backup Connection and configure Smart Routing.

Next, email deliverability and error tracking will be enabled. We recommend that you also enable Detailed Email Logs.

Your WordPress email logs are searchable to make it easy to track down problems. And the Pro version also has an awesome dashboard widget that helps you track email deliverability right from the WordPress admin area.

Complete Email Reports will turn on automatically when you enable email logging. You can decide if you want to receive the Weekly Email Summary, which will deliver the past week’s email delivery stats to your inbox.

You can also take advantage of Instant Email Alerts, which let you know when your site fails to send an email. That way you can quickly log in and fix the problem.

Finally, if you enabled email logging, you can also turn on these advanced options.

They let you save email content and attachments and track email open and link clicks. You’ll also be able to resend emails, export or print your logs, and more.

If you’d like to see how our email logging works, check out this guide on how to log your WordPress emails.

All set? Let’s quickly recap the DNS Zone settings in SiteGround and then run a final email test.

4. Create SPF, DMARC, and DKIM Records in SiteGround DNS Zone

When you set up your email provider, the documentation may have given you new DNS records that you need to create.

If you bought your domain from SiteGround, you’ll want to head back to Websites » Site Tools as we showed in Step 1. This time, click on Domain » DNS Zone Editor in the menu on the left.

The DNS Zone Editor will have a list of the records already created.

You can create new records in the main DNS Zone Editor screen. Be sure to click the correct record type from the tabs across the top.

We have a detailed guide that explains what your DMARC, DKIM, and SPF records do. For now, let’s quickly recap the settings so you can check them in the DNS Zone Editor.

DKIM

DKIM electronically signs the emails sent from your domain. Some providers need a DKIM so the email header can be validated, which proves your message is genuine and not spoofed.

SPF

The SPF record lists the servers that are authorized to send email from your domain. Here’s an example of an SPF record that we checked in MXToolbox.

It’s important that you only have 1 SPF record in your SiteGround DNS Zone.

You may already have an SPF record if you’re using other services with your domain. For example, if you’re sending monthly newsletters using an email provider service, you might have an SPF record for that already.

So to add your email provider, you’ll want to merge the new SPF record with the existing one.

To find out how to do that, read this simple guide on how to merge multiple SPF records.

DMARC

A DMARC record is responsible for routing mail that’s been flagged as spam by the mail server. It also sends reports to tell you the outcome of spam filtering activity.

Your email provider should give you all of the details you need to create a DMARC record. If you need more help, check out this article on how to create a DMARC record. It includes a generic DMARC record that will work on most domains.

CNAME, TXT, MX

Some mailer services also require these records, although they’re less common than the other 3. If you don’t see these in your email provider’s setup instructions, you shouldn’t create them for emails.

Wait for your DNS Zone changes to propagate before moving on to the final step. This can take up to 48 hours.

5. Send a Test Email From WordPress

Now you’ve set up SMTP with your SiteGround WordPress site, let’s check that your emails are working.

To do that, head to the Email Test tab on your WP Mail SMTP settings page.

Now fill in the form and send the test email.

Behind the scenes, WP Mail SMTP will run its Domain Checker and scan your DNS Zone. You should see a message with a green label to show that your SiteGround site is now sending email with the right authentication.

If you see a warning message, it could be because there’s an issue with your DNS Zone settings in SiteGround. The warning message will explain what you need to check.

And that’s it! We fixed issues with emails from WordPress not sending on SiteGround.

Fix Your SiteGround Emails Now

Next, Get More Control Over Your WordPress Emails

Do you get tons of emails about plugin updates from your WordPress site? WP Mail SMTP Pro lets you turn these off if you don’t want to receive them.

These plugin settings let you easily reduce the number of emails you get from WordPress!

If you’re ready to disable unwanted WordPress emails, check out our guide to WP Mail SMTP email controls.

Ready to fix your emails? Get started today with the best WordPress SMTP plugin. If you don’t have the time to fix your emails, you can get full White Glove Setup assistance as an extra purchase, and there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans.

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