Overlooked WordPress Settings That Break Email Delivery (And How To Fix Them)

You’ve installed WP Mail SMTP. Your DNS records are perfect. Your SMTP credentials are correct. You’ve tested everything.

So why are emails STILL not sending?

Most WordPress email problems get fixed once you set up proper SMTP. But sometimes – even with WP Mail SMTP configured correctly – emails fail for reasons that have nothing to do with your mailer.

These are the WordPress settings that quietly break email delivery even when your SMTP setup is perfect. They don’t throw error messages. They don’t break your site. And they’re incredibly easy to overlook because you set them up once, years ago, and never thought about them again.

Let’s fix them.

Fix Your WordPress Emails Now

• 1. Your WordPress Admin Email is Wrong (Yes, Really)
• Note for form builder plugin users
• 2. Your "From Email" is Breaking Everything
• 3. Your Site URL is Wrong (Especially After Moving from Staging)
• 4. You Installed WP Mail SMTP But Didn't Actually Configure It
• 5. User Role Permissions are Blocking Email Functions
• 6. PHP Memory Limit is Too Low
• 7. WP-Cron is Broken or Disabled
• 8. Multisite Network Settings
• 9. Another Plugin is Silently Blocking Email Notifications

1. Your WordPress Admin Email is Wrong (Yes, Really)

First things first: go to Settings » General and look at your “Administration Email Address.”

Is it correct? Is it an email you actually check? Is it still your old developer’s address from when they set up your site?

This matters more than you think. WordPress uses this email for password reset requests, system notifications, plugin update alerts, and critical error messages. It’s also often the fallback address for form notifications when nothing else is configured.

If this email is wrong, you’re missing important messages and you don’t even know it.

The fix:

1. Go to Settings » General
2. Update the Administration Email Address
3. Check your inbox for the verification email (WordPress sends one when you change it)
4. Click the confirmation link
5. Send a test email to make sure it actually works

2. Your “From Email” is Breaking Everything

Using Gmail as your From Email? Outlook? Yahoo?

That’s probably why your emails are being rejected.

Email servers don’t like it when you send emails claiming to be from gmail.com through your website’s server. It looks like spoofing, and they block it.

Even if you’re using the same domain, sending from a mismatched or unauthenticated email address causes deliverability issues.

Wait, but I don’t have an email address at my domain…

If you’re currently using a free email provider, you’ll need to create a professional email address first. Most hosting providers (like Bluehost, SiteGround, or HostGator) include free email accounts with your hosting plan.

Not sure how to set one up? Check out our guide on how to create your own email domain for free.

The fix:

1. Create an email address that matches your domain (like [email protected] or [email protected])
2. In WP Mail SMTP, go to Settings » General
3. Enter your domain email in the “From Email” field
4. Enable “Force From Email” to override other plugins
5. Set up SPF and DKIM authentication for your domain (WP Mail SMTP will guide you through this)
6. Test your configuration

This is one of those things that seems minor but has massive impact on whether your emails actually reach inboxes.

For detailed instructions on changing your WordPress sender name and email, check out our complete guide to WordPress sender settings.

3. Your Site URL is Wrong (Especially After Moving from Staging)

This one catches people constantly.

You clone your staging site to live. Or you migrate from HTTP to HTTPS. Or you change domains. And suddenly emails start breaking in weird ways.

Why? Because WordPress is still using the old URL in its core functions, which affects password reset links (they point to the wrong site), email routing, internal WordPress mail functions, and form submission redirects.

The fix:

1. Go to Settings » General
2. Verify both “WordPress Address (URL)” and “Site Address (URL)” are correct
3. Make sure they’re identical (unless you specifically know why they shouldn’t be)
4. If you just migrated, update your permalink structure (Settings » Permalinks » Save Changes)
5. Clear all caches
6. Resave your form plugin notification settings to update any stored URLs

This is especially important if you’re sending emails with links back to your site. Broken URLs in emails look unprofessional and annoy your users.

4. You Installed WP Mail SMTP But Didn’t Actually Configure It

This is the most common mistake I see.

People install WP Mail SMTP, get distracted, and assume it’s working. But if you didn’t choose a mailer during setup, the plugin is essentially “off” and your site is still using the unreliable PHP mail function.

Here’s what actually happens: When WP Mail SMTP is set to “Default” or “PHPMailer” in the mailer dropdown, it’s not controlling your emails at all. You need to select an actual email service provider (like SendLayer, Gmail, SMTP.com, etc.) for the plugin to take over.

Another common issue is having multiple SMTP plugins installed. If you’ve got WP Mail SMTP plus another email plugin, they’ll conflict with each other and neither will work properly.

The fix:

1. Go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings
2. Make sure you’ve selected an actual mailer (not “Default” or “PHPMailer”)
3. Complete the authentication setup for your chosen mailer — follow the docs for your specific provider
4. Deactivate any other SMTP or email plugins
5. Send a test email from WP Mail SMTP » Tools » Email Test
6. Check your email logs to confirm emails are sending through your configured mailer

If you’re not sure which mailer to use, SendLayer, SMTP.com, and Brevo are solid choices for WordPress transactional emails. They all have free tiers to get started.

5. User Role Permissions are Blocking Email Functions

This is sneaky.

If you’ve customized user roles or capabilities, you might have accidentally removed permissions that WordPress needs to send emails properly.

This affects editors who can’t send notifications, custom roles that should trigger automated emails, form submission handling (especially if the submitting user has restricted permissions), and plugin functionality that depends on specific capabilities.

The fix:

1. Review user role capabilities (use a plugin like User Role Editor if needed)
2. Ensure relevant roles have these capabilities:
   • manage_options (for admins)
   • edit_posts (for content creators)
   • upload_files (if emails include attachments)
3. Reset custom roles to defaults if you suspect corruption
4. Test email sending from different user accounts

If you’re consistently having issues with user registration emails specifically, see our complete troubleshooting guide for registration email problems.

6. PHP Memory Limit is Too Low

When WordPress runs out of memory, it fails before it even gets to wp_mail().

This happens most often when sending emails with large attachments, processing multiple notifications at once, running resource-intensive plugins simultaneously, or handling high traffic periods.

You won’t get an error message saying “email failed.” The entire process just stops.

The fix:

1. Check your current memory limit (most WordPress sites need at least 256MB)
2. Increase it by adding this to wp-config.php:

php

  define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’);

3. If you’re on shared hosting, contact your host to increase the limit
4. Review your WP Mail SMTP logs to see if failures correlate with high-traffic periods

For more solutions to memory-related email failures, check out our guide on fixing email delivery failures in WordPress.

7. WP-Cron is Broken or Disabled

WordPress Cron (WP-Cron) handles scheduled tasks. When it breaks, all your time-based email sending breaks too.

This includes scheduled comment notifications, plugin update alerts, delayed form notifications, membership renewal reminders, and abandoned cart emails.

Learn more about setting up reliable automated email workflows in WordPress.

WP-Cron can break when it’s been manually disabled, your hosting blocks it, your site doesn’t get regular traffic to trigger it, or a plugin conflict prevents it from running.

The fix:

1. Install a plugin like WP Crontrol to check WP-Cron status
2. Look for scheduled email tasks that aren’t running
3. If WP-Cron is disabled, re-enable it or set up a real server cron job
4. Clear stuck cron events
5. Use WP Mail SMTP’s test tool to confirm email delivery after fixing cron

If you’re using contact forms with scheduled or delayed notifications, a broken cron means those emails never send.

8. Multisite Network Settings

WordPress multisite adds another layer of email headaches. Network-wide settings can override individual site configurations, and when something breaks, good luck figuring out which of your fifty subsites is causing the problem.

The core issue? No visibility. WordPress doesn’t give you a central log showing all emails across your network. When someone on Site B reports a missing password reset, you’re stuck hunting through multiple dashboards trying to figure out if it’s a plugin conflict, a config issue, or a network-wide disaster.

Worse, all those emails from all those subsites flow through the same delivery channel. If one subsite starts triggering spam complaints, it tanks deliverability for your entire network.

The fix:

Go to My Sites » Network Admin » Settings to review network-wide email configurations. If you’re using WP Mail SMTP Pro, network-activate it so it works across all subsites. Your license covers the entire network as a single installation.

Check that individual site admins have the permissions they need to manage their own email settings. For the complete setup including centralized logging and monitoring, see our guide to managing multisite email.

9. Another Plugin is Silently Blocking Email Notifications

This is the most frustrating one.

Some plugins disable or override WordPress default notifications without telling you:

• Security plugins blocking login notifications “for your protection”
• E-commerce plugins taking over wp_mail() with their own system
• Form plugins suppressing duplicate notifications
• Other SMTP/mailer plugins conflicting
• Cache plugins interfering with email functions

You won’t know this is happening unless you specifically look for it.

The fix:

1. Temporarily disable suspicious plugins one by one
2. Check WP Mail SMTP email logs after each deactivation to see if emails start working
3. Enable WP Mail SMTP’s debug mode for detailed output
4. Once you identify the culprit, either:
   • Configure it to work alongside WP Mail SMTP
   • Replace it with an alternative
   • Contact the developer for compatibility guidance

For detailed troubleshooting steps when dealing with plugin conflicts, see our WP Mail SMTP troubleshooting guide.

WP Mail SMTP’s detailed logging shows you which emails were triggered, which were blocked, and where failures occurred. It’s the fastest way to diagnose plugin conflicts.

These Settings Are Just the Start

Fixing these nine settings will solve a lot of email problems. But here’s the reality: WordPress email delivery has too many moving parts for settings alone to guarantee success.

Your emails still need proper authentication. Your hosting provider still needs to allow outbound mail. Your chosen email service needs to be configured correctly. And you need a way to know when something breaks.

That’s why most WordPress sites use SMTP instead of relying on the default PHP mail function. SMTP adds the authentication that proves your emails are legitimate, which is the difference between landing in the inbox versus the spam folder.

Fix Your WordPress Emails Now

Next, Learn the Basics of Email Deliverability

Now that you’ve fixed the common settings issues, learn how to set up proper email authentication and deliverability in our Email Deliverability Beginner’s Guide.

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.

If this article helped you out, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more WordPress tips and tutorials.