Is WPForms not sending email when your forms are submitted?
Sometimes WPForms notifications are marked as spam so they never land in your inbox. It’s a common problem and many users face issues with WordPress form emails.
In this article, we’ll show you how to fix your WPForms emails so you never miss another contact form notification.
Why Is WPForms Not Sending Email Notifications?
WPForms is likely not sending emails because your messages are being filtered as spam. This can be an issue with any contact form plugin in WordPress.
It’s also becoming more common now that Gmail is blocking emails without authentication. Other providers will follow.
By default, WordPress doesn’t add authentication to emails. So when your email provider receives a message from WordPress, it “looks” very much like a spam email.
You can easily fix WPForms not sending emails with the WP Mail SMTP plugin. WP Mail SMTP takes over the default method of sending email and adds the correct authentication.
WP Mail SMTP is easy to install and has a wizard to help you set up your chosen mailer. It’s a proven solution when you have any WordPress contact form not sending email.
Note: Some customers have issues with WPForms appearing to hang when the form is submitted. Check out the solution to this if you’re having issues with slow forms on GoDaddy Managed Hosting.
How to Fix WPForms Not Sending Email
WPForms is incredibly flexible when it comes to sending form notifications. You can even make a form with multiple email addresses to send your form notifications to.
But all these cool features will be of no use if your WordPress emails are broken.
The step-by-step guide below provides solutions to some common email notification problems with WPForms.
In This Article
We’ll start out by adding WordPress SMTP to make your emails more reliable.
1. Fix WPForms Not Sending Email
If it looks like your contact form is working, but WPForms is not sending emails, it’s probably because your web server is sending messages without any authentication.
The WP Mail SMTP plugin makes it easy to fix this. It sends all of your emails through an external email provider so that your emails will be properly authenticated.
Generally, if you’re not receiving emails from your WordPress contact form, setting up SMTP can fix the problem.
Let’s set it up now.
Install WP Mail SMTP
First, let’s download the WP Mail SMTP plugin. You can grab the latest version in the Downloads tab of your WP Mail SMTP account.
Next, upload the plugin to your WordPress site. If you need help with this, jump over to this guide to installing a WordPress plugin.
As soon as you activate WP Mail SMTP you’ll see the Setup Wizard open up in your browser.
To start setting it up, click the Let’s Get Started button in the wizard.
The wizard will then take you to a new screen where you can configure the email provider settings to ensure your WordPress form emails work without issues.
Configure WPForms SMTP
On the next screen, you’ll see a list of email providers that you can use in WordPress.
We recommend that you choose a transactional email provider. Transactional email providers are designed to send large volumes of emails quickly, so they’re ideal for the best possible email deliverability.
That’s why we recommend that you pick SendLayer, SMTP.com, or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue).
Go ahead and pick the email provider you want to use.
Next, you’ll want to create your account with your provider if you haven’t done that already.
Click the link below to open the documentation for your email provider. It’ll explain what you need to do to connect your new account to your WordPress site:
| Mailers available in all versions | Mailers in WP Mail SMTP Pro |
|---|---|
| SendLayer | Amazon SES |
| SMTP.com | Microsoft 365 / Outlook.com |
| Brevo | Zoho Mail |
| Google Workspace / Gmail | |
| Mailgun | |
| Postmark | |
| SendGrid | |
| SparkPost | |
| Other SMTP |
Need a hand?
Our Elite license includes White Glove Setup for SendLayer, Brevo, or SMTP.com.
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.
When you’re done with the setup steps in the doc above, switch back to this guide.
Enable Email Logging for WPForms
At the end of the wizard, 2 settings will be automatically enabled:
- Improved email deliverability
- Email error tracking
We recommend that you also turn on Detailed Email Logs.
When you enable Detailed Email Logs, you can keep track of every email that the plugin is sending from your site, including:
- Email headers
- Subject line
- Date sent
- Status
WP Mail SMTP displays this data in Complete Email Reports as well as the WP Mail SMTP Dashboard Widget.
The Weekly Email Summary includes a roundup of your email deliverability statistics for the week.
The other feature available here is Instant Email Alerts. If your website fails to send an email, you’ll receive a notification about it right away.
The email logs feature also unlocks some advanced settings in the next step of the Setup Wizard.
- Email content logging: Save a copy of the body of each email along with the headers
- Save email attachments: Store every attachment sent from WordPress
- Open and click tracking: See open and click analytics for your WordPress emails
- Export email logs: Export details of sent emails and any attachments
- Export in EML format: Save a complete copy of a sent email and its attachments
- Email resend: Resend failed emails individually or in bulk – ideal if you want to resend the new user registration email in WordPress
Read our article on how to log WordPress emails to get more details.
Don’t forget to paste in your license key at the end of the wizard to activate all of the features and updates in the Pro version.
Using WP Mail SMTP fixes most types of email problems, including user registration email issues in WPForms. Still having problems? Let’s look at your notifications next.
2. Fix WPForms Sending Emails to the Wrong Address
Every form in WPForms has its own notification settings. If WPForms emails are not received in your inbox, you’ll want to check that you have the correct settings on the notifications for that form.
These steps will fix WPForms Pro or WPForms Lite not sending email.
In WPForms, open up the WordPress form you’re having trouble with. We’ll use a simple contact form in this example.
Then click the Settings icon on the left-hand side of the form builder.
Now click Notifications to open up the email template for the form.
Your default notification will look like this:
If these WPForms notifications are not working, here are a few things to check in your email notification settings:
- The Send To is set to the
{admin_email}in WordPress by default. If you don’t want notifications to be sent there, you can delete the{admin_email}Smart Tag and type in another email address. - If you want to use more than 1 email address in the Send To field, be sure to separate the email addresses with a comma.
- The Send To and From Email should be different. This will avoid triggering the “be careful with this message” warning in Gmail.
Remember, it’s important to use a From Email that’s authenticated in WP Mail SMTP.
When you have the basic form notifications set up, click Save at the top of the form builder.
Form Abandonment Notifications
WPForms has a Form Abandonment addon that captures incomplete form submissions. This is a great way to capture leads from visitors who quit part way through filling in a form.
If you have this enabled, you need to have 2 notifications set up on your form. One will be used for abandoned entries, and the other will be used for completed ones.
Abandoned form notification emails are enabled in the notification settings. You’ll want to scroll right down to the bottom and toggle on the Enable for abandoned form entries option:
If you also want to get emails for completed forms, you’ll want to make a second notification. You can easily click the clone icon to make a copy of your first notification.
In the cloned notification, make sure that the Enable for abandoned form entries setting is turned off.
Now you’ll get 2 notifications for the form: one for abandoned entries, and a separate notification for completed ones.
3. Fix Errors in WPForms
If you still aren’t getting WPForms notifications, it’s a good idea to test the form to make sure that everything works as expected. Problems with conflicting plugins or themes can prevent forms from being submitted.
Here are the 3 most common error messages you’ll see when you’re not receiving emails from your WordPress contact forms.
WPForms has detected an issue with JavaScript
This is usually caused by caching plugins that try to minify the JavaScript in WordPress. Although this is helpful for some parts of your website, minification can break your forms and your visitors won’t be able to submit them.
You can solve this error by disabling JavaScript optimization in your caching plugin, or excluding the following files:
- WPForms Lite:
/wp-content/plugins/wpforms-lite/assets/js/wpforms.min.js - WPForms Pro:
/wp-content/plugins/wpforms/assets/js/wpforms.min.js
Don’t forget to clear the cache before trying your forms again.
Form token is invalid
This error message also means JavaScript isn’t working on your form. When JavaScript doesn’t work, the anti-spam token doesn’t work so the form can’t be submitted.
To fix this, follow the steps above to exclude WPForms JavaScript in your caching plugin.
This field is required
WPForms has the best anti-spam features in any contact form plugin. You can choose between different anti-spam tools for each form. For example, you can add hCaptcha to your WordPress forms easily.
Occasionally, these CAPTCHAs generate an error message like “This field is required,” even though they’ve been completed.
If your visitors can’t submit the form because they see this error, it could be because reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha is loading twice. This is caused by a conflict with your theme or another plugin.
To correct this, disable the plugin that’s loading reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha outside of WPForms.
If you can’t find the cause, you can also force the CAPTCHA to only load once. To do that, head to the main WPForms » Settings page:
Next, click the CAPTCHA tab at the top to open your CAPTCHA settings.
Click the No-Conflict Mode checkbox to prevent any other reCAPTCHA code from loading on your page.
WPForms Not Sending Email to Gmail
If WPForms is not sending emails to Gmail, it’s likely because the emails aren’t authenticated. Google has super strict filters that will prevent any suspicious email from being delivered. This sometimes means that the email won’t even appear in the Junk Mail folder.
After installing WP Mail SMTP, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve also set up your DNS zone with correct DMARC, DKIM, and SPF records.
If you need help, start with this guide on how to create a DMARC record to protect your domain.
And that’s it! You learned how to troubleshoot errors and fix WPForms not sending email notifications.
FAQ on WPForms Not Sending Email
Here are some common questions regarding problems with WPForms outgoing emails.
Does WPForms use SMTP?
WPForms uses your site’s default email configuration. So, if SMTP is not set up on your site, WPForms will use PHP mail to send emails, which is what causes most email deliverability issues.
In order to get WPForms to send emails through SMTP, you’ll need to set up WP Mail SMTP, as shown above.
Why Is WPForms Not Sending Me an Email Once Submitted
The most common reason why WPForms doesn’t send an email after a user submits a form is that your site lacks proper SMTP configuration. To configure SMTP and start receiving emails from WPForms, make sure to set up WP Mail SMTP as explained above.
How Do I Test Email Notifications for My Form?
You can test your email notifications by submitting a form entry yourself after you’ve finished creating your form. This can be done while you’re previewing a form you’ve just created using WPForms. As soon as you submit an entry, you should get an email notification for the form submission.
If you didn’t receive a notification, make sure to check your WP Mail SMTP Email Log to see if there are any configuration errors.
Next, Check Out These Page Builder Plugins
Did you know that you can embed any WPForms contact form easily using SeedProd?
Check out this list of the best page builder plugins to see how WPForms and SeedProd make it easy to develop custom landing pages.
If you’d like to know more about WPForms and its best features, check out our in-depth WPForms review for details.
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.
I just installed WP Form Lite using default settings.
Admin receives email but user/visitor doesn’t. I checked also spam folder. Nothing.
I couldn’t find solution for this problem
Hi Mike
I’m sorry to hear you’re having issues with WPForms Lite sending email.
To troubleshoot the problem, please get in touch with the WPForms support team on the WPForms Lite WordPress.org support forum. A member of the team will be able to help you figure this out 🙂
I’m having the same problem. Really annoying. I tried everything but it hasn’t solved the problem. And I using pro version for both WP FORM and WP SMTP
Hey there,
We apologize for the trouble! When you get the chance, could you kindly reach out to our WP Mail SMTP support team by submitting a support ticket? With a paid license subscription you can have access to our private support. From there, they can take a closer look at the issue you’re facing.
Thanks!
Hello,
I have a problem with plugin. It works perfectly on localhost, but after migration on real domain it crash site with critical error, so I have to deactivate it if I want to see website. Thank you in advance. Regards
Hi Igor,
I’m sorry to hear about the migration trouble. It sounds like there may have been trouble moving the plugin over during the migration process. In cases like this, it may be best to delete the plugin and install it again.
If you need more help with setting up WP Mail SMTP on your site, I recommend reaching out to our complimentary limited support in the WP Mail SMTP Lite WordPress.org support forum.
Alternatively, if you already have a WP Mail SMTP license, you have access to our email support, so please submit a support ticket and we’ll be happy to help!
I hope this helps!
Thank you 🙂
We are using Easy WP SMTP plugin with WPForms but we are unable to configure or save email server. We tried with Outlook and 1und1 email server but no success.
Does WPForms plugin works at all with Easy WP SMTP plugin? or we need to buy WP Mail SMTP plugin to get email notifications after WPForms form submission?
We purchased WPForms plugin and now looks like we are forced to purchase another plugin WP Mail SMTP.
Any assistance or guidance is much appreciated.
Thank you in advance
Hi Pankaj,
You can configure any SMTP plugin on your site to deliver your website email notifications, including WPForms notifications.
First, check whether you can send a test email without any issues. Then you need to make sure that you have set up WPForms form notifications correctly. In case it helps, please refer to this guide.
Also, there’s a free version of the WP Mail SMTP plugin which you can download from the WordPress plugins repository.
Thanks!
I have a super simple form that refuses to send mail from the Free version of WP-Mail provided by Dreamhost.
On my mail server, I have a “forward all mail” set. This functions perfectly when I send an email to the address via an email client.
In WP Forms have set the “sent to:” and “From:” the same. That is the email box that is set to forward all mail at Dreamhost.
The only fix recommended by WP is either to pay for their “Pro” version or a “paid” SMTP plug-in that I cannot use because I’d have to “pay” for it.
I have no issues sending mail using the onboard form builder in Elementor but because my client selected a WP template I have to use its awful built-in page editor, and add in the WP form.
Can anyone help, please?
Hey Arnolfo,
We’re sorry to hear that you’re experiencing issues with emails not being delivered to your mail server.
Based on your description it sounds like you may have misconfigured your WPForms form since your forms still get sent when using the Elementor form widget. It may also be a plugin or theme conflict.
Although you are using the lite version of WPForms and WP Mail SMTP, we would still be happy to help you resolve this issue.
The most appropriate location to continue looking into this issue would be reach out to us via the WPForms Lite WordPress.org support forum.
Thanks
Ok, Thanks. I will give that a try. But just a note, I am not using the Elementor form on this site. I have used it in the past on other sites. The only page builder I am using is the one incorporated into the template and the basic WP builder. No other forms are being used.
Hey Arnolfo,
Thank you for clarifying and I apologize for the misunderstanding.
Be sure to include helpful details when/if you reach out to our support team on the WPForms forum.
Thanks!
Could not connect to the SMTP host.
my host is aws
Not sure what else to check.
Hi Lisa,
When you send a test email from WP Mail SMTP > Tools area, you should be able to see the full error log (if you’re having any issues). Here’s a screenshot for the option to get a full error log. This will provide us with an idea of what might be going on.
You may get in touch with your hosting support with the complete error log, and they should be able to assist you further.
Thanks!
that suck, you need buy another plugin to resolve this issue ja!
Hi Juan,
There’s a free version of the WP Mail SMTP plugin which you can download from the WordPress plugins repository.
Thanks!
Hi Team,
I have set this up and it’s great
However before it was running I missed emails from people, is there any way I can find them?
Nothing went to spam
Hi Liam,
Since you’re referring to WPForms, please review this article on how to backup your WPForms form entries and restore them later.
I hope this helps. Thanks!
I get weekly emails about my form submissions. For weeks the number referenced in the email goes up each time but I haven’t gotten any submissions emailed to me. If I test it, I get the email. Is it possible that I am missing submissions? Why would the weekly report show in reading submissions but I don’t have any?
Hi Paul,
Whenever your WordPress site executes the wp_mail() function, it will count that as an email notification, and it will get added to the weekly email count.
These emails could be,
– WordPress user registration emails
– WordPress reset password emails
– Form email notifications (for example contact forms, quotation forms, payment forms created using WPForms plugin, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, or using similar plugins)
– Order notification emails (if you have an eCommerce store set up on your site)
– WordPress comment management emails (comment moderation / comment published)
– WordPress plugin notifications (Eg: update notifications etc)
If you did not receive any emails, check whether your WordPress administrator email address is correct under the WordPress Settings -> General area. Also, please make sure to configure a mailer on your WordPress site by following this guide.
I hope this helps. Thanks!
WP Forms Lite and SMTP plugin do not work with Google Recaptcha v2 with checkbox.
Hi Radu,
Please kindly know, that the WP Mail SMTP plugin just bridges a connection between your WordPress site and your email provider to deliver your website notifications and the WP Mail SMTP plugin does not rely on a captcha service.
The captcha service directly interacts with your form plugin (Eg WPForms, Contact Form 7, etc). To confirm, you can deactivate the WP Mail SMTP plugin on your WordPress site and restest your forms.
Once you confirm, please post your issue on WPForms Lite support forum, and they should be able to assist you accordingly.
I hope this helps. Thanks!
I collected 200+ form responses but didn’t properly configure notification sending. Now it’s working, how do I get it to email the prior registrants?
Hi Marc,
Please review this article on how to backup your lite entries.
Or else, please reach out to WPForms support to find out more information.
Thanks!
HI, Debug Events show
Type: Debug
Date: June 5, 2023 at 1:43 pm
Content: An email request was sent.
Source: WPForms Lite
/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-content/plugins/wpforms-lite/includes/emails/class-emails.php (line: 438)
Backtrace:
[0] wp_mail called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-content/plugins/wpforms-lite/includes/emails/class-emails.php:438]
[1] WPForms_WP_Emails->send called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-content/plugins/wpforms-lite/includes/class-process.php:988]
[2] WPForms_Process->entry_email called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-content/plugins/wpforms-lite/includes/class-process.php:458]
[3] WPForms_Process->process called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-content/plugins/wpforms-lite/includes/class-process.php:109]
[4] WPForms_Process->listen called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-content/plugins/wpforms-lite/includes/class-process.php:1041]
[5] WPForms_Process->ajax_submit called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php:308]
[6] WP_Hook->apply_filters called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php:332]
[7] WP_Hook->do_action called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-includes/plugin.php:517]
[8] do_action called at [/home/webieekw/montewise.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php:188]
How to fix this ?
Hi Sergi,
Thanks for reaching out!
What this means is, the WP Mail SMYP plugin didn’t receive an error message when executing the email off to your mailer. The Backtrace you sent over shows PHP information related to the sending process, but doesn’t indicate that an error occurred.
Based on the debug information, it doesn’t look like the issue is coming from your site’s side of things. If there is a problem getting an email to the mailer, you’ll see a different type of error message, but your are showing that “an email request was sent”.
When you get a chance, please check with your mailer service that you have configured within the WP Mail SMTP plugin. There may be an issue between the mailer service and the email address you’re sending to.
I hope this helps. Thanks!
I have set up wpforms lite with smtp gateway to gmail as guided, test email from the wpforms backend can be received. So I have created an inquiry form for testing, but I just receive nothing. So to speak, if user fill in my form, i dont know. how should i make wpforms lite useable?
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for reaching out! If your test emails are working, then you need to check your WPForms form notification settings.
Please follow this guide and set up your form notifications accordingly.
I hope this helps. Thanks!
Hi, I’m setting up my wordpress site. I used the WPforms sample “contact us” template form. Filled the notification accordingly based on the instruction. After saving the form, I used Review to test the form. Filled the form as a user. After I hit the “Submit” button, I see a “Sending” along with “Spinning Wheel” which goes for ever. I do receive the mail but after long time. I checked all five steps for troubleshooting. All seems to be good. Pls advise next step. Thanks
Hi Kay,
Did you configure an SMTP plugin on your site and are you able to receive test emails? If not, please follow this guide first.
If you can receive test emails from your SMTP plugin, most probably your issue is within the form plugin. If you’re using WPForms, you can open a support thread to find out more details.
I hope this helps. Thanks!
I just installed WP Form using default settings.
Admin not receiving any email notification. Could you please help me with that. My site is [Website removed]
Hi Tijo,
When you’re using the ‘Default’ (PHP) mailer option under WP Mail SMTP -> Settings (see), this is the method your site uses to send emails when SMTP is not set up.
As explained here, the default PHP option is not a reliable method to deliver emails.
You need to configure a mailer on your site to deliver your website email notifications. In case it helps, you can see all the available mailers here.
I hope this helps. Thanks!