Email Status Updates Not Being Sent

[JohnnyT]

I seem to have a weird problem... I have found other types of problems reported, but nobody seems to have this weird problem...

When I update the status of an order or use the same tool (while editing an order) to just send a customer an email... the email doesn't get sent to the customer or to the admin.

If I manually send a message to the customer, it gets sent. The contents of the status update appear as part of the order (ie. the status update works), there are no error messages. When a new order is created, the email goes to both customer and to the assigned admin email account. However, updates created under EDIT ORDER do not get emailed -- to anyone.

Yes -- NOTIFY CUSTOMER is set to "email"
No -- the emails do NOT appear in the archive, this isn't a problem of the messages not being received, this is a problem of the messages not being SENT (apparently).

Since other email work fine (welcome, order creation, direct, etc.) the basics of the email system are working fine.

HOWEVER... messages that should be sent via status updates aren't being sent to anyone (not to the customer and not to the assigned admin email account).

Help!

[DrByte]

Two things:

1. Please click Reply below and answer all the questions in the Posting Tips section.

2. You say the emails are "not being sent". It's very rare that they're not actually "sent". Instead it's more likely that they "don't arrive", because they're blocked by spam filters, either by your mailserver or by your receiving mailbox spam system.
Use the archiving system to see whether Zen Cart is actually sending them or not:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...Email_Problems
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...Of_Lost_Emails

[JohnnyT]

Thanks so much for the reply...

2. You say the emails are "not being sent". It's very rare that they're not actually "sent". Instead it's more likely that they "don't arrive", because they're blocked by spam filters, either by your mailserver or by your receiving mailbox spam system.
Use the archiving system to see whether Zen Cart is actually sending them or not:

As I said in my post, the messages are not in the archive. My conclusion, therefore, is that they are not being "sent"... I should (a) either get some type of error on the screen, or (b) find the messages in the archive.

I've looked through the links you suggest, and none of that seems to be applicable: messages ARE being sent fine in most cases, however (and specifically) messages are not being sent when the order status is updated.

I apologize for not posting all of the requested info with my first post -- here's what I know...

I'm using 1.3.9h, upgraded from 1.3.9d in September 2011
Lots of various add-ons, most recently Authorize.net and PayPal express.

I am not sure when this problem started... I don't use the feature very often to communicate with customers... except for at this time of year.

I just wonder if there is a group of files that control this email behavior that I could compare to a clean version of 1.3.9h? I don't know enough to determine which files would be the important ones to checkout.

[JohnnyT]

So... do any of the Zen Masters (or anyone else) have any ideas about where I can look to see what might be causing this problem?

The only other reports I've read all deal with messages not being delivered -- and my problem is with messages not being SENT!

Help, please?

[hflsales]

I am having the exact same problem. Have changed nothing, then on 11/28 my order emails just stopped sending.

[DrByte]

I am having the exact same problem. Have changed nothing, then on 11/28 my order emails just stopped sending.

hflsales,
Um, the person above you was posting about Order STATUS emails. Your post sounds like you're talking about order CONFIRMATION emails. That's not the exact same thing.
Please be more specific about *your* EXACT problem

[DrByte]

I just wonder if there is a group of files that control this email behavior that I could compare to a clean version of 1.3.9h? I don't know enough to determine which files would be the important ones to checkout.

JohnnyT,
The primary files involved with sending order-status-change emails from the admin are:
/admin/orders.php
/includes/functions/functions_email.php

However, unless you've changed those files, I suspect your problem is more with bad email addresses than with the code.
Does this happen to EVERY customer? Or just selected ones? How many have you tested it with? What were the email addresses? ie: any particular pattern with those email addresses? all free email services like gmail/hotmail/yahoo? Or actual real email accounts on normal domains? Is it related to certain order-status settings specifically? Are these customers' emails on the email-newsletter list? Have they selected TEXT as their email preference, or HTML, or something else?
etc etc etc

Given that the behavior you are reporting is abnormal and not how the system is coded or designed, it's crucial that you provide as much information related to the bigger picture as possible, if you hope to get meaningful help.

[JohnnyT]

Well... this problem is SOLVED!!!

This was affecting ALL customers... order status updates were not being SENT (as confirmed through a review of the email archive).

I looked at the orders.php file and decided to compare it to the original.

Recently, I hired an "expert" at Zen Cart to make some improvements to my store... and it was clear from the start that he was not nearly as expert as he thought himself to be. I didn't know that he was also incompetent.

As part of the work, he installed a Google Checkout mod into my system. I had disabled it immediately after firing him and thought all was OK.

Well, there were MANY modifications to the ORDERS.PHP file as a result of the Google Checkout mod he installed (I don't know what mod that was).

I restored the previous version of ORDERS.PHP and the problem was resolved completely!

Status updates now work correctly and emails are being sent as they should be! Thanks for the help and guidance into where to look for the problem!

[DrByte]

Always helpful to know the bigger picture.

Glad you got it sorted out by putting back the original code.

[Harri]

Hi!
I have similiar problem with my zen cart order status update emails.
All new orders will receive automatic order confirmation emails, but not when I edit the order status. I haven't done any modifications to those files mentioned above or email settings.

Order status update emails do work:
- when editing very old orders.
- when using super orders mod to edit orders.

This broblem seems weird and I have no idea how to fix it. I would appreciate a lot if somebody could help with this. I can still use super orders mod for this, but I would prefer using the original editor and to fix this error.

Zen cart version 1.3.9.h