No One Receiving Mail

[ann0314]

For the past month I have had this odd problem where no matter whether its a gift certificate, newsletter, or anything else sent from the admin panel...it shows that it was sent (in the case of the newsletter I get all the checkmarks etc) but the recipient never receives it. The only e-mail from my website that customers DO receive is if I send it via the actual store (as a customer). These features had been working and I haven't modified or changed anything right before it started...and today i finally did all the updates to 1.3.0.2 from 1.3.0.1 in the hopes maybe it would fix it and it hasn't. Does anyone know what could possibly be causing this issue as I used the mailing feature and am really bummed it stopped working and am clueless as to why it works if I log into a regular account in the store and send a gift cert from there as if I was a customer but wont let me in the admin :'(

Thanks for any help!

ann :O)

[TheOracle]

- What are your email configuration settings from your admin - > configuration - > email options ? (Without username & password account).

- Have you tried sending a message from your zc_install/techsupp.php file as well ? Does it return the same results as you describe ?

- Have you checked your SPAM filter in case one of your administrative email might of been added unintentionally into the list ?

[DrByte]

For the past month I have had this odd problem ...

...These features had been working and I haven't modified or changed anything right before it started

What is your host telling you about this? What did they change a month ago?

[CTJared]

I too am having the same kind of problem. No changes to the site/configs have been made in 2 years and I've just recently noticed it is no longer sending out order confirmations (or any emails for that matter). No changes have been made at the host (I am the host). I've tried the Send Email and Newsletter functions in the Admin as well as the Tell A Friend -- none send any emails.
In an attempt to fix, I upgraded my 2 year old version of ZenCart to todays latest 1.3.5 and that didn't make a difference - even after changing the email options to SMTP Auth (was previously just SMTP).
I've verified that I can send PHP email from the server using my own PHP script as well as successfully getting an email using the techsupp.php file.
So, I know that it is something wrong in the email functionality of Zencart but just need some direction on where to look...
Any help is greatly appreciated...

Windows 2003/IIS6
Zen Cart v1.3.5/v1.3.0.2

Thanks!

[ann0314]

I too am still having the issue and I can't find anything at all different ...and my setting have not changed at all.

As for the techsupp thing..I haven't tried that cuz I am not sure what you mean LOL All I know its one day it worked and then poof now it doesn't.

HUGS!

ann :)

[CTJared]

Hey Ann.
The techsupp thing is a troubleshooting page you can run on your Zencart site. It shows server info and let's you test sending an email. It is located in your Zencart files under /zc_install/techsupp.php. Be sure to edit the file first by adding your email address near the top on the '$myemail' line.
Then just run the page in a browser like: http://yoursite.com/zencart/zc_install/techsupp.php

Hope that helps...

[DrByte]

No changes to the site/configs have been made in 2 years and I've just recently noticed it is no longer sending out order confirmations (or any emails for that matter). No changes have been made at the host (I am the host). I've tried the Send Email and Newsletter functions in the Admin as well as the Tell A Friend -- none send any emails.

So, you're saying that:
- no changes to server or code in 2 years
- ie: Zen Cart code hasn't changed AT ALL prior to this upgrade
- and BEFORE upgrading it wasn't working

... if things WERE working, and NO changes were made to any Zen Cart files ... then ... I'm not sure where to start poking in Zen Cart files for answers about why it's broken ...

[ann0314]

Well in my case it WAS working but glitchy and then it just quit all together. I did the upgrade to 1.3.2 and thought that might fix it but its acting the same and no server changes were made at all....only zen file updates have been done. Although I cant speak for CT only my experience...but all the sudden I just can't send any e-mails out through admin...only through the site itself when I go one and log in as a customer. My question is how does the site send as opposed to how the admin panel sends them? Cuz one wont work for me but the other will so I assume that its how one is set up as opposed to the other?

HUGS!

ann :O)

[CTJared]

So, you're saying that:
- no changes to server or code in 2 years
- ie: Zen Cart code hasn't changed AT ALL prior to this upgrade
- and BEFORE upgrading it wasn't working

... if things WERE working, and NO changes were made to any Zen Cart files ... then ... I think the problem isn't in Zen Cart files ...

DrByte,

Yes, I AM saying that no changes have been made to the site code since I first set it up 2 years ago.
And yes, it wasn't working before I upgraded today -- I stated that I upgraded in an attempt to fix this problem and it still exists.
Also, as I previously stated, I can send PHP-based emails from the webserver both with my own scripts as well as through the techsupp.php file.

Simple fact is, currently no email functions work in Zencart. Ann is saying the same thing. Instead of getting defensive/condescending and trying to just brush me off by saying it's not Zencart, I would appreciate some insight into what files/configurations I can look at to try and solve this. I'm a web server administrator and web developer so I have already done MANY different things to try and narrow this down.

Jared
Crystaltech Web Hosting, Inc.

[DrByte]

Sorry ... a rough day, and I've evidently let my frustration show... argh.

Here's how it works:
1. Admin and Store both use the same infrastructure.
2. As of v1.3, Zen Cart uses phpMailer for sending mail. Prior to that it was inherited stuff from OsCommerce that met with mediocre success and need a huge facelift. So we switched to the popular phpMailer option.
3. Wherever an email is sent, it is initiated via zen_mail() which is in the /includes/functions/functions_email.php
This builds the email object according to all your settings in Admin->Config->Email options
- transport method smtp, sendmail, sendmail-f, smtpauth, etc
- CR/LF settings
- charset
- mime type
- sent to, sendfrom
... everything from that section, really.
Then it hands the email off to phpMailer to send it.
4. If the transport is a sendmail function, then the server's PHP configuration takes over entirely, using whatever PHP has been configured to use.
5. If the transport is SMTP/SMPTAUTH, then direct communication with the specified mailserver is initiated.
6. If email archiving is enabled, the email is stored to the archive table.
Done.
That's it.

If you enable archiving and the emails get saved, then Zen Cart has not failed in handing off the emails to the mailserver.
If the email doesn't get to its destination, then usually the problem is a misconfiguration of the MTA or the host is blacklisted somewhere, or ports are blocked or ... well ... the probable causes are for a system administrator to understand.

So ... troubleshooting:
a. change transport methods (ask your host what's best ... they should know how they've configured your server)
b. change send-from email addresses
c. change send-to email addresses ... DO NOT TEST USING FREE MAIL SERVICES ... your mail is often dropped to a junkmail spot.
d. check your junkmail settings
e. research whether your mailserver or hosting company is blacklisted
f. check whether the email archives are showing the sent messages (there's an archive reader in the Downloads area under Admin Tools)
g. try testing with MIME HTML emails OFF, since many spam filters block HTML-formatted messages before they even get out the gate.
h. check the mailserver logs ... is it complaining about something, either inbound or outbound?
i. for kicks, get the webserver/mailserver rebooted and dump all the logs ... just maybe something's runamuck in there ...


(Hope that's less condescending-sounding ... )