Emails not sending all of sudden

I've been running my shop for over a year with no problems in regards to email. All of sudden, today, my backend is not able to send emails to customers, or to my own email address (I'm the admin) in regards to order confirmations, newsletters, etc. I've tested all of these and I'm just not getting any mails. Also tried other email addys.

I can see the emails in the Archive manager, it says they are sent, but they clearly are not! Can anybody help?

Anytime something 'all of a sudden' stops working, I think the first thing to do is check with your host. In this case, ask them if they re-configured their mail servers somehow.

stevesh is exactly right.

Plus, if the emails are in the archive, then the ARE "sent". If you're not "receiving" them, then there's a delivery problem. And, as stevesh said, you need to start with your hosting company to see what they "suddenly changed".

And/or maybe your server has been blacklisted because of spam (not necessarily by you).

Recommended reading:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Understanding_Causes_Of_Lost_Emails
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Email_Problems

Hmmm thanks for the info guys.

I checked with my server and they are not able to help.

After further investigation, I do see the mails in my Webmail access for the server. I am not receiving them in my client, which is Gmail. This is very unusual. This only happens to some mails! I did a test from the contact us page which worked, but a testimonial submmission did not work (I saw the mail in Webmail but not in my Gmail.)

I am also not receiving admin mails to my personal email address (stuff like order confirmations, etc.) These mails are in fact not getting sent at all because they are not in the email archive.

UGH

What Email Transport method were you using when this all started?

It looks like I'm using "sendmail". Is this the preferred method?

As per the Email Troubleshooting link I posted earlier, if you're having troubles with mail getting delivered when using sendmail or PHP as the transport method, switching to SMTPAUTH may help, since SMTPAUTH authenticates you as a valid email sender. (The PHP or sendmail options can frequently be exploited by spammers)

I thought I would update you guys as to what I found out...

It seems as though my server (not my Zen Cart site) was getting attacked. There were dozens of comments being left per minute on one of my sites (expressionengine) which led gmail to believe this was spam, which it obviously was. It seems gmail was smart enough to just mark the "comment left on your site" notice, but it eventually must have marked my email address as spam, because I wasn't able to receive emails from my server, but I was able to receive mails from other sources. I've since deleted the site that was causing the problem, it was a back burner project for way too long anyway.

Very odd, now I have to retrain gmail that my email addy is not spam, any tips?

swamyg1:

Very odd, now I have to retrain gmail that my email addy is not spam, any tips?

You can contact Google support and explain your situation, but I only wish you the best of luck. Their terms and conditions that you agreed to state clearly that any problem involving your account, even if it is not your fault, is your problem, and they have the right to lock you out.

There is a certain value to using a third party email sender (Constant Contact, Aweber, Vertical Response, etc.), as some of what you are paying for is their full-time staff that keeps close contact with the ISP's to keep the mail flowing.