Email Error: Could not instantiate mail function. Yahoo hosting

Hello, I get this error: Email Error: Could not instantiate mail function.

This comes up after I press the button to confirm my order in the shopping cart (step 3 of 3). I currently have the email Transport method set for PHP -- although I have tried them all to no avail -- using either SMTP settings it says it can't find the host, however if I set it for either sendMail option, I don't get the error. I get the confirmation but I don't receive an e-mail. I'm setting this up for a client and I had it working on my host/server, but when I transferred everything over to his server, it doesn't. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but he's using Yahoo small business hosting. Thanks.

yep, i get the same thing.
ideas anyone?:blink:

jcosta3:

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but he's using Yahoo small business hosting.What does Yahoo's tech support say you should be using for sending emails from your website?

I figured out the problem. If you are using Yahoo Small Business the email header is set to an address within the domain name you are using. So your setting for Email Address (sent FROM) in Email options has to be a yahoo account. This is if you are using the PHPmail. It's kind of dopey but thats the way they roll. Hope this helps anyone else having a similar issue. Thanks for the quick response....

I got this same error message when trying to send out my first newsletter to my subscriber list of 161 subscribers last night. It sent out 48/161 and then I got the errror message. I don't use Yahoo. Any ideas why I got this?
Also, any ideas how I can re-send my newsletter without sending a duplicate to the 48 others that it already sent to?

Thanks

I tried sending out a newsletter last night night. But it didn’t work right. It only sent it out to first 48 of the 161 subscribers, Then I got an error message that it "could not instantiate" something or another. It was 1 am, I don't remember the rest of the error, just that word that I've never hear of, lol.

I read in another post that it had something to do with Yahoo Small Business, but I don't have/use YSB.

I have no idea what this error message means, or how to fix it. And I don’t know how to try and resend the newsletter without it resending to that entire group of 48 that may have already gotten it.
Any ideas/feedback on this problem?

Thanks in advance.

ValhallaSoapGal,

1. Does the From email exists in Cpanel for you?
2. Also, make sure that mail functin is not disabled or is it any SMTP problem-> Ask your host

If I can answer from my own recent (today) experiences:

superprg:

ValhallaSoapGal,

1. Does the From email exists in Cpanel for you?
2. Also, make sure that mail functin is not disabled or is it any SMTP problem-> Ask your host

1. Yes.
2. Spoke to my host (BlueHost); hourly SMTP Throttling is in effect. The tech I spoke with raised it from 50/hr to 350/hr.

That tech said he had heard of methods (plugin?) to break up the newsletter subscriber list from within Zen Cart. I've been searching for a while now, and can't find anything like that. My wife's newsletter subscriber list is already over 270, and that's just signups in the past two weeks! I'm going to hit that throttle limit again pretty soon. Is there a way to segment the newsletter subscriber list, and send the newsletter to only one segment at a time?

I use blue host also and I am having newsletter problems. Does anyone know the correct setup for Blue Host to send newsletters. I currently have 286 subscribers and more adding everyday.

The last time I tried to send a newsletter it sent a few but then pooped out and said to check my configuration settings for email transport. I have that set to PHP...

Does the email address sent from have to be a cpanel address? Right now I have it set to a gmail address???

Thanks.

gsdcypher:

The last time I tried to send a newsletter it sent a few but then pooped out and said to check my configuration settings for email transport. I have that set to PHP...Can you be perhaps just a tiny bit more specific than "pooped out" ?
My crystal ball is kinda cloudy trying to guess what that means.

gsdcypher:

Does the email address sent from have to be a cpanel address? Right now I have it set to a gmail address???Considering that you are not sending from gmail, then using a gmail address is ... well ... potentially flaggable as spam.
Best practice = tell the truth. Use the real email address related to your store's website.

LOL. Yes.... pooped out meaning it quit sending the newsletter and gave me that error "check my configuration settings for email transport..."

It's no problem to change the email address, if that is causing a problem... But the reason I changed it to a gmail address in the first place was because my order confirmation emails were not getting through to some email addresses. One of the main one's being yahoo. When I switched to the gmail address it seemed to work better. Until today that is, when I tried to send a newsletter.

At the time I attempted to send the newsletter I had 286 subscribers. Four more added since then, so I would like to get the settings worked out...

So do you believe changing the sent from address to a cpanel address will solve the newsletter issue???

Thanks.

gsdcypher:

So do you believe changing the sent from address to a cpanel address will solve the newsletter issue???No guarantees. You could always try it.
There are too many unknowns, so can't tell you exactly what's causing it.
How many people actually get the emails?
How many does it actually send before dying?
What's the reason for it dying in the first place?
Is PHP encountering a timeout and thus croaking because the page took too long to process compared to the settings that your hosting company has imposed for CPU use?
Is there a problem sending any other emails?
etc etc etc
There's no definitive answer to your question.
You may have to write custom debug code to track things and figure out what exactly is happening.

So, in essense, all of us that are having this issue (see my other post, as I didn't see/forgot about this one) are pretty much screwed? We have this lovely little newsletter application that comes with ZC but all it is is a nice coffee table decoration! We may as well go back to using apps like Constant Contact and paying threw the nose!

Thought that you all might like to read the response that I got to this never ending problem when I posted it over at the BH forum. It is rather irritating.

http://www.bluehostforum.com/showthread.php?p=54309#post54309

My host doesn't do support through their forum, either, but they're a lot more clear about the fact than Bluehost seems to be. I'd take the 'If you don't like it, go away" response that you got as just a flame from an idiot, moderator or not.

I don't offer a newsletter, but these kind of problems come up regularly in my host's forums, too. The only answer seems to be to use a separate program (dadamail, mailman, etc.). They allow you to split up your emails into groups which won't choke in your host's throttling scheme.