WordPress Email Configuration Archives

How to Fix wp_mail Settings for WordPress Email

This is a continuation of the article “Testing your WordPress email settings for the wp_mail function.” That article explains how to check your WordPress email configuration. This is a good place to start because if the function itself is not working, you need to track that down first. It will tell you if issues are “upstream” from the function, and thus not related to your email settings.

If you determine wp_mail is functioning, then you can assume emails are generated. If they are, the next step is to consider other elements of your WordPress email configuration. This tracks “downstream” issues of why emails are not sent or received.

Understanding script based email

WordPress sends email using wp_mail, a function that for all practical purposes operates like php’s mail. It is a way for your site to send email via a PHP script.

In order to determine what your problems might be, it is important to understand the potential email configuration requirements. Some issues are with the server. Other problems could be not understanding restrictions by your host.

Do your wp_mail settings conflict with your host’s email policies?

Valid email accounts

The first thing to know is what your host’s policies are for sending email via web scripts. Knowing if you are in compliance with your host’s email policies at the start could save a lot of time.

The wp_mail function by default will send from “wordpress@yourdomain.com”. If that’s not an actual email address for yourdomain.com, your host may restrict sending. Check with your host to know if they require the “from” address be a real email. You can change the “from” address with WP’s “wp_mail_from” and “wp_mail_from_name” filters or you can use an SMTP account.

Valid email headers

Some hosts require that any server-side email script send with a “from” address that is an actual email address. This may seem basic, but I’ve had a lot of support inquiries that didn’t bother to check this. WordPress default configuration doesn’t cover this – it sends email without headers.

Make sure the return-path header is not only a valid address, but also matches the “from” address. This avoids flagging the message as spam. You can take care of this either by sending through an SMTP server or filter the phpmailer to make this match your “from” address.

Are you on a shared server?

If another user on your host has a script that is tying up the email server, that is going to effect your site (and therefore your email script).

On shared hosts, delayed email is a common problem. Remember that just because someone doesn’t receive a message within seconds does not by itself mean that the message is not being sent. Delayed sending may be the problem in this case.

What about spam filters?

Certain messages are blocked for address issues. Emails coming into one of the major email provider domains (hotmail, aol, gmail, yahoo) can get flagged for a number of reasons.

One question to consider is whether email is getting through to everyone, or is this limited to certain domains? Getting blocked or blacklisted by a specific host could be an issue.

An easy solution for wp_mail settings

The simplest way around all of this is to use a valid email account sent through an SMTP server. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and sending through an SMTP server simply means you have set up a real email address on your system and you are allowing the web based script (wp_mail) to connect to the server with appropriate account credentials. This will satisfy most hosting requirements and also help you avoid system bottlenecks on shared hosting.

My usual solution for this is a plugin called WP Mail SMTP. Of course, you can do it without a plugin, too.

No matter which way you choose to approach it, SMTP is a more reliable and more stable way of sending email through WordPress.

For more information on testing, troubleshooting, and changing your WordPress email configuration for wp_mail, here are some additional posts:

Testing your WordPress email settings for the wp_mail function – some information on wp_mail and a testing script you can use to make sure it is sending messages.
WordPress Email Settings: Changing the wp_mail address with a simple plugin – here is a very simple and lightweight script you can load as a plugin to change the email address that WordPress sends email from.
Changing the wp_mail from address in WordPress without a plugin – provides a simple code snippet you can use to change the email address that WordPress sends from, no plugin required.
Easy SMTP email settings for WordPress – how to change your WordPress email configuration to send email from a valid SMTP server with a simple script, no plugin required.

Prevent WordPress email sent to spam with this

By Chad Butler 1 Comment

I have several other posts on how to improve the reliability of email sent via wp_mail and how to troubleshoot your WordPress email settings. Most of these posts focus on sending email. But WordPress email sent to spam is also a common problem.

How can you optimize WordPress email to make messages less likely to end up flagged as spam by the receiver?

How you set up WordPress email matters, and this simple change will fix the problem.

[Read more…]

Changing the WordPress email “from” address without a plugin

By Chad Butler 39 Comments

One common question I often hear regarding WordPress email configuration is, “How do I change the email address from wordpress@mydomain.com?” I suspect that most people are unaware that the WordPress email function wp_mail() has a default address that it sets as the “from” address. If they are aware, most users opt for changing this with a plugin.

WordPress has no ability to manage email settings through the admin panel, but that does not mean you can’t manage the email configuration at all. It actually is very flexible. You can even change your WordPress email configuration to send via an SMTP server; a method much more reliable than the generic email script. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

If your sole aim is to change the email “from” address to something that is not the default value (wordpress@yourdomain.com), this is far to simple for using a plugin (unless you have complicated needs and want more control over email configuration in the WordPress admin panel).

There are quite a few plugins that do this, and if you feel more comfortable doing it that way, by all means, add another plugin to the list of things your blog needs to load. But if you are brave enough to do something quick, easy, and lightweight, then read on!

wp_mail and some relatives

WordPress relies on a function called wp_mail() to send email. This function is essentially a wrapper for the phpmailer class. The problem is that the wp_mail default email “from” address cannot be configured via the WordPress admin panel. But the fortunate thing is that this function and its related functions are both pluggable and can be filtered. Our example here is to simply opt for a filter.

wp_mail() relies on some other outside information, some of which is wp_mail_from (an email address) and wp_mail_from_name (the real name given to the email address). Since that is all we want to change, we are just going to filter those.

Filtering the email address

Add a filter for the email address using ‘add_filter’:

add_filter( 'wp_mail_from', 'my_mail_from' );
function my_mail_from( $email ) {
return "change-this-to-your-email-address";
}

Filtering the email name
Now add a filter for the name of the email address:
add_filter( 'wp_mail_from_name', 'my_mail_from_name' );
function my_mail_from_name( $name ) {
return "My Name";
}

The functions.php file
That’s great, but what do I do with it?
I’m glad you asked.  Add these two filters and their accompanying functions to your theme’s functions.php file.  You don’t even need to mess with a file editor and ftp for this.  I would simply go to the Appearance > Editor menu in the WP Admin Panel, then find ‘functions.php’ in the list of theme files on the right.  Add these filters and you are in business.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  And no bloated plugin to slow down your site!
If you’d rather use a plugin to handle WordPress email configuration instead of the functions file, that’s covered in this post.
For more information on testing, troubleshooting, and changing your WordPress email configuration for wp_mail, here are some additional posts:

Testing your WordPress email settings for the wp_mail function – some information on wp_mail and a testing script you can use to make sure it is sending messages.
Troubleshooting wp_mail WordPress Email Configuration – not everything that can go wrong is directly a problem with WP. This post has information on host restrictions and other outside problems that should be checked.
WordPress Email Settings: Changing the wp_mail address with a simple plugin – here is a very simple and lightweight script you can load as a plugin to change the email address that WordPress sends email from.
Easy SMTP email settings for WordPress – how to change your WordPress email configuration to send email from a valid SMTP server with a simple script, no plugin required.

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