Email Sending Issues

Sometimes, the system may not send mail using the expected methods. The problem is usually a misconfiguration.

Emails Not Sending

General Emails

If the system isn't sending general emails, such as client sign-up or order confirmations, take the following steps to ensure a correct setup.

First, check these points:

Check whether you have disabled the email template in Setup > Email Templates.
Check whether custom action hooks that could prevent email from sending exist in the /includes/hooks and /modules/addons directories.
Check whether you can send the emails manually.

If the above steps don't resolve the issue:

Check whether any email is on the Utilities > Logs > Email Message Log page.
Check whether an error occurs at the time of email sending under Utilities > Logs > Activity Log?

No Error in Activity Log:

If a message exists in the Email Message Log and there are no errors in the Activity Log, the message likely left WHMCS without any errors from your mail server. Therefore, the problem is one of email delivery and not a WHMCS software issue. Contact your mail server administrator to investigate.

There are many Email Templates that the Email Message Log doesn't record, in order to protect the sensitive data they contain. These are:

Automated Password Reset.
Client Email Address Verification.
Password Reset Validation.

In addition to this, there a number of Email Templates that the system won't CC or BCC at the template level. These are:

Password Reset Validation.
Password Reset Confirmation.
Automated Password Reset.

Product Welcome Email

Problems with the sending of the welcome emails are typically due to an issue with account creation. For more information, see Auto Setup Issues.

Support Ticket Notifications

If the system isn't sending support ticket notification emails to your staff (for example, new support tickets or new client replies) take the following steps to ensure it is set up properly:

First, check these points:

Check whether you have selected the 'Enable Ticket Notifications' options under Setup > Staff Management > Administrator Users > Edit.
Check whether you have selected the "Support Emails' option under Setup > Staff Management > Administrator Roles > Edit.
Check whether the admin ticket notification emails are disabled under Setup > Email Templates.

If the above steps don't resolve the issue:

Check whether you have selected the Setup > General Settings > Support tab > Disable Reply Email Logging option. After deselecting it, attempt to replicate the issue.
Check whether there's an error at the time of email sending under Utilities > Logs > Activity Log.

No Error in Activity Log:

If there is no error in the Activity Log at the time of email sending, this indicates that the email left WHMCS without any errors from your mail server. Therefore, the problem is one of email delivery and not a WHMCS software issue. Contact your mail server administrator to investigate.

Emails Flagged as Spam

There are multiple reasons why systems may deliver emails from a WHMCS installation to a spam folder or reject them. Usually, this is due to the server configuration. WHMCS email templates should not trigger any standard spam rules.

First, check these points:

If you use PHP Mail, check whether you can use a different Mail Provider under Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Mail. Many email providers block PHP mailer scripts as "unverified mail".

Verify that the email address you are sending from actually exists on your server, and whether it can send and receive mail normally.

Check your mail server's IP address to verify that it's not in any blacklists at the mxtoolbox website.

Contact your web hosting or mail server provider for investigation into your IP reputation. They will be able to contact other email providers on your behalf.

If you suspect that the wording of an email may be triggering a filter, try customizing you email templates so they do not match every other WHMCS installation's emails.

Verify that your domain has an accurate and strict SPF record setup, as well as a correct PTR record.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes, the Activity Log error output lacks verbosity when sending emails via SMTP fails. Alternatively, the underlying cause may be different from the message that the system ultimately displays.

For version 8.0 and later

In WHMCS 8.0+, if your Mail Provider is SMTP, you can enable SMTP Debug in your SMTP configuration to view debugging output in the Activity Log.

For version 7.x and earlier

In WHMCS 7 and earlier, adding the following line to the configuration.php file will output a large amount of debugging information when you send mail manually. This requires that Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Mail > Mail Type is SMTP:

$smtp_debug = true;

After sending an email manually, the system will display the interaction between your server and the email server, for debugging purposes. After this process, be sure to revert the change to the configuration.php file.