Joomla 2.5.3 Mass Mail issue

[KaraokeAmerica]

I am having an issue in Joomla 2.5.3. If I mass mail from the back-end I get a success message, but I never get the emails. I have tried using the PHP function, sendmail as well as SMTP to a Gmail account. I never get a failure error, but I never get the emails either. The odd part is that I am using Hostgator and the PHP mail function works perfectly fine from multiple Joomla v1.5 sites on the same account. The mail configuration is identical.

Has anyone seen this and found a solution?

Thanks!

[stutteringp0et]

The mass mail feature doesn't send an email to the user who is sending the mass mail. You might try creating another user for yourself, using an alternate email address, then try your mass mail again.

[KaraokeAmerica]

The mass mail feature doesn't send an email to the user who is sending the mass mail. You might try creating another user for yourself, using an alternate email address, then try your mass mail again.

Correct. I am sending it to a different user group. I have a front-end account that is a publisher that I have tested as well as the regular administrator group....all with different email addresses. None received any email. I also have both a second J2.5 site as well as a J1.5 site that are configured exactly the same way and both work perfectly.

Mail functions are fairly fundamental in Joomla and that's why I reached out here. This one may be simple, but I may be losing my site in my old age.....

[stutteringp0et]

hmmm... I'll jump into one of my test sites and try that out.

[KaraokeAmerica]

hmmm... I'll jump into one of my test sites and try that out.

Also, I even created a new, registered user in the back end to yet another email account which would normally generate an email to that account. Nada.

If you want a test site, I'd be happy to share mine.....

[stutteringp0et]

You may have an issue with your outgoing mail configuration.

I just sent a mass email to a bunch of fake email addresses assigned to users in the "manager" group (caught by a catchall account on one of my domains) and all arrived as expected.

[KaraokeAmerica]

You may have an issue with your outgoing mail configuration.

I just sent a mass email to a bunch of fake email addresses assigned to users in the "manager" group (caught by a catchall account on one of my domains) and all arrived as expected.

Is there someplace other than the server settings in general configuration that this is done? The other sites I've done on this webhost that all work have the same settings.

This is the config for this broken site:

mailsv.JPG

This is a site on the same host that works perfectly:

mailkaa.JPG

I would be very happy to get slapped, but I know of no other place to set up the mail config in Joomla. Also, I'm getting the message that the mail is being sent.....it just isn't actually being sent.

Script conflict? I'm at a loss....

[stutteringp0et]

Just because it works for one site on the same server, doesn't mean it will work for all sites on the same server. Some domains are set up with DNS that specifies valid email sources. Email that originates from valid sources is allowed, while email from invalid sources is disallowed.

On my host, I cannot use the php mail function, I must use SMTP with SSL and login credentials in order for email to be sent. It's just something my host requires because I also host my DNS with them and it's configured to allow email from only certain hosts (something I'm comfortable with, so I don't change it)

Try this:

on the host that isn't sending mass emails...

create a new user in /administrator using a real email address.

When you create this user, an email should be sent containing the username and password information to the email address associated with that user.

It should look something like this:

Welcome testaccount,
Your application has been approved by our administration team.
Your account with the following details:
Email : [email protected]
User Name : test account
Password : testaccount

has been activated.
We welcome you to our online community and trust that together
we will grow.
Enjoy the experience!
Kind Regards,
Website Administration Team

NOTE: This email was automatically generated from XYZ (http://www.xyz.com).

If you get it, then the email function is configured properly, if not - then it's not configured properly.

[KaraokeAmerica]

When you say this:

create a new user in /administrator using a real email address.

are you referring to the Joomla administrator? I don't recognize that email format.

If that's what you mean I have tried creating an account manually in the admin panel. The account creation went fine, but that valid email address never got the notification.

If that's not what you mean can you please explain more? I am using ONE Hostgator account for all my websites that all reside on the same server. They all reside in subfolders of the root WWW folder. I have also tried using SMTP to gmail (something I have successfully done in the past with Joomla sites) and sendmail, but none actually generate an email which is why I think it's something internal to the website. It's giving me false positives. I suppose that internally, Hostgator is doing something funky with DNS that I'm unaware of that is making the sites behave differently.

Of course all of this could be the fact I'm working too many hours and not getting enough sleep so I'm missing something really obvious!

PS: thanks for sticking with me here!

[stutteringp0et]

in your site.com/administrator user management extension, when you create an account - an email is generated and sent to the user (the email I quoted above). If you don't get that email - then your outbound email isn't set up correctly - or should I say - in a manner compatible with your outgoing SMTP server or DNS settings.

[KaraokeAmerica]

in your site.com/administrator user management extension, when you create an account - an email is generated and sent to the user (the email I quoted above). If you don't get that email - then your outbound email isn't set up correctly - or should I say - in a manner compatible with your outgoing SMTP server or DNS settings.

Sorry it took so long to get back to this. I contacted my webhost and asked them to check the server and they said there was an MX record that was not registered properly for this domain. I won't know for sure until morning probably when the changes propagate, but they say this will resolve it.

Thanks for the help! I've never had an issue like this with a Joomla site before!

[KaraokeAmerica]

No luck on this. Sorry for the slow response. I just haven't had time to revisit it.

I'm going to go back to my webhost to have them re-check it, but any other suggestions? All my other Joomla sites of v1.5 and v2.5 work fine on the same host.

[stutteringp0et]

have you looked at the apache error log?

[KaraokeAmerica]

have you looked at the apache error log?

I have now. There is nothing listed about that function in the last 300 entries. I even purposely sent an email, refreshed the logs and still nothing. The log is in pretty much real-time. Most entries are not time-stamped, but I can correlate the ones that are with the time I'm doing this so I know it's encompassing the test time.

Good idea though, thanks!

[KaraokeAmerica]

My mail simply started working. I have no idea why. I didn't do anything *different* except contact my host....twice....about this issue. It did not resolve after the first or second call. However, now a week later it started working after months of not working. I suppose they could have done something in the background or it simply took this long for whatever they did to take effect, but I'm still at a loss. It's working , but I have no idea why. Maybe on Easter, I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth....

Thanks for the helpful suggestions!