Is this your problem?
- Contact form messages never arrive
- Customers do not get order confirmations
- Password reset emails never arrive
- Emails arrive only in spam, or only to some addresses such as Gmail
What usually causes it
How to tell: No SMTP or mail plugin is installed.
How to tell: The contact form sends "from" the person who filled it in. Providers reject that as spoofing.
How to tell: Gmail and Yahoo require sender authentication since 2024. Your domain DNS has none of these records.
How to tell: In WooCommerce, Settings, Emails, the email is disabled or the recipient is wrong.
Before you touch anything
- Know where your domain DNS is managed, often the registrar or Cloudflare.
How to fix it, step by step
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1
Prove it is sending at all
Install an email log plugin, or use the test tool in an SMTP plugin, and send a test to a Gmail address.
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2
Send through a mail service
Install an SMTP plugin and connect it to a service: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or a sending service such as Brevo, Postmark, Amazon SES or Mailgun.
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3
Set the right sender
Set From to an address on your own domain, such as hello@yourdomain.com. In contact forms, put the visitor address in Reply-To, not From.
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4
Add SPF
Add the SPF record your service gives you. A domain may have only one SPF record, so merge services into one line. This example is for Google Workspace.
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all -
5
Add DKIM and DMARC
Add the DKIM record from your mail service. Then add a DMARC record as a TXT record named _dmarc. Start with p=none to watch before enforcing.
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com -
6
Check WooCommerce emails
In WooCommerce, Settings, Emails, make sure each email is enabled and the admin recipient is correct.
Stop and get help if
- Your domain is being used to send spam you did not write.
- The site sends hundreds of emails an hour you cannot explain. That is often a hacked form.
Stop it happening again
- Keep the email log plugin running.
- Send a test after every mail or DNS change.
- Move DMARC from none to quarantine once reports look clean.
Questions people ask
Can I use my Gmail account to send?
Only with a domain address on Google Workspace. A free Gmail address as sender for your domain site will fail checks.
Why do some people get my emails and others do not?
Providers score senders differently. Without SPF, DKIM and DMARC, the strict ones drop your mail first.