Notification not received

#1 · June 12, 2022, 9:09 pm

Quote from Rob on June 12, 2022, 9:09 pm
We are continuing to run into a problem with a small number of users who have correctly signed up for all notifications (replies and posts), but who do not receive notificati0ns. We had the problem before and after investigating I discovered that there was a common theme — the same web host provider in Canada. Pursuing that angle, they admitted to me they were having email issues and that what I told them was not unexpected as a result of their problems. At least they commendably admitted the truth in our world of finger pointing and since then they apparently fixed their email server issues and all is well with those users again.

Now, we are experiencing the exact same problem with a few users (2 so far) and the common theme is Gmail. Ugghhh….getting Not So Gentle Giant Google to work with us has been a travesty so far, and yes, they point right back at us — but without any evidence that they investigated, researched — just “we think it is on your end”. Ugghhh….again, and unacceptable to me because of what I stated above about their effort and evidence — which is nothing, just a call.

If there is anyone here using Gmail and has experienced this before, I would be so appreciative if you would take a moment and tell me what was the resolution to the problem as our little very private community would be so grateful with the hope that if we did the same it would have the same good result -> notifications are received for every reply and post.

I am struggling to believe that the problem is with Asgaros Forum. We are using the plugin “Email Log”. In our logs, we see that the notification is created and presumably sent to that person because the log shows it. With that said alone, if the email constructed by Asgaros Forum to send has been created, is it possible that for these 2 notifications not received they are not sent for whatever the reason? There are no errors anywhere that suggest this is happening and from a logical point of view I struggle with this concept that a notification email gets created but not sent to only 2 of the 15 users in this forum — all the others do receive the appropriate notification!

I asked these 2 users to please speak to Google, asking them to look at the account, logs, email server settings, spam, whatever else they could see or not see. I mean, really, fundamental troubleshooting. Apparently Google told 1 of these user’s that “the problem is on your end” without any appearance of troubleshooting and bluntly, I feel was an “off the cuff answer” without proof. And since we are talking to Not So Gentle Giant Google, how in the world does “little David fight giant Goliath”? I have already told everyone on our side I am not willing to get in to a pi**ing contest with Not So Gentle Giant Google because we all know who wins that one.

I have concluded to these users that as far as I am concerned based on the evidence I have, we appear to have sent this to the Gmail account (and by the way, another user in this group of 15 who also has Gmail did receive the notifications!) because our log recorded the email and consequently was supposedly sent (back to my 1st question – possible or impossible that the message was actually sent?).

Another question: to help determine if the email was actually sent, is there something in Asgaros Forum itself or is there yet another WP plugin that actually records when the email was actually sent?

More importantly, while not an urgent matter at large, one of the affected user’s happens to be on the Board Of Directors and now that does put both importance and perhaps the beginning of an urgent matter on the table. We can’t let this fester too long. We told this person to please just manually check for replies and posts by logging in daily until the problem can be identified so that we can research and have the problem fixed. In a similar situation that I personally had with my email (not from Asgaros Forum), I had to spend about 6 months with my web host provider where I had to make quite the effort to pushback on them that the problem was theirs, had to escalate several times to get attention and effort and nag them daily about progress as my problem was very urgent.

They finally found that one or more settings in my email servers and/or a DNS setting needed to be changed. They did not get it right at the beginning, but as they continued to finally dig deeper they discovered how one or more settings needed to be changed and when that happened I finally received all emails as expected (no longer any missing).

I apologize for being long-winded, but I felt compelled to tell the story in full because if we do not get this fixed soon (not urgent, but will be if we do nothing or can’t find anything!), it is possible the Board Of Directors will need a scapegoat and that would be Asgaros Forum — something I never want to see happen because the Asgaros Forum is the best community WP plugin (and easily at that!), has worked fantastically for us, has one of the best developers I have worked with in the past (Thomas), and last but not least, has one of the best support communities in WP.

If you know something/anything related to the above, and for as tiny as that something might be, please consider making a comment so that I can see what I might try to fix or overcome or just plain get around so that all users get their notification?

Thank you in advance for your consideration! I have attached the log view of one of these user’s (blurring details where appropriate).

We are continuing to run into a problem with a small number of users who have correctly signed up for all notifications (replies and posts), but who do not receive notificati0ns. We had the problem before and after investigating I discovered that there was a common theme — the same web host provider in Canada. Pursuing that angle, they admitted to me they were having email issues and that what I told them was not unexpected as a result of their problems. At least they commendably admitted the truth in our world of finger pointing and since then they apparently fixed their email server issues and all is well with those users again.

Now, we are experiencing the exact same problem with a few users (2 so far) and the common theme is Gmail. Ugghhh….getting Not So Gentle Giant Google to work with us has been a travesty so far, and yes, they point right back at us — but without any evidence that they investigated, researched — just “we think it is on your end”. Ugghhh….again, and unacceptable to me because of what I stated above about their effort and evidence — which is nothing, just a call.

If there is anyone here using Gmail and has experienced this before, I would be so appreciative if you would take a moment and tell me what was the resolution to the problem as our little very private community would be so grateful with the hope that if we did the same it would have the same good result -> notifications are received for every reply and post.

I am struggling to believe that the problem is with Asgaros Forum. We are using the plugin “Email Log”. In our logs, we see that the notification is created and presumably sent to that person because the log shows it. With that said alone, if the email constructed by Asgaros Forum to send has been created, is it possible that for these 2 notifications not received they are not sent for whatever the reason? There are no errors anywhere that suggest this is happening and from a logical point of view I struggle with this concept that a notification email gets created but not sent to only 2 of the 15 users in this forum — all the others do receive the appropriate notification!

I asked these 2 users to please speak to Google, asking them to look at the account, logs, email server settings, spam, whatever else they could see or not see. I mean, really, fundamental troubleshooting. Apparently Google told 1 of these user’s that “the problem is on your end” without any appearance of troubleshooting and bluntly, I feel was an “off the cuff answer” without proof. And since we are talking to Not So Gentle Giant Google, how in the world does “little David fight giant Goliath”? I have already told everyone on our side I am not willing to get in to a pi**ing contest with Not So Gentle Giant Google because we all know who wins that one.

I have concluded to these users that as far as I am concerned based on the evidence I have, we appear to have sent this to the Gmail account (and by the way, another user in this group of 15 who also has Gmail did receive the notifications!) because our log recorded the email and consequently was supposedly sent (back to my 1st question – possible or impossible that the message was actually sent?).

Another question: to help determine if the email was actually sent, is there something in Asgaros Forum itself or is there yet another WP plugin that actually records when the email was actually sent?

More importantly, while not an urgent matter at large, one of the affected user’s happens to be on the Board Of Directors and now that does put both importance and perhaps the beginning of an urgent matter on the table. We can’t let this fester too long. We told this person to please just manually check for replies and posts by logging in daily until the problem can be identified so that we can research and have the problem fixed. In a similar situation that I personally had with my email (not from Asgaros Forum), I had to spend about 6 months with my web host provider where I had to make quite the effort to pushback on them that the problem was theirs, had to escalate several times to get attention and effort and nag them daily about progress as my problem was very urgent.

They finally found that one or more settings in my email servers and/or a DNS setting needed to be changed. They did not get it right at the beginning, but as they continued to finally dig deeper they discovered how one or more settings needed to be changed and when that happened I finally received all emails as expected (no longer any missing).

I apologize for being long-winded, but I felt compelled to tell the story in full because if we do not get this fixed soon (not urgent, but will be if we do nothing or can’t find anything!), it is possible the Board Of Directors will need a scapegoat and that would be Asgaros Forum — something I never want to see happen because the Asgaros Forum is the best community WP plugin (and easily at that!), has worked fantastically for us, has one of the best developers I have worked with in the past (Thomas), and last but not least, has one of the best support communities in WP.

If you know something/anything related to the above, and for as tiny as that something might be, please consider making a comment so that I can see what I might try to fix or overcome or just plain get around so that all users get their notification?

Thank you in advance for your consideration! I have attached the log view of one of these user’s (blurring details where appropriate).

Uploaded files:

#2 · June 12, 2022, 9:32 pm

Some additional info:

We use GoDaddy as our web host. I guess there could be a problem there.
Do you think the plugin Post SMTP Mailer/Email Log could help us? Or, are there more like this, which my keywords did not find? I hate adding plugins because of “plugin creep” and because every plugin has the potential to interfere or cause a problem (which we would find out in stage when testing). Something that caught my attention about this plugin is that they claim there is new technology for SMTP, b ut even more importantly I see this in their description:
Mail ends up in the Spam folder

To avoid being flagged as spam, you need to prove your email isn’t forged. On a custom domain, its up to YOU to set that up:

* Ensure you are using the correct SMTP server with authentication – the correct SMTP server is the one defined by your email service’s SPF record

* If you use a custom domain name for email, add an SPF record to your DNS zone file. The SPF is specific to your email provider, for example Google

* If you use a custom domain name for email, add a DKIM record to your DNS zone file and upload your Domain Key (a digital signature) to, for example Google

I remember references about my own personal problem getting email were SPF Record and DKIM Record. I seem to recall that they changed both or at least one of these. Maybe I need to speak to GoDaddy (which is not my personal web hosting as I use InterServer)?

cauesocial has reacted to this post.

#3 · June 14, 2022, 5:02 pm

SMTP2GO plugin is the best!!