Are you not receiving email notifications from your WordPress contact forms?
Unfortunately, the WordPress contact form not sending email issue is very common and frequent topic among support queries.
However, you can quickly fix this problem and start receiving those emails by setting up Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) on your website.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to fix the WordPress contact form not sending email issue with WP Mail SMTP.
In This Article
Why You’re Not Receiving Notifications
Are you frustrated because your forms aren’t sending emails and they keep disappearing? It’s a big issue in the WordPress community, and can really hurt your lead generation efforts.
And if you’re here because you were searching for the answer to “Where does WPForms send emails?” then we’ve got you covered.
There can be a lot of reasons behind the lack of email notifications. Here are a couple of the most common:
- Your WordPress hosting server (even unmanaged or managed WordPress hosting) is not configured to use the PHP mail function that WordPress uses to send emails that are generated by a contact form plugin like WPForms.
- Your email server is blocking it as spam. To reduce spam emails, your email provider often checks whether your email is originating from the location it claims to be originating from. For example, if your email server is yahoo.com, chances are your form notifications won’t even make it into the spam folder since they’re sent out from a completely different server. This can cause tons of issues including WooCommerce emails being lost, Gravity Forms not sending email, or Ninja Forms not sending email.
- The recipient’s email provider may be blocking your domain. If WPForms isn’t sending form notifications to Gmail, this is the likely reason.
In this post, we’ll be using the free WP Mail SMTP plugin to send form notifications using a simple setup with any email account.
How to Fix The WordPress Contact Form Not Sending Email Issue
Fixing the WordPress contact form not sending email issue is super easy with WP Mail SMTP. Follow the steps below to get started!
Step 1: Install the WP Mail SMTP Plugin
WP Mail SMTP is the best option for sending emails since it uses proper authentication methods to ensure email deliverability.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin. Check out this guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for step-by-step instructions.
Step 2: Configure Your From Email
After installing and activating this plugin, go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings to configure the mail options.
Here, you’ll first be asked to enter your From Email. This is the email address that all of your site’s emails (including form email notifications) will be sent from.
If you’re setting this up on your business website, you might want to enter your business email address here.
This setting works with most mailers, although there are some exceptions. If you use Zoho Mail SMTP, your emails will only be sent from your Zoho Mail address, so this setting will be grayed out in the plugin.
Note: Make sure to enter the same email address you will be using to send SMTP emails (your Yahoo, Gmail, or Live email address).
Additionally, in WPForms the same email must be used in the From Email setting for your form notifications.
We strongly recommend that you also check the box labeled Force From Email. Since any email sent from your site must use this email address in order for SMTP to work, this will save you the trouble of editing the WordPress email settings throughout your site (in all form emails, etc).
Step 3: Configure Your From Name
Next, change your From Name. By default, this will be set to the site name. However, you can change this to anything you’d like, like your actual name for personalization.
You can also choose to Force From Name to apply this setting to emails site-wide, similar to how we used the Force from Email option earlier.
We also recommend checking the optional Return Path checkbox to Set the return-path to match the From Email.
With this enabled, you’ll be emailed at that address if any messages bounce as a result of issues with the recipient’s email.
Step 4: Select Your Mailer
Now, it’s time to set up your mailer for sending emails. In the Mailer field, you’ll need to select the Other SMTP option.
If you’re having problems with WooCommerce not sending email, you might want to use a different mailer that’s more suited to transactional emails.
Feel free to check out our tutorials on some of the other mailers available like SendLayer, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), SMTP.com, or Mailgun.
You can also use the Gmail mailer to send emails from any Gmail address or Google Workspace alias.
You can also use multiple aliases to send email. Check out the guide on how to send WordPress emails from Gmail aliases to set this up.
Step 5: Configure Other SMTP Settings
After selecting Other SMTP, a new section will appear called Other SMTP. Here, you’ll need to enter additional details to connect your site to your email provider.
Each email provider requires slightly different SMTP configurations. In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at how to configure options for Gmail, Yahoo, and Live/Hotmail.
When entering your username and password for any email option, please note that this information is stored in plain text.
For a more secure approach, check below the SMTP Password field for instructions on adding the password to your site’s wp-config.php file instead.
For more details check out WPBeginner’s tutorial for details on how to edit wp-config. Here are the SMTP settings you’ll need for the most popular email providers:
Gmail / Google Workspace SMTP Settings
If you want to send notifications using your Gmail or Google Workspace accounts, you can use the below SMTP options.
- Host: smtp.gmail.com
- Port: 587 (or 465 using SSL encryption)
- Username: Your Gmail account email address (e.g. [email protected])
- Password: Your Gmail account password
- Encryption: TLS
Then, enter your Gmail username and password and save these settings to finish the integration process.
Note: Please note that we recommend using the built-in Gmail integration instead of this less secure Other SMTP mailer. If you use SMTP, though, don’t forget to enable less secure apps in the next step.
Hotmail / Live SMTP Settings
If you want to send notifications using your Hotmail or Live email, you can use the below SMTP options.
- Host: smtp.live.com
- Port: 587
- Username: Your Hotmail account email (e.g. [email protected])
- Password: Your Hotmail account password
- Encryption: TLS
Then, enter your Live or Hotmail username and password, and click Save Changes to complete the integration process.
Yahoo Mail SMTP Settings
If you want to send notifications using your Yahoo email, you can use the below SMTP options.
- Host: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
- Port: 465
- Username: Your Yahoo Mail account email (e.g. [email protected])
- Password: Your Yahoo Mail account password
- Encryption: SSL
Then, enter your Yahoo username and password and click Save Changes. Please note you will need to enable less secure apps.
AOL SMTP Settings
If you want to send notifications using your AOL email, you can use the below SMTP options.
- Host: smtp.aol.com
- Port: 587
- Username: Your AOL screen name (e.g. john)
- Password: Your AOL account password
- Encryption: TLS
Once these details are entered, be sure to click the Save Settings button to complete the integration process.
Step 6: Generate an App Password
In order to use SMTP on your WordPress site, you may need to generate an app password. Below, we’ll show you how to do this in:
If you’re using Live or Hotmail email, you don’t have to create an app password to configure SMTP on your site.
For more details and instructions on how to generate an app password for other providers, please see WP Mail SMTP’s documentation on the Other SMTP mailer.
How to Generate an App Password in Gmail
Before you can generate an app password in Gmail, you’ll need to turn on two-factor authentication.
Once that’s done, log in to your Google account and go to the App passwords section in your security settings.
From the Select app dropdown, choose the Other (Custom name) option.
Then type in a custom name for this password. We recommend using “WP Mail SMTP” or something else that will help you easily identify what this password is for.
Then click on the GENERATE button. This will show you your new password, which you can copy and paste into the SMTP Password field in your WP Mail SMTP settings.
How to Generate an App Password in Yahoo
To create an app password for Yahoo, log in to your Yahoo account. Then, click here to go to your account’s security settings.
Now scroll down to Generate app password and click on it. This will be crucial for setting up Yahoo as your mailer.
A screen will appear to generate your password. From the dropdown, select Other App. Name it something easy to identify and click on the Generate button.
Your password will be displayed on the next screen. Copy it and click done. You’ll need this to paste into the WP Mail SMTP settings area.
Once the password is generated, you can paste this password into WP Mail SMTP to complete the setup process.
Step 7: Send a Test Email
Once your SMTP settings have been added to WP Mail SMTP, it’s important to send a test email to ensure that everything is working right.
WP Mail SMTP makes this super easy. To send a test email, click on the Email Test tab on the Settings page.
On this tab, you can enter any email address that you have access to and click the Send Email button.
After sending the email, you should see a message telling you that the test HTML email was sent successfully.
If you check the inbox for the email address you just entered, you should receive the email for this test.
If you’re using Yahoo email, it may take about 5 – 10 minutes for it to arrive in your inbox, so be patient.
Be sure to also test out your form emails by submitting a couple of test submissions after completing this setup. That way, you can check that emails deliver successfully.
And don’t forget to set the From Email in your form’s notification settings to the same email you set up this SMTP with.
Another way to send notifications is via email. See our list of recommended WordPress SMS plugins for details.
That’s it! You’ve successfully configured SMTP on your WordPress site. You’ll now start getting notifications from your WordPress forms.
More Questions about WordPress Contact Form Not Sending Email
Fixing email deliverability issues for WordPress is a popular topic of interest among our readers. Here are answers to some common questions about it:
Why is my WordPress form not sending emails?
Sometimes, your WordPress form might not send emails because of server issues. Your hosting server might not be set up to send emails.
To fix this, you can use WP Mail SMTP. This plugin helps WordPress to send emails using a proper SMTP mail server.
It’s like giving your WordPress a direct path to send emails reliably and ensure they land straight to inboxes instead of the spam folder.
Why am I not receiving emails from my website contact form?
If you’re not receiving emails from your website contact form, it could be because they are getting lost. This often happens due to WordPress email settings not being properly configured.
A great solution is to use WPForms. It’s a user-friendly form builder that also helps in making sure your emails are correctly sent to your inbox, since it integrates smoothly with the WP Mail SMTP plugin.
Why is my contact form not working on WordPress?
When your contact form isn’t working, it might be because of incorrect settings or conflicts with other plugins.
First, check if your form settings in WordPress are correct. If everything looks fine there, try using WPForms and configure your form notification settings.
WPForms is a reliable tool that makes creating and managing forms easy and helps in solving common issues with forms on WordPress.
If you’re still experiencing issues, it could be due to JavaScript errors. In this case, you might find our guide to troubleshooting JavaScript errors helpful.
How do I send an email from a WordPress contact form?
To send an email from a WordPress contact form, you’ll need a form builder and an email sender plugin.
WPForms is a great choice for building your form. It’s easy to use and set up. After creating your form, use WP Mail SMTP to handle email sending.
This plugin ensures that your emails are delivered from WordPress to your recipient’s inbox without issues.
Next, Cut Down on eCommerce Cart Abandonment
And now that your email notifications are working properly, you might also want to check out our post on how to reduce shopping cart abandonment so you can learn more about sending abandoned cart emails and other tips.
Also, did you know that you can send confirmation emails after form submission to your users?
What are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today.
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