XF 2.2 Email confirmation not coming through

[Resolute]

I have someone who registered but the email confirmation never arrived. They are using gmail.

Any idea why?

 

[ENF]

I have someone who registered but the email confirmation never arrived. They are using gmail.

Any idea why?

Have you setup the relative email signals such as SPF, DKIM, etc? Be sure you ask them to check their spam/junk mail folders.

Aside from that, you should also confirm that the site is able to send mail, basic checks. (and the obvious, is it the right email? Seen lots of typos and flat out wrong addresses entered by users... )

 

[TheGroove]

I'll start by saying email on my site is essentially dead. I have had this issue off and on for over a year, at one point I added DNS entry and posted about it here but it continues to happen, right now I have dozens of users sitting in the "Awaiting email confirmation" state who simply cannot register, all of which are gmail accounts. Not sure what's up with this board and email but I cannot get it to work properly, even with SMTP setup. I would love to know how other larger boards are handling and configuring it to work.

 

[Resolute]

Yeah I don’t know what is going on with it either they enter their email correctly and it sent fine for other Gmail users that signed up. I may just disable email confirmation and make it where I have to approve new users.

 

[TheGroove]

Yeah I don’t know what is going on with it either they enter their email correctly and it sent fine for other Gmail users that signed up. I may just disable email confirmation and make it where I have to approve new users.

Hadn't even thought of this, configuring it now. Great idea, not an ideal setup but at least people will be able to register.

 

[ENF]

I'll start by saying email on my site is essentially dead. I have had this issue off and on for over a year, at one point I added DNS entry and posted about it here but it continues to happen, right now I have dozens of users sitting in the "Awaiting email confirmation" state who simply cannot register, all of which are gmail accounts. Not sure what's up with this board and email but I cannot get it to work properly, even with SMTP setup. I would love to know how other larger boards are handling and configuring it to work.

I can assure you Gmail (and others) will work fine, but it takes some finesse as far as how you're sending those emails.

This post is basically a starting point but it takes some time to get things configured correctly. In my opinion:
PTR, DMARC, SPF, DKIM are all first-steps in getting email going on a new domain/site.

Hadn't even thought of this, configuring it now. Great idea, not an ideal setup but at least people will be able to register.

Just be careful if people try and sign up for mail notifications - lots of bounces will affect your domain reputation. (For those you're not validating, I mean...)

 

[TheGroove]

I can assure you Gmail (and others) will work fine, but it takes some finesse as far as how you're sending those emails.

This post is basically a starting point but it takes some time to get things configured correctly. In my opinion:
PTR, DMARC, SPF, DKIM are all first-steps in getting email going on a new domain/site.


Just be careful if people try and sign up for mail notifications - lots of bounces will affect your domain reputation. (For those you're not validating, I mean...)

I've signed up with Amazon SES and am going through the confirmation process to get out of the sandbox, which I'm not sure will happen but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trying to make my case.

 

[Resolute]

I can assure you Gmail (and others) will work fine, but it takes some finesse as far as how you're sending those emails.

This post is basically a starting point but it takes some time to get things configured correctly. In my opinion:
PTR, DMARC, SPF, DKIM are all first-steps in getting email going on a new domain/site.


Just be careful if people try and sign up for mail notifications - lots of bounces will affect your domain reputation. (For those you're not validating, I mean...)

If they sign up for mail notifications will they not get them if we have it set to where new members have to be manually approved when registering?

Also I bought my domain about a week ago. That could be part of the problem right?

 

[ENF]

If they sign up for mail notifications will they not get them if we have it set to where new members have to be manually approved when registering?

What I meant was that if the emails aren't validated (typos, common errors), they'll create bounce issues. I'm talking about those options they have in their User CP for receiving emails about watched threads, conversation notifications, etc. (Also, system mails like for password resets). If you're manually approving them without email validation, this is where an issue could crop up.

Also I bought my domain about a week ago. That could be part of the problem right?

Well yes and no. Your domain has no reputation and mail services need to be configured correctly to ensure that you're complying with requirements that are set forth by the larger mail handling community. Being new isn't really a problem, but you just need to configure things in a professional manner to ensure smooth operation.

It's also worthwhile to sign-up for those junk mail notification loops/sender management.
i.e. https://sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.com/pm/Services.aspx#JMRPP & Yahoo Complaint Feedback Loop
(Gmail has a bulk senders form here)

 

[alfaNova]

Hi, I am observing non-email verified users as well. I am checking their account and there is no typo on their emails. Mostly, these users are using Outlook email.

My question is, is there any way to check if email confirmation has been delivered or not?

 

[Silmarillion]

I was surprised, because we haven't had any new registrations in six weeks. So, today, for testing purposes, I registered with an old Gmail account, and behold: I didn't receive a confirmation email!

What could be causing this? Is it "just" a Gmail issue?

If you want to test it out: f*a*n*l*a*g*e*r.de

 

[ENF]

Hi, I am observing non-email verified users as well. I am checking their account and there is no typo on their emails. Mostly, these users are using Outlook email.

My question is, is there any way to check if email confirmation has been delivered or not?

Super late reply, sorry, missed this reply. --- There's no way to know if the mail actually got delivered fully. You can however look at email logs (depending on your email handing config) to see if the email was accepted or rejected by the destination mail handler. If they are rejected, you should get a bounce message. Microsoft owned domains, Outlook, Hotmail, etc. are notoriously difficult to get mail delivered to.

I was surprised, because we haven't had any new registrations in six weeks. So, today, for testing purposes, I registered with an old Gmail account, and behold: I didn't receive a confirmation email!

What could be causing this? Is it "just" a Gmail issue?

No, it's not just a Gmail issue. If the mail was bounced back, you need to look at the reason for the rejection. At least with Gmail, if you don't get a bounce, it typically does get delivered, even if it's to the Spam folder. Firstly, confirm that your system is indeed configured correct to send out emails and secondly, figure out where your bounced mail notices are going and check what's been recorded. If you have xenForo setup to handle this (bounces), you should see some data populated here ➡../admin.php?logs/email-bounces.

If your emails are indeed being black holed somewhere, time to reevaluate your email handling. Looking at our own logs, we're dispatching hundreds of emails/day to Gmail, no real issues reported. The most common problem we have is typos. For common domains, we blacklisted common misspellings of domains, like @gmail.con instead @gmail.com and so on.

 

[Silmarillion]

Firstly, confirm that your system is indeed configured correct to send out emails and secondly, figure out where your bounced mail notices are going and check what's been recorded. If you have xenForo setup to handle this (bounces), you should see some data populated here ➡../admin.php?logs/email-bounces.

What is the best way to do this?

 

[ENF]

What is the best way to do this?

Start with the basic, send a test email to a known working account, ../admin.php?tools/test-email and if that's fine, then check your overall mail config for SPF, DKIM (xenForo ACP here: ../admin.php?options/groups/emailOptions/#emailDkim) & DMARC. You can run some basic tests from this page.

There are many different flavors out there for email handling, but the above parameters are considered basic requirements to improve email delivery success.