XF 2.0 Gmail users not receiving emails

[Kangy]

I have searched and tried some of the suggestions already. I changed the SMTP from localhost to my server. I've confirmed from my cpanel that the messages are being delivered. Checked mxtoolbox for blacklists and my domain is not on any of them. I've registered with Google postmaster tools. I'm getting all notification emails.

There is a trend with Gmail users not receiving the confirmation email. I've got 10 pending registrations right now and they were all Gmail and they all say they haven't received it. A couple of them have claim to have searched and double checked spam and everywhere but they're not getting the email.

It doesn't sound like a xenforo issue. I figured I'd ask for help here in case someone else has experienced this

 

[Kangy]

It also seems to be affecting Hotmail users as well

 

[TPerry]

Make sure your DKIM, SPF and RDNS are configured correctly, especially considering that you have made a change.

 

[Bill Stuntz]

My guess is that the messages are being blocked by gmail's spam filter, and are not being delivered. The USER can whitelist you if google incorrectly detects you as a spammer, but it's unrealistic to expect them to do so. I use ThunderBird, and I don't see most of the spam that's addressed to me. If I go to the gmail web interface, I can see them in the spam folder there, but t-bird never sees them.

Make sure your DKIM, SPF and RDNS are configured correctly, especially considering that you have made a change.

I don't know whether it's possible to work with Google to be sure your emails aren't blocked as spam, but Tracy's post might explain it, too.

 

[AndyB]

I've registered with Google postmaster tools

How long ago?

 

[Kangy]

How long ago?

It was only maybe 3 or 4 days ago. I still get the "No data to display at this time. Please come back later." So that may be part of it.

@Tracy Perry do you have a reference or source I can research those settings? I hate to ask for you to spoon feed me but that is beyond my technical lingo.

 

[thumped]

i had an issue recently with the time on my VM drifting as NTP wasn't configured on the host server (oops...) - message delivery to Gmail was the first thing to fail once the clock got too far off for TLS connections to be established.

As soon as it hit 300 seconds off, HTTPS connections failed too.

 

[Jake B.]

@Tracy Perry do you have a reference or source I can research those settings? I hate to ask for you to spoon feed me but that is beyond my technical lingo.

You can put your domain into https://mxtoolbox.com/ and it'll show you what your SPF record is, but likely won't tell you if it's wrong, and will tell you if you're blacklisted. If you're using shared hosting it may be worth contacting your host

 

[Kangy]

If it helps, I use my cPanel to setup the domain emails and most users access them via IMAP on their phones or Outlook. I setup the outbound email for the forum as an actual mailbox to make sure that it wasn't going out "on behalf of" or anything like that.

@thumped if I send an email to an @gmail account from a domain email via outlook or the webmail access it goes through just fine. It's only the forum emails is what is strange.

@Jake B. I did the mxtoolbox already and no blacklist. I'll have to research more to better understand the SPF records though.

 

[Kangy]

The strange is if I go to trace mail on cPanel it shows delivered successfully to Gmail.

 

[AndyB]

There is a trend with Gmail users not receiving the confirmation email.

I assume you have a Gmail account, what happens when you register as a new user and use that gmail address, do you get the confirmation email?

 

[Kangy]

I assume you have a Gmail account, what happens when you register as a new user and use that gmail address, do you get the confirmation email?

I am about to try that next. I just sent another test email to myself from my domain to my gmail and it got flagged as spam. hmm. I also put in a ticket with my hosting company. (They are loving me right now lol, also have another open ticket for the cache issue).

 

[thumped]

Are they using this Categories nonsense without realising it?

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/3094499

 

[Kangy]

Are they using this Categories nonsense without realising it?

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/3094499

Not sure for everyone. I know for mine I'm not and it still happens to me. I'm pretty sure it's not a xenforo issue. None the less I appreciate all the help from everybody

 

[AndyB]

I am about to try that next.

Do try and register as a new test user and use your gmail email address, do you get the email?

 

[TPerry]

http://www.dnsstuff.com/mstc
Then also use MXToolbox site and run a MX record check.
After doing that then you can use the drop down box and run several other checks (SPF and DKIM specifically).

 

[Sim]

Checked mxtoolbox for blacklists and my domain is not on any of them

Have you also checked your mail server's IP address to see if it's on any of those blacklists? That's the number one issue we have is IP addresses with poor sending reputation causing emails to be rejected or treated as spam.

DKIM and SPF are quite important for deliverability. I suggest using a 3rd party email service provider (ESP) who can take care of that configuration for you (they will tell you what to put in your DNS records) and help you with deliverability in general.

 

[Kangy]

My host has added DKIM and SPF records to the DNS. I ran all the checks at mxtoolbox and everything that was showing error seems to have been repaired. I will redo the checks using the IP, it is a shared hosting. The host has been very responsive to my request, I'm not sure an email service provider is an option unless there are free ones. The website is just for a personal community and only have 20 users with email accounts.

The host said since it is DNS it could take up to 24 hours to fully propagate. I will test outbound messages again this evening with a new form registration and the fresh Gmail account.

I am in no way blaming xenforo, but prior to the installation and new registrations starting to happen none of the individual emails that were being sent got caught in spam. Could it have been possible that a couple of the new registrations manually flagged some of the notifications as spam on their Gmail and that trickled through Gmails end?

 

[Sim]

I am in no way blaming xenforo, but prior to the installation and new registrations starting to happen none of the individual emails that were being sent got caught in spam. Could it have been possible that a couple of the new registrations manually flagged some of the notifications as spam on their Gmail and that trickled through Gmails end?

Another issue to check for - does the domain of the email address you are using for your outbound emails match the domain of your website?

That's one thing spam filters look for - if you are including links in your email which don't match the domain you are sending from, then it is more likely they will flag it as spam (depending on what other triggers they find).

So if your forums are hosted on example.com and thus the links in the email point to that domain, try and send forum emails from the same domain (eg webmaster@example.com or forums@example.com, etc).

 

[Kangy]

@Sim the site is on the same domain as the email and I'm using the smtp for the sites email instead of the localhost setting. The issue, although originated with the confirmation emails, now affects all emails sent from that domain. I'm going to give it up few more hours until the 24 hour period is up for propagation and experiment some more. I'm thinking something when I was using the xenforo localhost setting (and I was missing spf and dkim records) got the confirmations flagged in Gmail and Hotmail. And now they have the domain listed as spam internally?? although no blacklists report it. I filled out mail delivery issue tickets for both outlook.com and gmail.com through their support. Right now it's just a waiting game