Email Notification Issues #
Problems with version release notification emails not sending or not arriving.
Issue 1: No Emails Were Sent After Publishing #
Checklist:
- Is Send Email Notification checked on the version edit form?
- Is the global email notification toggle enabled in DDLS > Settings > Update Server?
- Is WP-Cron functioning? (The email queue runs via WP-Cron every 15 minutes — if WP-Cron is disabled, nothing processes)
- Does WordPress send email at all? Test with WP Mail SMTP or check Settings > System Status
To check if emails are queued: Look at the Email Queue count in the Update Server Stats dashboard widget. If the count went up after publishing, emails are queued but not yet sent.
Issue 2: Email Queue Count Is Not Going Down #
Symptom: Emails are queued (counter shows a non-zero number) but the count does not decrease over time.
Cause: The email queue cron job (dmsilm_us_process_email_queue) is not running.
Diagnoses:
DISABLE_WP_CRON = trueis set in wp-config.php- The cron job was unscheduled and not re-scheduled (can happen after deactivation/reactivation without proper cleanup)
Fix:
- Check wp-config.php for
DISABLE_WP_CRON - If disabled, set up a real server cron:
*/15 * * * * wget -q -O - https://yoursite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron > /dev/null 2>&1 - To force immediate processing:
wp cron event run dmsilm_us_process_email_queue
Issue 3: Emails Are Sent But Customers Don't Receive Them #
Checklist:
- Ask the customer to check their spam/junk folder
- Check the From Email address: is it on your own domain? (gmail.com addresses are flagged as spam)
- Check your domain's SPF and DKIM records
- Use a transactional email service (SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES) with the WP Mail SMTP plugin
To see delivery errors: Failed emails (after 3 retry attempts) remain in the email queue with their error message. There is no admin UI to view these directly; a developer can query wp_dmsilm_us_email_queue WHERE status = 'failed' to see error details.