Why is Contact Form 7 not sending email?
The most likely cause of your problem may be as follows:
Possible Cause #1 – Your web host does not support the PHP mail function
By default, Contact Form 7 sends emails using the wp_mail function, which relies on the PHP mail function of your hosting server. Some hosting providers, like GoDaddy, don’t support the PHP mail function, which is why WordPress can’t inform you about the messages left on your site.
Even if your host does support PHP mail, the fact that PHP mail lacks authentication makes emails sent via this method more likely to be flagged as spam.
Possible Cause #2 – Your web host has turned off the ability to send emails from your WordPress website
If you are ever suddenly not receiving Contact Form 7 submissions from your WordPress site to your email, it could be an issue with your website’s host, not Contact Form 7 or your email provider. Some hosts will automatically turn off sending emails from WordPress sites’ contact forms after they sense a brute force attack or other traffic anomalies or even if you just get too many contact form submissions.
Possible Cause #3 – Email spoofing
Email spoofing occurs when an email looks like it was sent from a certain source but was actually sent from another. Most spoof emails don’t make it to users’ inboxes because of Contact Form 7’s default configuration settings. So, if your email ends up in this category, it likely won’t make it to its destination. When a user completes your form, you get a notification from the email of the sender. This oftentimes gets flagged as a spoof email because it sends from your website instead of the individual sender. This is a common reason why Contact Form 7 emails don’t make it to the inbox.
How to resolve the issue?
Here are our suggestions:
Solution #1 – Install this plugin Flamingo
This plugin was also created by the author of Contact Form 7. Its purpose is to store messages submitted by Contact Form 7 forms directly in the dashboard of your website.
After activation of the plugin, you’ll find Flamingo on the WordPress admin screen menu. All messages through contact forms are listed there and are searchable. With Flamingo, you are no longer need to worry about losing important messages due to mail server issues or misconfiguration in mail setup.
Solution #2 – Install a third-party SMTP plugin
A WordPress SMTP plugin is a tool that helps to properly configure and control the way your WordPress site sends emails. It uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to ensure your WordPress emails are delivered efficiently, bypassing typical PHP mail function issues that can lead to email deliverability problems. There are a number of SMTP plugins to choose from. You can search and find one in the WordPress plugin repository.
Solution #3 – Contact your website hosting provider (not your email hosting)
Using the above two methods, you can first ensure that you can receive messages submitted by Contact Form 7. In addition, we also recommend that you contact the hosting provider of your website and tell them that Contact Form7 on your website suddenly cannot send emails and this function worked before. Have them check to see if your site’s function to send email has been disabled (as mentioned in “Possible Cause 2”).