UPDATE: Monday, July 20, 2009
Several visitors have contacted me to inform me that after applying my suggestions above, they were still receiving the error message with the red border. Please visit this follow-up post for information on how to possibly fix the problem. Please let me know if it worked for you!
Follow-Up Post: Contact Form 7’s “Failed to send your message” Error
UPDATE: August 27, 2009
If your website is being hosted on GoDaddy and you are using WordPress version 2.8.x (2.8.4 being the latest at time of writing) and the latest version of Contact Form 7 (2.0.1 at time of writing), you are probably visiting this blog because you are getting the annoying “failed to send your message” error (with the red border) in your contact form.
I just found out this evening that after upgrading to Contact Form 7 2.0.1 and WordPress 2.8.4, my contact form won’t send e-mails anymore. When I wrote this post back in April 2009, I was using WP version 2.7.1.
Well, I have good news: I have solved the problem. Please follow the instructions shown below for configuring WP-Mail-SMTP on your GoDaddy-hosted WordPress installation and then continue to the follow-up post above.
The Problem
My blog is being hosted at GoDaddy.com on their Windows hosting package and it’s running off of IIS 7. This service supports PHP 5, which allowed me to install WordPress. One requirement I had was the ability to have a contact form. I found Contact Form 7, which appears to be a popular WordPress plug-in. I installed and configured the plug-in, but I wasn’t able to send e-mail through it. I received the following error message:
I later found out at the Contact Form 7 developer’s blog that the problem was server-related as indicated by the red border. I googled the solution and found it. Rob Layton posted a very helpful article about how to solve this problem:
http://www.roblayton.net/archive/wordpress-not-sending-emails-anymore-solved/
In short, his solution points to the fact that PHP Mail or SMTP are no longer working after upgrading to a later version of WP. He suggests one of two plug-ins:
I opted for WP Mail.
I tried his recommendations which are detailed in his blog entry, but they didn’t work for me. Below is what I did for my GoDaddy account.
Solution
- Create a new e-mail account using the GoDaddy mail control panel. If you already are using GoDaddy as your e-mail provider, you don’t need to create a new one.
- Install either WP-Mail-SMTP or Cimy Swift SMTP. Since I am not using Cimy Swift SMTP, my instructions apply to WP-Mail-SMTP, but the solution should be fairly similar for Cimy. Then activate the plug-in.
- In the WordPress administration console, click “Settings”.
- Click the Email link under “Settings” (or the equivalent for Cimy). Enter the following data:
- From Email: “yourusername@domain.com” (without the quotes). This must be your GoDaddy hosted e-mail account.
- From Name: type in either your name or the name of your website. This will make the From line of the e-mail read as “From Name” <yourusername@domain.com>.
- Mailer: Choose “Send all WordPress emails via SMTP”. Do not choose the “…PHP mail() function…” because it won’t work.
- SMTP Host: relay-hosting.secureserver.net (do not use the SMTP server that GoDaddy provided you during your e-mail account sign-up. For the record, that is smtpout.secureserver.net).
- SMTP Port: 25 (default for most SMTP servers).
- Encryption: Choose “No encryption”. (I hope you aren’t sending sensitive data!)
- Authentication: Choose “No: Do not use SMTP authentication”.
- Click the Update Options button. You will be taken to the General Settings tab.
- Now click the Email link again. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and type in a valid e-mail address in the To: box under the “Send a Test Email” section.
- Click the Send Test button.
- If you did everything correctly, you should see the following screen:
Continue to follow-up post (Contact Form 7’s “Failed to send your message” error)…
#1 by slav on August 12, 2009 - 3:35 PM
correction: – I get the green message on the Form 7 when the wp-smtp is deactivated. otherwise with all the dofferent settings – it’s red, and “false”.
#2 by Mario on August 12, 2009 - 5:14 PM
Hi Slav,
My first suggestion is to find out from your hosting company (host.net) what the SMTP server is so you’re able to send e-mail through them. They should be able to provide you with this information. I doubt you’re the only one of their clients who can’t send e-mail via PHP. You won’t be able to use the GoDaddy relay server because I think it blocks outside clients. Since your website is physically located somewhere else, you won’t be able to benefit from my suggestions in my blog, but they can help somehow.
You can also try looking at the info.php file, located at the root of your website, from your web browser, by opening http://websitedomain/info.php
Then look for the line “SMTP” and jot down or copy the SMTP server shown there. This is how I found the real relay server that GoDaddy uses.
If you don’t have the info.php file, open a text editor and paste in the following code:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
Save that file as “info.php” and upload it to the root of your website (hosted at host.net). Then open it up in the web browser.
I wasn’t sure I understood your explanation about Google Apps, so I can’t comment on that.
I hope my suggestions help you.
#3 by Mario on August 12, 2009 - 5:21 PM
Slav,
Are you receiving your e-mail messages sent through Contact Form 7? If they are working, then you should be set to go!–and you don’t need the WP-SMTP plugin.
The plug-in is an alternative to PHP Mail when it doesn’t work.
#4 by slav on August 12, 2009 - 6:34 PM
the story is as I said so mixed up…from my hosting told me that the server IP is blacklisted and that’s why opening account with Google apps will solve the problem/as i’ll be using google’s server/. and i changed MX of my physical host of the site to these from google. the same with MX on godaddy.
part2: i only get the green message from contact 7 that my message was successfuly sent but actually it goes nowhere – it’s not received in any of the emails that i use for test.
#5 by Mario on August 12, 2009 - 7:15 PM
I may be overstepping, but if you feel comfortable, could you send me the settings you are using for Contact Form 7 and WP-SMTP? Which version of Contact Form 7 are you using? Send them to me as a screen shot by e-mail. I’ve never worked with Google Apps, so I might have to look into that to see how I can help. If you don’t feel comfortable with sharing that information, I understand.
#6 by king on August 14, 2009 - 5:12 AM
I setup properly. everything success. but when i test try to register myself, i haven’t receive any email. any solution?
#7 by slav on August 14, 2009 - 6:06 PM
Thanks Mario! just for the moment I gave up using this form. I first need to solve the problem with the hosting and hopefully it will solve the issue with form.
Just once again I want to say that the way you described the solution and all practical advices are the best I have seen on the net so far!
/I hate “clever” admins which are just writng a few words in so called “support forums” and leaves you wondering with a lot more questions and even creating more problems./
Good luck and I’ll e back hopefully with good news.
#8 by Mario on August 14, 2009 - 9:31 PM
Hi King,
Could you explain a little bit more what your situation is? Where did everything appear successful and where did you try to register? What plugins are you using? I’m assuming that your hosting company is also GoDaddy. Let me know.
#9 by Prad on September 4, 2009 - 8:49 AM
HI Kevin,
please try inputting without index.php
i.e %year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%
#10 by Mario on September 4, 2009 - 8:58 AM
Prad, does your solution work? Could you post the URL?