No PM and subscription emails... everything else works

[maartenvr]

When people are subscribed to a forum, no emails are sent. Also when they receive a PM, it also does not send them an email notification, even thoough they have it turned on.

I used the email tool in the diagnostics, it sends email fine. The user also gets the welcome email when signing up. Just with subscriptions and PM's they do not get an email... how come? How can I fix this?

[Steve Machol]

Make sure you have a valid webmaster's email address in your Admin CP settings and that there is only one address. Then try this:

Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Email Options -> Enable "-f" Parameter -> Yes

Then try the vB email functions. If it still doesn't work, then this is either a server and/or mailbox issue.

vB uses PHP's mail() function for all its email and uses the SMTP server specified in php.ini. If PHP and the mail server are configured correctly then email will work.

Since some email is working, you will need to view the mail logs on the server to see what happened to those emails that don't work. Once vB sends it to PHP it's in the hands of the server. If you are on a shared server you may need to ask your host to look through the logs for you.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many ISPs and mail clients are putting in very aggressive spam filters. It's possible these emails are being placed into a spam folder or are being filtered.