Daily Email Digest stopped working

  • Resolved Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)


    11 years, 1 month ago

    Hi Matt,

    I’m using Subscribe2 ver. 8.9, but the problem started 10 days ago, when I was still using ver. 8.8

    The plugin is set to send a daily digest when posts are added. It’s a GREAT plugin — has been working flawlessly for 3+ years! But it just stopped. Based on comments you made to others, I added the email-log plugin… Here’s where things are at:

    1. I’m well under the Host’s number of allowed number of emails to be sent at one time, and the Host’s support sees no problems on their end.

    2. The Restrict number of recipients is set to 0 (unrestricted).

    3. The Email-log shows each attempted sending, both automated and manual, as if there were sent.

    4. Email is set to be sent from a special user, not the website, and the user role is Administrator.

    5. When using the Send Mail feature, a message is actually sent to, and received by, all subscribers.

    6. When attempting to Send the Last Digest, nothing happens…

    7. When adding new posts, the digest fails to be sent.

    So, while the email-log shows all emails (as if sent), the plugin works with the special email messages, but not with the ‘normal,’ programmed messages.

    Very frustrating. I’ve updated a few plugins in the past few days, but have made no major changes of any kind.

    Would greatly appreciate your advice.

    Thank you,
    JF

    http://www.israeli-occupation.org/

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe2/

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 26 total)
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  • mattyrob

    (@mattyrob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    @Josefus,

    Occasionally the database values associated with post collection for the digest emails get corrupted. It may be that is has happened here.

    Ty changing your settings to per-post emails and apply the change and then change back to your chosen digest. Frequency again and see if that helps. Unfortunately you will not be able to resend any failed emails.

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Matt,

    Thanks very much!

    No problem with the inability to resend failed emails.

    Question: Once I go through the process you’re suggesting, will the next regularly scheduled daily dispatch pick up the unsent posts? Or, do I have to post fresh content, *after* I do what you’re suggesting, before the plugin will recognize new content since the last successful dispatch? (Right now, there are 6-8 posts that have not been dispatched.)

    Thank you again!
    JF

    P.S. It seems that in the past a the user account associated with the sending of the dispatch could have the Editor role; now it’s Administrator. For security reasons, might it not be better to lower the role, just in case someone succeeds in breaking into that account? Thanks!

    mattyrob

    (@mattyrob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    @Josefus,

    Doing what I suggested above does reset things to now so any posts made in the past will be missed from a future digest.

    You could overcome this by editing the date of publication such that they are included.

    As far as I know the sending account has always needed to be an administrator level account (mind you, if you set that up and then demote the account to Editor level it should still work but the settings page might look a bit funny).

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Thanks for clarifying! Maybe my mistake on the User role…

    I added a post to see whether it works.

    Thanks again!
    JF

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Matt,

    I followed your instructions, and also added a new post. While the Email log showed the daily digest as sent, it was not received.

    Not sure what to try next, and would greatly appreciate your help.

    Thank you,
    JF

    mattyrob

    (@mattyrob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    @jf,

    Two things are worth trying now then, since the emails are apparently being generated.

    First, try adding this line to the wp-config.php file:
    define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);

    The other thing to do is to speak to your hosting provider again, make sure they are looking at the server logs, not the email log though as these emails are passed via the PHP mail() function.

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Matty,

    I added the code to wp-config. Will post something and wait to see it it works. Will let you know in about 15 hours.

    The hosting provider support team is saying *their* server logs indicate the emails are being sent; this is separate, and in addition to, the Email-log plugin installed in WP, which also says emails are sent. Yet, they’re not received. I have an escalated support ticket that’s open and presumably being investigated.

    Thank you again,
    JF

    mattyrob

    (@mattyrob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    @jf,

    Hmm, if the log you see and the hosting provider log indicate emails are being generated and sent the only thing I can think of is spam. Perhaps your emails are being marked as spam and in the spam folders.

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Matty,

    Thank you for your reply. I can’t imagine it’s a spam issue. The distribution list is 350+ and it has been in operation for over 3 years. The recipients aren’t getting the notifications – it’s clear from both tests on several individual addresses in the US and Europe, and from the decline in site readership — the segment of readers who come to the site based on the notifications. (And when they were notified of the email service interruption via special “Send Email” they came to the homepage to read the posts…)

    The several addresses tested had nothing in the spam directory… And, the sending user/email address have been known to the recipients since they joined the list.

    If you think that complete removal and re-installation of the plugin would fix the problem, I’d be happy to do it. I just need to be sure I don’t lose the subscribers list – so if you’d instruct me how to do it without losing it, that would be great.

    I’m truly puzzled by this! I mean, it’s been working flawlessly for over 3 years and stopped, and the only website changes were minor plugin update.

    Which brings me to this question: I’m using Hyper-Cache, very successfully. Would my fixing attempts be counteracted by the cache?
    Should I empty the cache for any of the fixes you suggested — mail frequency setting change and the code in wp-config — to take effect?

    Finally, if you think it would help if you reviewed the Subscribe2 settings, I’d be happy to sent you images of the settings — please tell me where to send them. I’ve already spent many hours on this because email service is so important for this non-profit website.

    Many Thanks,
    JF

    mattyrob

    (@mattyrob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    @jf,

    I use Hyper-Cache and it works very well alongside Subscribe2 so no issues there.

    Re-installing isn’t going to help really, a corrupt file would stop the plugin working at all.

    I think we should wait to hear back from your hosting provider, in the meantime try subscribing ‘check@isnotspam.com’ as a public subscriber and if an email gets to that address it will email you back and provide a spam report too.

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Matt,

    Thanks again! I added the check@isnotspam.com

    Waiting for the Host support might prove like waiting for Godot… It’s been a couple of days already. I will follow up Monday.

    I’m puzzled: if you know which file is corrupt, why not replace it? Or is it that you cannot tell which file is corrupt? It’s not going to be the subscriber’s list, and I can carefully replicate the settings by cut-and-paste… Of course, the subscribers list must be secured — exported and then imported back? (I’m not aware of an export/import feature…)

    So, what am I missing?

    Thank you again!
    JF

    mattyrob

    (@mattyrob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    @jf,

    The plugin is written in PHP, that’s a scripting language that’s compiled at the time of running. If the file is corrupt is fails to compile and does not work at all either throwing an error message or giving you a white screen – so I doubt your files are corrupt.

    If you really want to replace them that’s fine with me, it’s your time after all 🙂 To do that download a fresh copy of the plugin from WordPress.org, unzip it on your local machine and then upload it to your server using FTP software.

    It’s also worth erasing the files already on the server first. You won’t lose any subscribers or settings as these are all held in the database.

    If you wish you could also reset the settings and then re-apply your current preferences to ensure that the database values are not corrupted.

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    Thanks again! But…

    I’m not looking for things to do… though I will try replacing the plugin, erasing the existing plugin first.

    Rather, I was trying to understand *which* file might be corrupt – as you said “a corrupt file would stop the plugin working…”

    If we knew what file might be corrupt, would we then be able to replace it and fix the problem?

    Thank you,
    JF

    mattyrob

    (@mattyrob)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    @jf,

    I understand where you are coming from now but what I actually said was that a corrupt file would stop the plugin working at all. A corrupt file would throw syntax errors resulting on screen error messages or white screens. Also, files don’t tend to be fine for 3 years and then corrupt.

    By all means upload a frag copy of the plugin but I doubt it will help.

    Thread Starter Josefus Flavius

    (@josefus-flavius)

    11 years, 1 month ago

    *** HELP PLEASE… ***

    Dear Matt,

    Following our earlier discussion, I deleted the Subscribe2 plugin and installed a new one, then replicated all the old settings.

    But, I now have 0 Public Subscribers!

    Maybe I should have deleted the files without Deleting the plugin?

    No matter, I do have an older copy of the entire setup and could replicate it, if necessary. Is there a way to just restore the Subscribers?

    Thank you,
    JF

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 26 total)
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