Registration emails not received by new members

#1

`Hi - I’ve had some great help from someone over in the Wordpress forums but they also suggested I post here.

I have been using S2 Member for over a year and haven’t had any problems until the last few weeks. People are signing up for a recurring membership. Their payment goes through PayPal. They get a welcome email from MailChimp. When I check logs it appears that the registration email is sent to them. However, they never actually receive the registration email.

I had Easy SMPT installed and the log files showed the emails were sent but they weren’t received.

I then unsintalled Easy SMPT and installed Postman SMTP. This appeared ok as I received all test emails (as I had with Easy SMPT). With both I am receiving forum related emails ie. notifying of new posts etc. So, in my mind it isn’t an SMPT problem.

To me it is an issue with the communication between PayPal and S2 Member once people have actually paid.

I’m going to link to two logs (won’t let me paste due to too many links). (a) the logs from Easy SMTP and (b) the logs from S2 Member Server Scan.

Your help would be appreciated.
Abbie

PDF - http://theconciergesociety.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/s2MemberLOGFILESTHECONCIERGESOCIETY.pdf

#2

I would suggest you to fix the first warning from server scanner - damaged files can do unexpected problems.

Also, I think your first log is from “s2m IPN” log file, but not from the email handling plugin. There is pluggins to collect log of sent out emails, maybe it’s good to set some to see logs at this point?

#3

Thanks Krum! I have updated the S2Member Plugin and it is saying I have the latest version. Is the other option to upload and activate via FTP? I’m nervous about losing all my data doing it this way (I"m a bit of a novice).

Also, regarding the mail log, It does say in the WP Mail Log that the registration email was sent to Melissa (the person identified in the logs attached) but she never received the email. Perhaps it is a hosting issue? Why would the log say it was sent but that she never received it?

I appreciate any thoughts otherwise I am considering changing to another Membership Plugin to be honest as this has been causing me grief for a few months now.

#4

There are no records of Melissa in the reg-handler.log file because obviously, she didn’t receive the registration email. However, the system has clearly communicated with MailChimp as she is recorded in the logs and has subscribed.

My other note regarding emails and my host (Hostgator) is that other emails from my website are coming through such as notifications of new forum posts, and also the many spam free registrations I get (I opened this up again as I was worried this was the reason people weren’t getting their registration emails but hasn’t made a difference). Why would I still be getting notifications from the forum, and I believe my forum members are getting notifications, but new paying members aren’t receiving their registrations/activation email?

#5

I’m not sure if this information helps?

LOG ENTRY: Mon Jul 18th, 2016 @ precisely 11:57 pm UTC
PHP v5.4.45 :: WordPress v4.5.3 :: s2Member v160503
Memory 96.51 MB :: Real Memory 98.50 MB :: Peak Memory 96.80 MB :: Real Peak Memory 98.50 MB


User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 9_3_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/601.1.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.0 Mobile/13F69 Safari/601.1
Array
(
[mc_gross] => 25.00
[invoice] => 578d6a7ad5549~122.151.43.170
[protection_eligibility] => Ineligible
[payer_id] =>[DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[payment_date] => 16:57:26 Jul 18, 2016 PDT
[payment_status] => Completed
[charset] => windows-1252
[first_name] => Melissa
[option_selection1] => theconciergesociety.com
[option_selection2] => 122.151.43.170
[mc_fee] => 0.95
[subscr_id] => [DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[custom] => theconciergesociety.com
[payer_status] => unverified
[business] => abbie@lifestyleelements.com.au
[payer_email] => [DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[option_name1] => Originating Domain
[option_name2] => Customer IP Address
[txn_id] => [DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[payment_type] => instant
[last_name] => Miante
[receiver_email] => abbie@lifestyleelements.com.au
[payment_fee] => 0.95
[receiver_id] => [DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[txn_type] => subscr_payment
[item_name] => Concierge Secret Society / Private Forum & Library Membership $25 per month
[mc_currency] => USD
[item_number] => 1
[residence_country] => AU
[receipt_id] => 1664-2197-5565-5108
[transaction_subject] => Concierge Secret Society / Private Forum & Library Membership $25 per month
[payment_gross] => 25.00
[s2member_log] => Array
(
[0] => Return-Data received on: Mon Jul 18, 2016 11:57:40 pm UTC
[1] => s2Member POST vars verified through a POST back to PayPal.
[2] => s2Member originating domain ( $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] ) validated.
[3] => s2Member txn_type identified as ( web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment ).
[4] => s2Member txn_type identified as ( web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment ) w/o update vars.
[5] => Registration Cookies set on ( web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment ) w/o update vars.
[6] => Transient Tracking Cookie set on ( web_accept|subscr_signup|subscr_payment ) w/o update vars.
[7] => Redirecting Customer to Registration Page (after displaying a quick thank-you message). They need to Register now.
)

[subscr_gateway] => paypal
[subscr_baid] => [DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[subscr_cid] => [DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[eotper] => 
[ccaps] => 
[level] => 1
[ip] => [DELETED FOR PRIVACY]
[period1] => 0 D
[mc_amount1] => 0.00
[period3] => 1 M
[mc_amount3] => 25
[recurring] => 25
[initial_term] => 0 D
[initial] => 25
[regular] => 25
[regular_term] => 1 M
[currency] => USD
[currency_symbol] => $
[s2member_paypal_return_tra] => fnIyOldKRVBhN0hzWFZsbjdOS1RjN09OVGNQQkxlSkpaU3Y0OjdiMmU4NTljOTE2ZDk4ZjEyNTg2NWRhOTdkY2U5NmY5fPWITaAHR_vIKUHHnVXQpafDZck2ozOItk0Cnmh0RAZ-m7xlLpuMovvrG2dPZSYZjTBXUUco5SL9SpUCC4kEQiF0zaItb-QKAxLYqx_14KonqYSwLh0FKtajo2VymF_ngPvla8Vi9v0WGpBMWf-fCieJRbnQDEPdBTtXncBBC24EdPGVlsyc3bYXJYApm43zVoDS_6CzmvUtHMD4MCNOub3wumF3DNj9r9GqBPG6gHSo2tS7dVJJrgMK5Y8bd8tvtVGlFywX_cyE9uRSf1ymWhwgtE7xwA0aaTNompcby3lJLr_4BOJlyHqXuU6aVYjLoNJrHaWIHjd1GOqB_6YIsGwVHiumGTAmJNp9ogx4Z3vdY0cJdx0F_SunU98LPafk1Q

)

#6

@abbie2636: Abbie, welcome here!

Is the other option to upload and activate via FTP? I’m nervous about losing all my data doing it this way

You can update s2Member (or, indeed, any plugin) by FTP without losing data. Data is stored in the database, whereas you’d be updating files.

Why would the log say it was sent but that she never received it?

Because they are two different things. One is saying that processing for sending has been done; the other says whether sending actually took place. If you create a localhost installation on your own PC, the email logs will tell you that an email has been sent, but obviously it’s not actually connected to any means of sending, so it won’t get received. That’s the same as what’s happening here.

the system has clearly communicated with MailChimp as she is recorded in the logs and has subscribed.

That’s something different entirely, and doesn’t rely on email. Krum is the expert on Mailchimp!

other emails from my website are coming through such as notifications of
new forum posts, and also the many spam free registrations I get

But they aren’t dealing with PayPal. Somewhere between PayPal and your host you have a problem, and I very much doubt whether changing plugins will change anything because both likely culprits will still be involved.

You know I think you should change your host. Well, surprise, I hate PayPal too and would always recommend you use Stripe instead. ( I have been active on wordpress forums for around three years now, and the two biggest problems I’ve seen with membership stuff are caused by poor hosts and PayPal.) I know Stripe is available in Australia. You would need the Pro version of s2Member.

#7

Thanks Tim! I really appreciate all your help! I’m going to update the plugin first (thanks for putting my mind at ease) and then if that doesn’t work I will investigate going down the S2Pro path. I’m happy to use Stripe. I have had an account set up for ages but have never used it because previously so many services didn’t accept it. I will certainly look into this again.

Thanks!

#8

Hi Abbie, checksums may be different because of many things (include there is possible to be a bug in s2M itself), but to refresh files is good. I would suggest you to rename your “s2member” dir to something else, like “s2member-backup”, then to upload new “s2member” dir from your ZIP by FTP. This way is something goes wrong, you can get old files back. When all files are uploaded, check the site (but not “during upload” - may be errors, and plugin may be disactivated). It’s good to set the site in “maintenance” mode, there is lot of plugins for that, to prevent someone else to connect during FTP upload (it can be slow). If you still have disactivated plugin, you will find that they are 2 (as you will have two copies of the plugin). Investigate the URL under “Activate” link to see the one pointing to “s2member” dir and activate it. All this magic saves your info and settings.

There is a plugin named something like “Email members”, which allows you to send emails to your members. That needs time, but you may try it - send a message to a testing account of yours. If no incoming email again, that will mean problem in emails on your server, as this plugin and s2M sends emails same way.

MailChimp sends emails differently, not by your server, so this is completely different case. I have created a plugin to synchronize s2M and MC, Tim means it (thanks for the title, Tim :slight_smile: ). And Paypal sends emails out of your server. But Paypal also must get some info back to s2M, to confirm payment, and this not always works, so s2M stay “in dark”… In this case better change payment gateway.

#9

Well, the good news is that a paying member just subscribed and she has apparently received her registration email! At this stage I don’t know what the fix was, but I’m going to keep the plugins I disabled as they are for now. Hopefully that is the end of it!

Cheers,
Abbie

#10

@abbie2636, That’s good to hear!

May I suggest that you install a logging plugin, like Activity Log, so that you can keep track of what changes get made to your site and when. That way you should find it easier to identify why certain things happen when they do.

Tim

#11

@abbie2636/Abbie,

Since you don’t know what the issue was and, from what I have read above, your SMTP logs showed that the previous registration emails were being sent out, I don’t really think you had a problem with s2Member not sending emails out. If s2Member didn’t sent them out, they wouldn’t have been in the SMTP logs…

I also noticed that your hosting provider is Hostgator. I believe you may have an issue with some email providers simply sending your emails straight to a provider-wide “SPAM” bucket: they never even make it to the user’s SPAM folder. This is becoming increasing prevalent with what are called transactional emails (emails sent automatically by an application) from certain hosting providers. Unfortunately, with cheap hosting plans come bad neighbors. I’d suggest you look into a transactional email processor such as SendGrid, SendInBlue, or Mandrill. I personally prefer SendGrid as it is easy to set up and free for up to 4000 emails per month.

#12

Hello,

I have the same problem, i use JustHost with PayPal. What exactly did you do to fix it ?

Thank you !

#13

Hi! My issues was to do with plugins. I think it was actually WooCommerce that was the problem in the end for me. I’m still with HostGator and things have been working normally since then. I’d check your plugins and disable any you don’t need. Hope this helps. Let me know how you go.

#14

We understand that new members may not be receiving their registration emails. This could be due to a variety of reasons, such as issues with email delivery or spam filters. We recommend checking the spam/junk folder and ensuring that the email address is correctly entered. If the problem persists, please reach out to our support team for further assistance.

For additional insights on improving app functionality, you can refer to the following link: https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/how-to-develop-a-concierge-app/