Contact Form Emails Not Arriving? Print

If your WordPress contact form says "message sent" but nothing arrives, the email is probably being blocked or sent to spam. Sending through a real email account fixes it.

Why It Happens

By default WordPress sends email in a way that looks suspicious to Gmail and Outlook, especially when the "From" address is the person who filled in the form. Their spam filters often block it.

The Fix: Send Through SMTP

1. Create an email account for your website, for example website@yourdomain.com.au
2. In WordPress, install and activate a plugin such as WP Mail SMTP or FluentSMTP
3. In the plugin's settings, choose Other SMTP and enter:
   • SMTP host: mail.yourdomain.com.au
   • Encryption: SSL
   • Port: 465
   • Authentication: on
   • Username: website@yourdomain.com.au
   • Password: that account's password
4. Set From Email to the same address
5. Save, then use the plugin's Send a Test Email option

Check Your Form Settings

• From: should be your own address, such as website@yourdomain.com.au, not the visitor's
• Reply-To: set this to the visitor's email field, so you can just click Reply

Using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for Email?

If your email isn't hosted with us, make sure Email Routing in cPanel is set to Remote, or form emails will never leave the server. See How to Use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace Email.

Still Not Arriving?

Check Track Delivery in cPanel to see what happened to the message.