WordPress Email delivery
Your form test reaches you, but the client gets nothing
A practical trace for web agencies when a test reaches one inbox but the client cannot find it.
Open the working sheet ↗A WordPress developer reports that they receive every test from a client's contact form while the client does not. A mail-test score and a successful message to the developer's address answer a narrower question, what happened to those messages at those destinations. They do not establish what happened at the client's inbox. In a separate support thread, a site operator reports receiving copies while clients on other mail services did not. Neither account establishes the underlying cause. The developer's account · WordPress support thread
Open the private delivery-check worksheet to record one agreed test.
Start with one agreed test
Ask the client who currently owns the destination inbox and agree a test time and a harmless reference such as AFN-TEST-204. Check the form's actual notification recipients before submitting. Record the reference, submission time and configured recipients. Do not include a real customer's details. Check whether the test could trigger a CRM workflow or autoresponder.
Submit through the same form and page a visitor uses. If your form builder records entries, check for that reference there. If it does not, use whatever submission or mail log the site already provides. WordPress documents that a successful return from wp_mail() means its sending method processed the request without error. It does not establish that a recipient received it. WordPress mail reference
Follow each recipient separately
Ask the intended inbox owner to search for the same reference in all mail, spam and trash, and inspect relevant filters and forwarding rules. Record “found”, “not found” or “not checked” for each recipient. Gmail's missing-mail guide describes searching across mail and checking filters. Gmail Help
| What you can observe | Next check |
|---|---|
| The form recorded an entry; there is no sending event or the mailer reports an error | Inspect the form's notification settings and the mailer's error log for the test time. |
| The mail provider shows a rejection for the client's address | Give the rejection and message reference to the mail provider or recipient's administrator. Check the configured destination before changing sender settings. |
| A delivery event exists, but the inbox owner cannot find the message | Ask the receiving administrator to trace the reference and check routing, filtering and the exact mailbox. A delivery event alone does not establish that a person saw it. |
| The recipient finds it in spam or a different folder | Check the applicable rule and sender authentication with the account owner. Repeat a labelled test after the change. |
| The message appears in the expected mailbox but remains unhandled | Confirm who owns the queue and who covers absences. |
An email received at one mailbox does not prove that another mailbox received the same notification. Mail logs and recipient checks are evidence of different steps. Do not treat an absent log entry as conclusive unless logging covered the test.
Check the sender configuration when the evidence points there
Contact Form 7 recommends using a sender address associated with the site's domain and placing the visitor's address in Reply-To. Verify the sender and reply settings against the site's actual mail provider rather than guessing from the visible address. Contact Form 7 mail guidance
If the client uses Gmail and can find the test message, “Show original” exposes its full headers for investigation. Authentication results describe the message that arrived. They cannot explain a message for which no headers are available. Gmail header instructions
What would resolve the original case? A labelled submission, its recorded recipients, a mail-provider trace and a check by the client's current inbox owner. The public discussion does not establish the cause, and this article has not tested that site.
Sources checked 6 November 2026. The sequence is an editorial troubleshooting proposal based on the cited documentation and the public question. Obtain the site owner's permission before testing a client form.
Which check will your agency run next?
Email the editors with the check or tool you chose and what led you to it. Please leave out client details.