How to Troubleshoot WordPress Contact Forms Issues

Having issues with your WordPress website's contact forms not working correctly? You are in the right place, check our article to know how to troubleshoot WordPress contact forms!

In this article, we will discuss:

• Prechecks
• Troubleshoot WordPress Contact Form Submissions
• Sender Email Configuration
• Review

Prechecks

• Check your Contact Form Plugin—It is important to check that the plugin on your website is active and up-to-date.
• Spam Folder & Basic Settings—A common scenario for form submissions is that they are received in the spam folder of the email address associated with the form. It will also be helpful to check the basic settings and status of the mailbox.

Troubleshoot WordPress Contact Form

1. If your Contact Form is not sending or receiving messages, you will need to test it yourself.
   Note: Use a completely different email address to send a submission with the contact form; this helps us check whether the issue lies with the form itself or the email associated with it.
2. Test both email addresses directly if the form submission fails.
   1. The email associated with the contact form
   2. The test email address you used to send a submission from the contact form
3. If you receive the email, check the contact form configuration to confirm the email address is correctly spelled and entered.
   • Check the spelling and punctuation for the email address.
   • Make sure an email is set up correctly to receive the form submissions.
4. If you do not receive the direct email from the test email address, proceed with email troubleshooting.
5. If the email address is working, you may need to replace the Contact Form Plugin or contact the Plugin developers for assistance with further troubleshooting.

Sender Email Configuration

Sometimes, the "sender email" configuration may prevent a form submission from being received. Based on the form configuration, the form will show that it came from the email address of the person who filled it out. The issue is that many third-party email providers will not allow emails that did not originate from their specific email server to be delivered. Hence, the form submission will fail.

The recommendation is to have an email address under your domain; for instance, it may be contactform@'yourdomain.com' or no-reply@'yourdomain.com', to be the sender email. Using an email from your domain will eliminate the concern that a third-party email may restrict the form's delivery.

Pending the form options, there may be a possibility of providing a "reply-to" field and having that configured as the person's email address when filling out the form. This will allow the owner to "reply to" the contact form email. It will go to the person's email address that filled out the form instead of the contactform@'theirdomain.com' or whatever email address they configured as the "sender email."

Review

To correctly troubleshoot WordPress contact forms, the first step is to check for common issues, from simple plugin updates and spam folders to more complex troubleshooting such as checking the sender email. By following the steps provided above, you can identify and resolve the most common reasons why your contact form emails are not being sent or received.