When a member says an email never arrived, work through three questions: did your platform send it, did it skip it on purpose, and does your sender setup let it through. You find everything under Settings > Notifications, which needs the permission Update Platform Settings.
Check whether it was sent
The Emails sent tab lists the emails your platform sent, among them those from the templates on the Templates tab, with Recipient, Subject and Date. An entry is written only after the email has left your platform. Some other emails, such as two-factor codes, sign-in alerts and the test email, never appear here. Open shows the email exactly as it was sent, and Load more fetches older entries.
If a template email is in the list, it was sent. Ask the recipient to look in the spam folder and to confirm the address shown under Recipient. If the email is missing from the list, it was skipped on purpose or sending failed. The next sections cover both.
Why an email is skipped
Before a template email goes out, your platform checks it and skips it in these cases, among others.
- The template is off. A template switched off on the Templates tab is sent to no one. Turn it back on there. Switching a template needs the permission Manage Notification Settings. Welcome Email, Reset Password and the trial invitation cannot be turned off.
- The member opted out. Members can turn off Marketing & notification emails in their profile. The Unsubscribe link in the email footer opens that setting, and the unsubscribe button that some inbox apps show next to the sender turns it off in one click. You see the same switch on the member's Notifications tab under Audience. Changing it there needs the permission Update Member.
- The address bounced or the recipient reported spam. After a permanent bounce or a spam report, your platform can stop sending to that address. A spam report also turns off the member's Marketing & notification emails. If the address was mistyped, correct it on the member profile. The new address is not blocked.
Opt-outs and blocked addresses do not stop the three emails that cannot be turned off. Admin notifications and some payment emails, such as refund notices, payment reminders and overdue notices, are sent regardless as well.
Emails can also be paused for a while when too many emails from your workspace bounce or are reported as spam.
Sender setup
On the Email settings tab, the Sender decides how emails leave your platform.
- MemberArea (recommended) sends through the shared infrastructure and needs no setup.
- Your own SMTP server sends through your mail server. Host, Port, Username, Password, From address and From name are then required. If your server refuses the connection or the login, the email is not sent and does not appear in Emails sent.
Under Replies and compliance, the Reply-to address decides where replies go when recipients hit Reply. Leave it empty and replies go to the From address. It applies to both senders.
After every change, save, then pick Send test email and enter an address under Send to. The test uses your saved settings. "Test email sent. Check the inbox and spam folder of the recipient." means the email left your platform. If sending fails, the dialog shows the error message that came back.
Sending from your own domain
Your own email domain lets your emails come from an address on your domain, such as noreply@mail.yourbrand.com. It only applies with MemberArea (recommended) as sender. With Your own SMTP server, the From address you entered there is used.
If no domain is connected yet:
- Enter a Sending domain, pick a Region and choose Connect domain.
- Add the listed records at your DNS provider. Copy all records copies them in one go.
- Pick Check now.
If the box already shows a domain with its records, a sending domain is connected. To use a different one, choose Disconnect first, then connect yours.
The status shows where the domain stands:
- Verified: the records are confirmed.
- Not started or Pending: the records are not confirmed yet. Check that you added them, wait for your DNS provider, then pick Check now again.
- DNS propagating: the check could not confirm the records yet. Try again later.
- Failed: the records do not match. Compare each record with the entry at your DNS provider, fix it and check again.
Only a verified domain is used as sender. Some emails, such as payment reminders, can still come from a MemberArea address. The Optional: DMARC record is "Recommended for new sending domains during warm-up. Not required for verification."
Disconnect removes the domain after you confirm.