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× Contact Enhanced is a contact component manager created to replace Joomla! core contacts component and add lots of advantages and new features (see Features ) and it offers many plugins and modules for several different purposes,
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"send copy to yourself" email lands in spam

3 years 10 months ago #25507 by jgress
Is anyone else having the issue where the "send copy to yourself" email lands in spam? And I think the submission email to the admin is landing in spam too. All my tests since the update have gone unanswered by the clients. I've done two sites so far and it's like crickets from the clients. (two clients, 4 tests.) I do think they are all using Gsuite and I am using Gmail. Maybe they've tightened up?

Just wanting to see if this is happening to other people too. Is it?

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3 years 10 months ago #25509 by support
Hi jgress,

Contact Enhanced uses Joomla Framework to send emails, so it should work properly as long as SMTP is correctly configured in Joomla Global Configuration.

You can go to Components » Contact Enhanced » Tools and under the Troubleshooting tab run a few Tests. This will print the log for each test you send and sometimes it helps to understand why it is going to the spam folder.

Best regards,
The following user(s) said Thank You: jgress

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3 years 10 months ago #25511 by jgress
All the email submissions are landing in spam. Whether the copy to the submitter/visitor OR the people/admin email in the contact. Not just the copy.

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3 years 10 months ago #25512 by jgress
Sorry Douglas, I didn't see your reply. It got confusing.

I have PHP mail set up in Global Config. Is it new that it must be SMTP? I'll try it.

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3 years 10 months ago #25513 by jgress
Douglas,

The problem with SMTP is that often the email address that clients use is a forwarder like info@ that goes to multiple people and doesn't have a password. I never know how to handle those and almost ALL of the clients that are using CE have this issue. How do I handle it if the email that the client wants as the Global Config email is a forwarder and not a "real" email address?

The one where they're all landing in spam has a totally different domain for his email than the domain of the site. So I see in #7 of idealextensions.com/joomla-ext...emails-are-not-being-sent.html that it says to make sure the domain is located in etc/remotedomains but I don't even know where that is. Can you direct me as to where etc/remotedomains is?

And I have to admit that I'm confused as to why PHP mail worked fine until this update...unless it's just a coincidence and they've been landing in spam for some months since the last CE update (which was fine using PHP mail).

Thanks in advance. I'm sorry I'm so confused on this.

Best,
Jenn

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3 years 10 months ago #25515 by support
SMTP is not a requirement to send emails, but I always recommend to use SMTP because the PHP Mail function does not have the option to authenticate the email sender, that's why your email messages are going to the SPAM folder.

Due to the fact that PHP Mail function does not have authentication, anyone with basic PHP knowledge can use PHP Mail function to send email as anyone@anydomain. Therefore, most mail servers and mail clients are imposing strict rules against unauthenticated emails. Even though you noticed it just after the update, the mail server might have been sending your emails to the spam folder for a while or it might be a coincidence. I assure you it has nothing to do with the lastest Contact Enhanced version.

Please read item #5 in the article below, which explains why you should be using SMTP:
Why emails are not being sent, never received or sent to SPAM folder?

5-Do you need authentication?
When you send email from your mail program or Joomla, you need to provide a password for outgoing mail (outgoing mail authentication?). If you are unsure because you set up your mail a long time ago, the best thing to do is ask your host. This is usually required because most mail servers nowadays have implemented DMARC policy in order to help reduce the potential for email-based abuse. For more information please go to the DMARC website.
Our extensions use Joomla framework and configuration to send emails and some mail servers will not work correctly with Sendmail or PHP Mailer because of the DMARC policy mentioned above. Therefore these servers require that unauthenticated emails must be sent from or to an email address @your-domain.com, or do not allow unauthenticated emails. It seems to be your case, specially if only the copy message is sent.

We always recommend to set the mailer to SMTP in the Joomla Global Configuration under the Server tab. This will avoid many mail problems, including your contact message be marked as SPAM.
Go to Global Configuration and set these options below accordingly to your server. If you are unsure how to do it, please contact your web hosting provider and he will be able to give you this information:

Mailer: SMTP Server
SMTP Authentication:
SMTP Security:
SMTP Port:
SMTP Username:
SMTP Password:
SMTP Host:


Only the Sender Email account configured in Joomla Global Configuration has to be a valid/real email account (with password). It will authenticate and then send emails as another email from your own domain. In other words, you do not need SMTP settings for your Contact Enhanced Contacts. Therefore your Contacts can still have forwarders in the email field. The Sender email (Authenticated) does not have to match the mail FROM field (in most cases, continue reading ;-) ).

Something that I wouldn't worry about right now (in 2020), but I'll mention because there I want to give all the information you need:
there are a few mail servers that require the FROM email address match the Sender email (from the SMTP settings). In this case, you would have to not only properly configure SMTP in Joomla Global Configuration but also set the Email sender option in Contact Enhanced Component Options (under the Contact Form tab) to Use Global. Again, I rarely see this and this is probably NOT your case.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,

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3 years 10 months ago #25516 by jgress
Thank you, Douglas. This REALLY helped me to understand. I wish spammers didn't ruin things for everyone. :(

Again thank you. I'll struggle through somehow. I appreciate you.

<3 jenn

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