Email Delivery Issues

We've been using Sytist for a number of years without any deliverability issues. We've recently uploaded two schools in Feb and now I have had quite a few parents complain that they didn't receive their confirmation email (yes they've checked spam etc). I cans see on the backend that the emails have been sent. 

Could the issues have anything to do with this change or any backend changes that were made in anticipation of this update?

• Updated PHPMailer to version 6.9.1 which is now compatible with PHP 8.

We are using the PHPMailer option. However, we have also moved Sytist from one domain to another over the holidays. I figured the issue had to do with that and have been trying to troubleshoot it, but seeing this updated in the change log I did want to check/report so that I could rule this out as a factor. (I have read the help page on eamil deliverability which is why we haven't brought this up until now)

We were also on PHP 7.3 which I've just now updated to 8.0. 

The previous PHPMailer integration was compatible with PHP 7 so unless you were using PHP 8 that wasn't the issue.

You can send a test email in Settings -> Mail Sending Settings and it will give you debug information.

Hi Tim, I've already done that a few days ago and I received it successfully. However I can definitely say that some clients aren't getting emails now where they once were. 

I can I provide a little more info to you via email - I don't expect you to provide me with a solution but perhaps you can let me know what direction I should be looking in? I contacted my host yesterday but they were as useful as a vampire at a tanning salon. Perhaps if I had more direct info to give them they could help me figure it out. 

Your IP address for your hosting might be on a spam list. That is something your host can check.

Thank you, will do.

Adrienne, are you aware of the new email spam laws in 2024?
Perhaps your emails are no longer compliant? 

Do you have SPF and DKIM email authentication for your domain?

I am no expert, nut if you google "new email laws 2024" a host of info will come up for you to wade though.  It's possible what has worked for you in the past re: deliverability, will no longer be working for you now.

Hi Leanne, thanks for jumping in to comment. We recently moved to a more complicated set up using two domains, Styist now being on the new domain but the email is set to send out from our other domain. I thought that SPF/DKIM was the issue myself - this was what I was trying to figure out with our host (who were unable to help me). 

My main aim in posting here was to confirm that it was in no way due to any developments on Sytist's end with the PHP email update. Process of elimination and whatnot!

I'll be continuing to investigate the DNS records situation as I do think that this is likely the issue although hoping Tim may be able to point me in the right direction; I only have a tenuous grasp at how it all plays together. Cheers

It looks like SPF may be the problem.

Sytist is pushing out emails but they are being blocked by stockmanphoto.com and stockmanphoto@gmail.com

This is beyond my level of expertise and I will definitley make things worse.

If anyone can provide simple text language and tell me where to put it I would be happy to pay for the resolution.

Thank you in advance,

Chris

spf/dkim is a bare minimum to try and get other email servers to trust you, but if you are on a shared/vps server, there is nothing you can do if your IP address is being used as a spam feeder.  It will get listed.  Not to mention that increasingly the big boys (ms, G etc) prefer to block and ask questions later on email from small, private servers.  

What is your panel saying?  Stats >> email logs?  If it's sending (i.e. sytist is telling the server to send this email), then it's not sytists fault that receiving servers do not regard your domain as trustworthy.

I would never recommend hosting and serving emails from different domains, that is asking for trouble and is something most hosts will simply block outright.  

You can also set up DMARC reporting on your mail server to find out what receiving servers think of you.  

https://dnschecker.org/ is a decent one to test with.  

@Trailboy emails are sending out, I've received every test email sent myself. (I have figured this entire time that it was an issue with records or settings on the host/domain side but did want to confirm that it couldn't be any recent changes listed in the change log after seeing the update).

If I run the domain we're sending from through MXtools it shows no issues, but yes we are hosting Sytist on one domain and emails are set to send (in Sytist settings) to send from another @[us].com domain. However not sure why this presents an issue whereas someone who uses a basic non-domain email doesn't have these issues? (eg mybusiness@gmail.com).

We're really regretting the choices we've made in our main website refresh (ended up moving to Squarespace). Unfortunately we were given some bad advice and trusted someone who we thought was an expert but turned out was not. We already knew Sytist couldn't travel to SS, but didn't realize it would create so many complications and issues. This likely being one of them.

Is there a sample of the spf txt that needs to be applied to my DNS server.

Here is the start of what I think I am supposed to insert but, I will screw things up as I know my info is not correctly typed out

top line is suggested(required) by google

next lines I dont know if the name is supposed to be my domain, my email, every email that My site might use, I also send a great deal of emails out through filemail.com so I dont know how to integrate that either.

Any help would be appreciated