I had an online chat with the WordPress people this morning, as about a dozen of you have let me know that, as subscribers, you’re not getting your regular emails for each post. What I’ve learned so far is this.
I can check a subscriber list to see if you’re on it (I didn’t know how to do that before). If you’re NOT on it, I can add your email. If you want me to check because you’re suddenly not getting emails, send me your email address where the posts usually go, and I’ll see if it’s on my subscriber list. If it’s not, I’ll add it. I’m not sure that will work, though, as when I checked everyone who complained all had their emails on the list. Nevertheless, I can check. But this leads me to suspect that it’s not WordPress or this site that’s the problem, but your email.
Here’s what they told me to try to fix the problem. This is from the WordPress conversation (what the person told me is indented):
If someone is a new subscriber and not seeing your email notifications, they may need to check their junk/spam folder and set up notifications for your email address by adding it to a Whitelist.
This seems to be happening most often with Gmail. That suggests it’s likely related to the spam issue I mentioned. Gmail often sends regular emails to the junk folder or categorizes it into a different folder so it’s best that users set up a rule in Gmail.
You can also recommend that your subscribers set up a feed to keep them up to date as you post, especially if you’re posting very regularly. You can learn more here: https://wordpress.com/support/feeds/
That site, and the next one, are publicly viewable.
You can also share this handy guide which is specifically for Gmail users: https://wordpress.com/support/email-notifications/gmail-issues/
I also asked the WordPress person why this seems to be happening almost exclusively to people who use Gmail, why it started happening yesterday. The response:
Google frequently updates the Gmail app settings so it is likely that after a recent update the email setup is no longer the same. As a Gmail user myself, I can attest to this.
The upshot: see if emails from this site are going to your spam or junk folders. If they are, put them on your “whitelist” of sources you’ll accept. If that doesn’t work, contact me and I can check if your email address is on the subscriber list. If it is, then there’s nothing more I can do. And if you’re on Gmail, check out the “handy guide for Gmail users” noted above.
I’ll hold off sending you a specific email, as I’m guessing your inbox will explode. I’m @ yahoo.com, not gmail, and started finding my emails in the spam folder a few days ago, and individually marked them all as “not spam,” only to stop getting WEIT emails in any folder. I tried signing up again at the top left yesterday, but still no emails in inbox or spam. I’ve signed up again today and will wait and see what happens. My uninformed and ignorant guess is that the problem is with WordPress?
I’m also not receiving your blog emails, but I received your reply to a news item I sent. I’ve resubscribed to no avail. I’m Ginger at gvicious@hotmail.com .
You’re on the subscriber list
frank_bath2000@yahoo.co.uk
You’re on the subscriber list
Hi Jerry, I tried signing up again, but it didn’t work. Would you see if my email address is on your list. I suspect that I’m on the list, since clicking on the box fills it in. WEIT does not get diverted to my spam or junk folders. Thanks
Yes, you’re in.
I read the the handy guide linked to above https://wordpress.com/support/email-notifications/gmail-issues/
and noticed the final section “Are you using dots/periods in your email address?”. I am, and tried re-subscribing using my email address without the period – I hadn’t realised that period in gmail addresses are purely cosmetic – and this seems to have been successful. Why I’ve not had any issues before the other day is a mystery. Would be interesting to know if this works for other people.
It doesn’t say whether it is gmail’s forwarding that is broken or WordPress’s, but dots in an email address are perfectly legitimate, so something is broken.
Anyway, can I recommend getting an RSS reader and subscribing with that. It’s a lot easier than email.
I stopped getting them too…gmail user. I tried to re-subscribe, but it said “you already are signed up.” I looked in my spam folders and nothing there. I guess I’m out of options.
Hi Jerry,
My email provider is btinternet.com. There’s no sign of your emails in my spam folder. I tried to sign up again and it said I’m already subscribed. As I’m adding this comment there are 2 checkboxes underneath. One says “Notify me of new comments via email” and the other says “Notify me of new posts via email” so I’ve checked them both. I’ll post a reply tomorrow to say if it was successful or not.
Anyway, I’ll just check your home page each day. Thanks again for all you do on this site.
I use Inoreader to read Jerry’s website along with a lot of similar sites. There’s a Windows version along with Apple and Android versions and they get their data from a database somewhere in Bulgaria or something which is refreshed frequently. I don’t have to wait for e-mails, I just open the app to see what’s new today. It’s free software.
There are other “blog readers” (sorry, that’s what they call themselves) which perform the same function.
Are you sending emails from your own account/domain or through WordPress? If the former, do you have SPF, DKIM, and DMARC set up to ensure that
a) your emails are authenticated as being from you
b) your domain/server isn’t being spoofed by others to send spam
See https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/email-security/dmarc-dkim-spf/
Google routinely blocks legitimate email senders who get spoofed by illegitimate ones. Almost no recourse.
I have no issues with getting the emails announcing each new post. However…
I noticed a few months ago that the “Notify me of new comments via email” function has ceased working–completely. Not on gmail; nothing going to spam.
I haven’t received email notifications of new posts for 2 days. I use yahoo and have checked my spam folder but the posts haven’t turned up there.
I haven’t received email notifications for new comments for some time now. I don’t check the box every time any more. So if I don’t actually go back to the comments section I won’t know if anybody has responded to my comment or added more comments on that topic.
I’ll check the boxes again and see what happens.
@MichaelW The comments are the only posts I’m receiving.
I’m now getting comments but not the original posts. It’s not a big deal as I’ve added the site to Feedly (https://feedly.com/) which is cross-platform and free for personal users.