FormWatch Mail Health: How Your Email Is Watched

What FormWatch watches

Whenever your site sends an email, WordPress hands the message to a mailer, the part that actually sends it. FormWatch listens for that handoff and keeps score:

• Each successful handoff is counted. Routine messages are counted, not listed one by one, so they do not fill your event log.
• Each failed handoff is recorded as a Mail problem in the flight recorder, with the reason WordPress gave.

Handed off is not delivered

A successful handoff means WordPress passed the message to your mailer without an error. It does not mean the message arrived. A message can still be rejected later, blocked as spam or lost, and WordPress is not told. FormWatch cannot see that, so it never says a message was delivered. To check delivery, look in the inbox, and use an SMTP email service, which gives you its own delivery reports.

The Mailer line

Under Health check, the Mailer line says one of two things:

• A mail plugin or custom code is configuring the mailer. Something such as an SMTP plugin has taken over how mail is sent. This is usually the more reliable setup.
• Default WordPress mailer. Mail is sent directly by your web host. Many hosts deliver this kind of mail unreliably, so an SMTP service is usually safer.

FormWatch only detects whether something is configuring the mailer. It does not check that the configuration is right.

The mail-path test

The test sends one message to the address you choose and records the result as a Test row. A pass means WordPress accepted the message. A failure shows the reason in the Details column. Run it after you change any mail setting.

Failure alerts

• When: an alert is sent when a mail or form failure is recorded. Test and alert failures do not trigger more alerts.
• How often: at most one email per hour. Failures that happen in between are combined into the next email.
• Who: up to three addresses. If none is set, the site admin address is used.
• What is in it: the site name, how many problems, up to five events with their time, source and description, and a link to the dashboard. It never contains what a visitor typed into a form.
• If sending fails: FormWatch tries again later, up to four attempts, then stops until you click Mark as reviewed and a new problem is recorded. A row marked Alert shows when the email could not be sent.
• If mail is completely down: alerts use your site’s own mail, so they cannot be delivered. For that reason FormWatch also shows a red notice on every admin screen for administrators, for 24 hours after a problem, or until you mark it reviewed.

What is counted as a problem

When a form’s email fails, both the form plugin and the mail system may report it within moments. Both rows appear in the flight recorder, but FormWatch counts them as one problem. Failures that are not related are counted separately.

Lead loss risk

The status box in the dashboard summarizes the last 7 days. It counts problems since you last clicked Mark as reviewed, and never looks back more than 7 days.

Low does not promise that everything works. It means FormWatch has seen nothing wrong in what WordPress reported. Click Mark as reviewed after you have looked into a problem to clear the status. New problems bring it back.

What is and is not covered for each form plugin