Troubleshooting WooCommerce not Sending Emails Automatically

Is your WooCommerce not sending emails to the admin or customers? One of the most common issues with using the WooCommerce plugin is that email notifications are not being sent. This can take the form of either the customer not receiving notifications related to their orders or the site owner not getting notifications during different order completion stages.

In some cases, WooCommerce may not be sending any notifications at all.

Below, we will go through several of the most common causes of this issue and explore potential fixes. Some might be more complicated than others, but one of these will likely resolve your email problem.

Cause: WooCommerce email notification setup

One of the first things to check if you are having a WooCommerce email issue is the Email Settings page. After all, oftentimes the simplest fixes are the right ones.

To review your email settings, first, log in to your WordPress Dashboard. Hover your cursor over the WooCommerce tab on the left-hand side, then click on Settings in the drop-down menu.

On the Settings page, clicking on the Emails tab will let you set up how your email notifications are sent.

Fix: WooCommerce email sender options

On the Emails page, scroll down to see Email Sender Options. Here you can set up your ‘From name’ and ‘From address’.

‘From name’ is the sender name people will see when receiving your emails. Make sure it doesn’t contain any special characters (such as ‘.,@/&-’), and only use letters when setting it up.

‘From address’ is the email address the notifications will be sent from. Make sure this is correctly entered, and pay special attention to any extra periods and commas that may have been entered by mistake.

When you are done setting up your email sender options, scroll down and click Save Changes.

Fix: Turning individual notification emails on and off

While on the Emails page, you can review the list of every individual email notification that your web page can send. Clicking on one of these notifications will let you see if it is enabled, as well as who the intended recipient is.

If the notification happens to be disabled, simply check the ‘Enable this email notification’ box. Also, make sure that the recipient address is correctly entered and properly formatted.

Finally, make sure that the sender and recipient addresses are not the same. This can happen if you are running tests with your email settings and have set up both of the addresses with the same domain (eg, sender@company.com and recipient@company.com). The easiest way to fix this is to use the recipient’s email with a different domain.

After you are done setting up the notifications, scroll down and click Save Changes

Cause: Email notifications aren’t passing spam filters

It is possible your WooCommerce notifications aren’t getting into people’s inboxes simply because they are redirected to the Spam folder.

This could happen for a couple of reasons. For instance, your web host might also host web pages that use spam tactics, causing the host’s IP to get blacklisted. It could also be that your ‘From address’ domain looks like a personal email address (eg, sender@gmail.com), triggering the spam filter to block your message since the sender domain and your company domain don’t match.

Fix WooCommerce not sending emails with SMTP

The easiest way to fix this issue is to simply contact your web host and explain the problem. Most of the time, they will be able to fix the issue for you. However, if they are unable or unwilling to resolve the issue, you might need to either move to another host or start using an SMTP plugin.

SMTP acts as a dedicated email provider, making sure proper authentication is used and every email is delivered. There are a number of options available, but in this article, we will explain how to set up the Post SMTP plugin, which you can find in the WordPress repository.

1. WP Mail SMTP

One of the most popular SMTPs, it’s listed in the WordPress official plugins repository. It’s easy to set up and use, but it will save your login credentials in your WordPress dashboard, making them slightly less secure.

2. SendGrid

Even though it doesn’t list a free plan on the pricing page, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of SendGrid and receive 100 free emails per day. At the end of the trial, you will be given the choice to continue using your free 100 daily emails or switch to a premium option.

3. Mailgun

Mailgun excels due to the fact that you can send a staggering 10,000 free emails per month. Anything beyond that is paid, though.

4. SparkPost

SparkPost doesn’t allow you to use public domain emails, such as Gmail or Yahoo, but it does allow for 500 free emails per month. A premium option will increase the monthly email maximum to 100,000.

5. Postmark

Similar to SparkPost, Postmark also doesn’t allow the use of Gmail or Yahoo domains. Unlike the other SMTPs on this list, Postmark operates using an email credit system, giving you your first 25,000 credits for free. Beyond this, you will need to purchase more credits.

6. Gmail SMTP

Gmail SMTP uses your Gmail or G Suite account to securely send emails on behalf of your web page. It also doesn’t require entering your login credentials in your WordPress dashboard, where other admins can see them.

Setting up an SMTP plugin

In this example, we will be using Post SMTP to show what a typical SMTP setup might look like.

First, you will need to install Post SMTP, a free plugin that will help us use Gmail as a dedicated SMTP server. It should be mentioned that this plugin will also work with other setups and providers, such as SendGrid or MailGun.

1. Find Post SMTP on the left-hand side of your WordPress Dashboard and click on it. On the new page, click on the ‘Start the Wizard’ button.
2. Enter the email address you plan on sending notifications from and the name of your company.
3. On the next screen, under ‘Outgoing Mail Server Hostname’, enter smtp.gmail.com. Please note that some hosts will require you to use an account for their mail servers, in which case you should ask them for the outgoing address.
4. On the next screen, you will need to run a connectivity test. Choose ‘Gmail API’ and click on ‘Next’.
5. The next step of the Post SMTP setup wizard will take you to the screen with the authentication info. We will come back to this screen after we’ve set up the Google Developer Console.
6. Open a new tab and go to the Google Developer Console. Log in with the Gmail account you will be using to send the emails, and create a new project.
7. Enter a project name and click on ‘Create’.
8. At the top of the dashboard for the new project, click on ‘Enable APIs and Services’.
9. In the lower right of the new screen, under ‘G Suite APIs’, find and click on ‘Gmail API’.
10. Click ‘Enable’ at the top of the new screen.
11. Click on ‘Credentials’ on the left-hand side, then click on the ‘Create credentials’ button. In the drop-down menu, choose ‘OAuth client ID’.
12. On the right-hand side of the next screen, click on the ‘Configure consent screen’ button.
13. On the new screen, enter your email address, a product name, and finally, a privacy policy URL.
14. On the next screen, choose ‘Web application’ as the application type, and enter the application name. Returning to the ‘Authorization’ screen of the Post SMTP wizard, copy the ‘Authorized JavaScript origins’ URL and the ‘Authorized redirect URIs’ into the Google Developer project page, in the fields under the same name.
15. Copy your client ID and client secret from the next screen of the Google Developer project and paste them into the appropriate field in the Post SMTP wizard. Afterward, click ‘Next’, and then ‘Finish’.
16. In the Google Developer Console, under ‘Credentials’, choose the ‘Domain verification’ tab and click on ‘Add domain’.
17. On the Post SMTP Setup page, click on ‘Grant permission with Google’ to finish the process.

Conclusion

These are only some of the potential solutions to the issue of WooCommerce not sending emails. We hope this step-by-step guide helped you sort out any problems you might be having.

However, due to the potentially complex nature of the issue, your customers might still not be receiving emails even after you’ve gone through all the solutions listed here. If you know of a solution that might help other readers, please share it in the comments.

FAQ

Why is my WooCommerce email not sending automatically after an order?

If your WooCommerce email is not sending automatically, the most common causes are disabled email notifications, incorrect sender settings, or server-level mail restrictions. Always check WooCommerce → Settings → Emails first to ensure notifications are enabled and properly configured.

Can hosting providers block WooCommerce email delivery?

Yes. Many shared hosting providers limit or restrict the default PHP mail function, which can prevent WooCommerce email notifications from being sent automatically. In these cases, using an SMTP solution is the most reliable fix.

How do spam filters affect WooCommerce email notifications?

Sometimes WooCommerce email messages are sent but end up in spam folders. This can happen if your “From” address uses a public domain (like Gmail), your domain lacks proper authentication (SPF/DKIM), or your server IP is blacklisted.

Does installing an SMTP plugin fix WooCommerce email issues?

In most cases, yes. SMTP plugins (such as Gmail SMTP, SendGrid, or Mailgun integrations) authenticate outgoing emails properly, improving deliverability and ensuring WooCommerce email notifications are sent automatically.

Why are customers not receiving WooCommerce email confirmations, but admins are?

This usually indicates a recipient configuration issue. Check the specific notification settings for customer emails inside WooCommerce. Make sure the customer email template is enabled and that there are no typos in the recipient fields.