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Troubleshooting MailPoet Post Notifications: Why Emails Send Twice or Show Wrong Content

18 threads Sep 16, 2025

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If you use MailPoet's Post Notification emails to automatically alert your subscribers to new content, you might occasionally run into a frustrating issue: the notification sends more than once, or it includes the wrong number of posts. This is a common problem reported by users, often stemming from a few specific configuration or environmental factors.

Based on community reports and troubleshooting threads, here are the most common reasons for these issues and how to resolve them.

Why Post Notifications Might Send Twice

Receiving duplicate emails can annoy your subscribers and hurt your sender reputation. The analyzed threads point to two primary causes:

1. Staging/Development Environment Conflict: A frequent culprit is running an identical copy of your website on a staging or development server. If both your live (production) site and your staging site use the same MailPoet license key and have the plugin active, cron jobs on both servers might trigger the sending process, resulting in duplicates. This is a common setup issue that can easily cause double-sends.

2. Plugin or Configuration Glitch: Sometimes, a glitch during the sending process or a conflict with another plugin can cause the sending task to be initiated more than once.

Why Post Notifications Show the Wrong Content

Another common headache is when a Post Notification is set to display a specific number of latest posts (e.g., 5), but subscribers receive a different amount—either just one post or a huge list of every post ever published.

1. The "First Send" Behavior: It is normal operation for a Post Notification to include all previously published posts of the selected type when it sends for the very first time. This ensures new subscribers receive a complete backlog of content. After this initial send, the notification will only include content published since the last send. This explains why a test of a new notification might list dozens of pages or posts.

2. Editing a Post Notification: Be aware that if you edit and save an existing Post Notification, it may reset its internal tracking. The next time it sends, it might behave like a first send and include all historical posts again, not just the new ones. This is a known limitation of the feature.

3. Preview vs. Reality: The posts you see in the email editor and preview are for demonstration purposes only. They do not necessarily reflect what will actually be sent when the post notification is triggered. The live email is dynamically generated based on the publishing trigger and the settings in your Automatic Latest Content block.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix These Issues

For Duplicate Sends:

  • Check Your Environments: The most effective fix is to ensure your staging/development site does not interfere with your live site. You can deactivate the MailPoet plugin on your staging site or use a different license key if possible.
  • Review Sending Tasks: Check the MailPoet > Help > System Status page to see if there are any unusual cron tasks or errors reported.

For Incorrect Post Content:

  • Understand the First-Send Rule: Know that the first send will always include all previous content. This is expected behavior.
  • Avoid Editing Active Notifications: To prevent the notification from resetting and resending all historical content, try to finalize your Post Notification design before activating it. If you must make changes, be prepared for the potential reset.
  • Use Test Lists: Before connecting a new Post Notification to your main subscriber list, send tests to a small, private list to verify its behavior.

If you continue to experience problems after checking these points, the next step is to look for conflicts. Temporarily disable other plugins and switch to a default WordPress theme to see if the issue resolves. This can help identify if another element on your site is interfering with MailPoet's operation.

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