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Troubleshooting MailPoet Sending Issues: Unprocessed Emails, Rate Limits, and SSL Errors

56 threads Sep 16, 2025

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If your MailPoet emails are stuck, failing to send, or landing in spam, you're not alone. These are some of the most common issues users face with the 'MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation' plugin. This guide compiles frequent problems and their most effective solutions based on community reports.

Common MailPoet Sending Problems and Solutions

1. Emails Stuck "Unprocessed" or Sending Paused

The Problem: Your newsletter sending status shows "unprocessed" for all subscribers, and no emails are being dispatched, even though test emails work.

Why it Happens: This often indicates that the sending process has been automatically paused. This can be triggered by the task scheduler (WordPress cron) not running correctly, a misconfigured sending method, or underlying database errors.

How to Fix It:

  • Check Your Sending Method: Navigate to MailPoet > Settings > Advanced > Sending tab. Ensure your chosen sending method (e.g., MailPoet Sending Service, SMTP) is properly configured and active. If using SMTP, verify the login credentials and server details.
  • Task Scheduler (Cron): Go to MailPoet > Help > System Status. Check the "Task Scheduler" status. If it shows "Connection unsuccessful," your site's cron may not be functioning. Setting up a Linux cron job on your server is the most reliable fix. You can find instructions for this in the official MailPoet knowledge base.
  • Resume Sending: Sometimes, you may need to manually resume sending from within the MailPoet interface.

2. "Rate Limit Exceeded" Errors

The Problem: You see an error message stating "Rate limit exceeded, try later" when trying to send a preview email or a newsletter.

Why it Happens: The MailPoet Sending Service implements limits to prevent abuse. This includes a limit on how many preview emails you can send in a short period, which is separate from your monthly sending quota. Hitting this preview limit will trigger the error.

How to Fix It: This limit is temporary. Simply wait a few hours, and your ability to send preview emails should reset automatically.

3. SSL Certificate and Connection Errors

The Problem: You receive an error like "cURL error 60: SSL certificate problem: certificate has expired" or "Failed to enable crypto" in the System Status page, preventing connection to the sending service.

Why it Happens: This typically means your web server's PHP environment cannot create a secure SSL connection to MailPoet's servers. This is often due to an outdated CA certificate bundle on the server or an outdated version of OpenSSL.

How to Fix It: This is primarily a server-level issue. You should contact your hosting provider's support team. Ask them to verify that your server's CA certificate bundle is up to date and that it can successfully connect to https://bridge.mailpoet.com.

4. Emails Going to Spam

The Problem: Your newsletters are successfully sent but are consistently filtered into subscribers' spam folders.

Why it Happens: Email clients (like Gmail, Outlook) use complex algorithms to filter spam. Common causes include the sending IP address being on a blacklist, missing or incorrect SPF/DKIM email authentication records, or the content of the email itself triggering spam filters.

How to Fix It:

  • Check Your Domain's Reputation: Use a tool like mail-tester.com to analyze a sent email. It will provide a score and pinpoint issues, such as blacklisted IPs or missing authentication.
  • Authenticate Your Domain: If using the MailPoet Sending Service, ensure you have fully completed the domain authentication process in the MailPoet settings. This sets up the necessary SPF and DKIM records, which greatly improve inbox placement.
  • Review Email Content: Avoid excessive use of spam-triggering words like "FREE," all caps, and too many exclamation points!!!

5. PHP Version Mismatch and Errors

The Problem: You encounter PHP errors related to MailPoet (e.g., deprecation notices) or the plugin reports a different PHP version than your hosting control panel.

Why it Happens: Your hosting setup might use a different PHP version for command-line operations (which MailPoet's cron uses) than for web requests. Alternatively, the plugin may be incompatible with your current PHP version.

How to Fix It: Ensure you are running a supported, modern version of PHP (e.g., 8.1 or 8.2). Contact your host to confirm that the PHP version is consistent across both web and command-line interfaces. Updating PHP often resolves compatibility errors.

Need More Help?

If these steps don't resolve your issue, the problem may be more specific to your site's configuration. The official MailPoet knowledge base contains in-depth articles for each of these scenarios. For complex issues, you may need to consult with your web hosting provider or a WordPress developer to investigate server-level configurations and potential plugin conflicts.

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