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Why Your WPForms Aren't Sending and How to Fix It

48 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Wpforms

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One of the most common issues users face with WPForms is the form not sending submissions or failing to deliver email notifications. This can be a frustrating experience, but it's often caused by a few specific and solvable problems. This guide will walk you through the most frequent causes and their solutions.

Common Symptoms

  • You see a success message, but no email arrives.
  • The form gets stuck on "Sending..." or displays an error like "The form was unable to submit. Please contact the site administrator."
  • You receive a generic error message after clicking submit.

Why This Happens

Based on common community reports, these issues typically stem from one of the following areas:

  1. Email Authentication: Emails sent from a default WordPress installation are often not authenticated, causing them to be flagged as spam or blocked entirely by receiving mail servers.
  2. Plugin or Theme Conflicts: Caching, optimization, or security plugins can sometimes interfere with the JavaScript and assets WPForms needs to function correctly.
  3. Incorrect Notification Settings: A simple misconfiguration in the form's notification settings can prevent emails from being sent to the right address.
  4. CAPTCHA Issues: Problems with reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha, such as being loaded twice on a page, can block form submission.
  5. Server Configuration: Certain server-level settings, like password-protected admin directories, can block the scripts WPForms uses to submit data.

How to Fix WPForms Email and Submission Issues

1. Configure an SMTP Plugin (The Most Common Fix)

The most effective solution for email delivery problems is to authenticate your emails using an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) plugin. This ensures emails from your site are trusted by other email providers.

  • Action: Install and configure a dedicated SMTP plugin. Popular options include WP Mail SMTP, Post SMTP, and Easy WP SMTP.
  • Why it works: These plugins route your WordPress emails through a proper mail server (like your Gmail, Outlook, or hosting company's SMTP server) with authentication, drastically improving deliverability.

2. Perform a Conflict Test

If your form is not submitting at all or is behaving erratically, a plugin or theme conflict is likely.

  • Action: Temporarily switch your theme to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Four. Then, deactivate all plugins except WPForms. Test the form. If it works, reactivate your plugins one by one, testing after each, to identify the culprit.
  • Common Conflicts: Pay special attention to caching plugins (e.g., WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache) and optimization plugins. For these, you may need to delay JavaScript execution or exclude WPForms assets from specific optimization settings.

3. Check Your Form Notification Settings

Before diving into more complex fixes, always double-check the basics.

  • Action: In your WordPress dashboard, go to WPForms » All Forms and edit your form. Navigate to Settings » Notifications and ensure the "Send To" email address is correct and properly formatted.

4. Adjust CAPTCHA Settings

If you are using a CAPTCHA and experiencing issues, try these steps.

  • Action: Go to WPForms » Settings » CAPTCHA. Try enabling "No-Conflict Mode," which can prevent issues if another plugin is also loading CAPTCHA scripts.
  • Alternative: As a test, you can temporarily disable CAPTCHA on your form to see if it resolves the submission problem.

5. Review Caching and Optimization Settings

Aggressive caching can often break dynamic features like forms.

  • Action: If you use a caching plugin, clear all your caches (page, browser, CDN). Look for settings to exclude the page with your form from being cached, or exclude the WPForms JavaScript file (usually wpforms.min.js) from being minified or combined.

By methodically working through these common solutions, you can usually identify and resolve the issue preventing your WPForms from working correctly. Always remember to test your form after each change to see which step fixed the problem.

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