> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.elasticfunnels.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Emails Not Sending

> A checklist for when a customer did not receive an order, refund, shipping, or renewal email.

## Start with the send log

Open **Email Send Logs** at `/{brand}/emails/smtp-logs`. It records every email sent through
your brand's SMTP configuration, with the recipient, the subject, the template used, the
source that triggered it, and whether it was delivered or failed.

Filter by **Source** to see one type at a time. `Purchase` and `Refund` are the order jobs,
`Members Login` is the members area, `SMTP Test` is the button on the Emailing tab.

Two different answers, two different problems:

* **The send is listed and failed.** Your credentials or your provider are the issue. Go to
  [Sender problems](#sender-problems).
* **The send is not listed at all.** Nothing was ever attempted. Go to
  [The email was never triggered](#the-email-was-never-triggered).

<Note>
  The log covers the SMTP path. Merchants sending through a Mailgun or SendGrid integration
  instead of brand SMTP write to a separate log and will not appear here.
</Note>

***

## The email was never triggered

Work down this list in order. The first miss is almost always the answer.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Is the slot filled on the right merchant?">
    Merchant → **Email** tab. A row showing **Not set** sends nothing, ever.

    This is the most common cause by a wide margin. Templates belong to the brand, but the
    choice of which one to send belongs to each merchant. Adding a merchant, or switching an
    offer to a different merchant, leaves you with a fresh set of empty slots.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Does the order have a customer email?">
    Open the conversion. If the email field is empty, every email for that order is skipped
    silently. Abandon records from some gateways carry no customer data at all, so they can
    never resolve into a confirmation email.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Is a sender configured?">
    **Settings** → **Emailing** needs SMTP credentials, or the merchant needs an **Email
    Integration**. With neither, the job fails on every attempt.

    Check **Brand Actions** on your dashboard. Missing templates and missing integrations raise
    a task there for purchase and subscription emails.
  </Step>

  <Step title="For shipping emails, did fulfillment actually report shipped?">
    The Order Shipped email fires when the fulfillment provider flips the order to shipped, not
    when you create the shipment. No status change means no email. Check the order's fulfillment
    status and tracking number first.
  </Step>

  <Step title="For renewal emails, is the merchant on NMI or Stripe?">
    Subscription email slots only exist for merchants that bill recurring charges through
    ElasticFunnels. Other gateways have no subscription section on the Email tab.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  **Shipping and cancellation emails fail quietly.** Purchase and subscription emails raise a
  Brand Action when they cannot send. Order Shipped and Order Cancelled do not. If those two
  slots are empty, there is no warning anywhere in the app. Check them by eye.
</Warning>

***

## Sender problems

The send is in the log with a **Failed** status.

| Symptom                       | Cause                                              | Fix                                                                                           |
| ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Authentication failed         | Wrong username or password                         | The username is usually the full mailbox address your provider issued, not your account login |
| Connection refused or timeout | Port and encryption do not match                   | 587 with TLS, 465 with SSL. Check your provider's SMTP page                                   |
| Sender address rejected       | The From domain is not authorised at your provider | Add and verify the sending domain with the provider, then retry                               |
| Delivered but landing in spam | SPF and DKIM missing                               | Add the DNS records your provider specifies for the sending domain                            |
| Customer replies vanish       | Reply-to is blank                                  | Set **Reply-to email** to a monitored mailbox                                                 |

<Note>
  The green **Verified** badge only means one test message was accepted by your SMTP server.
  It does not check SPF, DKIM, DMARC, or whether your provider will accept your From address
  on real volume. A brand can be Verified and still land in spam.
</Note>

***

## Known limitations

These are current behaviours worth knowing before you spend an hour debugging.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="I edited a copy of the purchase template, but the old one still sends">
    Purchase and refund emails prefer your brand's built-in system template over whatever is
    selected in the merchant dropdown. Duplicating a system template produces an ordinary copy,
    so selecting that copy on the merchant has no effect while the system template still exists.

    Edit the system template directly. It is marked with a **Locked** badge in the Emails list.
    Its content and design are fully editable, it just cannot be deleted.

    This applies to purchase and refund only. Shipped and cancelled always use the merchant
    dropdown.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Resending an email from a conversion says the merchant has no email integration">
    The manual resend action requires a merchant **Email Integration**, even when the brand is
    sending fine over SMTP. Automatic sends are unaffected. To resend on an SMTP-only brand, add
    an email integration to the merchant.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Send test inside the email builder does nothing on an SMTP-only brand">
    The **Send test** button on a template needs a Mailgun, SendGrid, or Mailrelay integration.
    It does not use brand SMTP. The **Send test** button on **Settings** → **Emailing** does use
    SMTP, so use that one to confirm the sender, and a real test order to confirm the template.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Pre-renewal reminders never arrive on an SMTP-only brand">
    The pre-renewal job checks for a merchant **Email Integration** specifically, so brand SMTP
    alone is not enough for that one email. Other subscription emails work over SMTP normally.
    Add an email integration to the merchant if you need pre-renewal reminders.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A template renders with blank fields">
    Each template is written for one scope. A subscription template dropped into the Shipped slot
    renders with empty subscription values and no error, because the shipping context carries no
    subscription data. The merchant dropdowns list every template on the brand, so nothing stops
    the mismatch.

    Match the template to the slot, and check the scope in
    [Template Variables](/emails/template-variables).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Support phone and email are missing from the footer">
    Seeded templates print the support block only when the brand has those values set. Add them
    in **Settings** under your brand variables and they appear on the next send.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

***

## Nothing at all is sending, for any brand

Order emails are queued. If the email queue worker is stopped, every send waits in the queue
and nothing surfaces in the interface. The send log stays empty because no attempt is ever
made. If several brands go quiet at the same moment, this is the first thing to check with
your administrator.

***

## Related docs

* [Sending Setup](/emails/sending-setup) - Sender, templates, and merchant wiring
* [Order Emails](/emails/order-emails) - What each order email contains
* [Subscription Emails](/emails/subscription-emails) - Renewals, paused, canceled, dunning
* [Dunning](/emails/dunning) - Retry schedule and escalation