Hi there,

A client I recently created a Drupal site for just tried to send out a test newsletter with SimpleNews, but they never received the test.

I checked into it, and while in Administer > Newsletter it shows the newsletter as having been sent, the system log on the main Administer page shows an error, which when I click on it for details says: "Newsletter [WHEN Newsletter] WHEN Newsletter could not be sent to (my client's e-mail address)". That's it. No further details on WHY it could not be sent.

The default newsletter options are set to send one copy of a test newsletter to the test address (the one that was in the error message), in plain text. She did add a file attachment to it, though (a PDF of the newsletter, 160k in size). Interestingly, although it shows as having been sent, it does not show as having been published -- would that make a difference? Does it need to be published in order to be sent? I think what she was hoping to do was test the newsletter system without having the test newsletter she sent out be visible on the web site. You would think that ought to be possible...

The log shows the cron run as having been completed every hour, but the error did not occur during the cron run, it occurred during the initial send about a half-hour earlier, so I don't think this is the cron problem others have posted about.

Does anyone have any idea what might have gone wrong here?

Thanks,

Lynna

Comments

adixon’s picture

adixon commented

1. don't worry about cron - the cron is only involved if it doesn't have enough time to send it when you click on send (i'm prettty sure about this, that's how it used to work..).

2. don't worry about publish or not, that's an independent setting.

3. it sounds like a mail subsytem error - you may need to configure something on your server to be able to use it. If you're using a commercial host, they may not allow you to send out stuff by mail because of spam issues. In that case, you'd need access to a friendly smtp server. If you've got access to your server, check the mail logs.

andrewfn’s picture

andrewfn commented

I use simplenews regularly and it works well for me. Here are some suggestions:
-I think you do need to have the node published. I unpublish as soon as it is sent (after cron has run)
-The test newsletter doesn't wait for cron, but the main publication does. I run cron manually to expedite this
-The main problem I have had is with newsletters being treated as spam. If your server is not set up correctly (with SPF records etc) then it may not even make it into the spam box of the receiving server. Hotmail is particularly picky. Gmail is more relaxed. I would try sending your test email to a number of different sites to see if this is the problem
I hope that helps.

sutharsan’s picture

sutharsan commented
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

The fault comes from the mail handling software and not from the simplenews functionality, thus not related to published/not published etc. Possibly it is caused by having an attachment to the e-mail. As far as I know attachments are not possible with simplenews 4.7.x.

sutharsan’s picture

sutharsan commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Closed (fixed)

No response. Closing issue.

marcoBauli’s picture

marcoBauli commented
Version: 4.7.x-1.0 » 5.x-1.5

Howdy, this is happening here too, same error.

In a database of around 350 email addresses only 150 are actually sent. The others give the generic error
Newsletter could not be sent to emailaddress@gmail.com.

Drupal 5.x, MediaTemple dedicated virtual server, Simplenews 1.5, Mime Mail 1.0 here.

Also had a look in the server Qmail log, but there is anything, no errors, no mail effectively sent to the addresses reported in the watchdog..

reopening this as 5.x issue, looking for help, thx!

jdench’s picture

jdench commented

I have recently had the same problem, on a newsletter that has been going out regularly without problem to the same basic list of addressees. This time most emails went out fine, but a bunch have the error message "Newsletter could not be sent to [email address]".

Any suggestions on where to look for the source of the error?