Hello @hepkat63,

I'm almost sure that the ini_set trick won't work. So, you said this:

I can email from the command line and my other domains send out mail just fine - so it is something in the b2evolution?

Is your site in a VPS of a regular hosting company (like HostGator, etc.) or you're using your own server (you institution, company, etc) ? Just to figure out how can that server be configured.

Now, if you didn't alredy done it, please go to this page: http://b2evolution.net/man/email-notifications-don-t-work, and try the test script (just replace the example.com appearances with real email addresses). This is only to make sure that in your current domain (not command line nor other domains) PHP is able to send out emails.

Please, also check this other page with some related advises: http://b2evolution.net/man/email-deliverability

Regards!

Hi,
thanks for the reply. No, it's not PHP which is the problem. If it do this:

php -a
mail ('admin@*****.com', "Test email", "Test mail from server");
exit ();

It works fine and comes through - so it is something in b2evolution. Where should I check please?

Well, the easiest test for email deliverability is by requesting a user password change. Default b2evo sites are supposed to send those emails without any problem and there are no extra parameters to set in that action.

You should enable debug mode and use the "Forgot your password?" feature looking for any output that may give you hints about the problem. Also, checking the server's logs looking for error messages would be a good idea.

Finally, please check this post: http://forums.b2evolution.net/sent-emails-error-after-upgrade-to-5 and make sure that the "-r" parameter mentioned there is not the source of your problem.

Regards!

ok, user password change never comes through either.

The interface doesn't show any error messages at all - just the emails doesn't come through.

nothing in debug shows anything and nothing appears in servers maillog.

Totally confused - shouldn't this just work????

Also, I have NOT made any changes to email settings at all in the program. IS that what could be the problem? Should i have to have a return server or something in the email settings somewhere? All the links you keep giving me show OLDER versions of this program?

Hi,
Sounds you have the same kind of problem than me. Did you see this post : http://forums.b2evolution.net/notification-email
Maybe it's the same problem.
Mel

thanks Mel - just tried that - still no good - emails go out, but are never received :(

can someone please help?

@hepkat63, can you please tell us what version of PHP are you running in your site, and also what version of b2evolution.

The email sending must work as it, no modification or extra configuration needed. I mentioned the password change over other kind of emails that b2evolution sends (notifications, etc.) because it's the easiest way to test the email deliverability.

Should i have to have a return server or something in the email settings somewhere?

That information is filled by default in the installation and can be modified according this settings: http://b2evolution.net/man/email-notification-settings

=All the links you keep giving me show OLDER versions of this program?

In general, some manual pages and forum posts may reffer older versions of b2evolution, but we link those that we think are relevant and can be helpful in your own situation.

thanks -

[root@hosting _core]# php -v
PHP 5.4.38 (cli) (built: Feb 23 2015 16:27:48)
Copyright (c) 1997-2014 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2014 Zend Technologies
with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.6.1, Copyright (c) 2002-2014, by ionCube Ltd.
[root@hosting _core]#

Please see attached for email settings:

anyone ??

The screenshot that you sent is from the Return-Path Configuration screen (http://b2evolution.net/man/return-path-configuration), so it has nothing to do with the email output.

There are several related posts in the forums, but we have covered almost all the aspects from them, so I'm running out of options to suggest and I'm starting to think that something is wrong between your server's setup and b2evo and it's almost sure that the errors are logged somewhere in your system, or at least they should be.

Maybe you should make a fresh install and start all over again testing on it.

I don't know if you already read this post I linked before: http://forums.b2evolution.net/sent-emails-error-after-upgrade-to-5, did you tested changing the "-r" parameter of $sendmail_additional_params to "-f" ?

Did you touch any core script ? What version of b2evolution are you using, 5.2.2 maybe ?

Note: please try to answer all the questions, that way we can follow what you have done and what you didn't.

Thanks.

@hepkat63 the backoffice screen you want to look at is this one:
http://b2evolution.net/man/back-office-reference/email-processing/sent-emails

Number one question is: do you see b2evolution *trying* to send the emails on this screen?

Is the Result column saying Ok?

Who is your hosting company?

Can you ask them for support?

If you give them the URL to request a password change, it would be easy for them to check what happens to the email PHP is trying to send just after they request a password reset.

yes, it shows that the email was sent on that screen - in fact, it lists all the emails 'sent', and yes 'OK' - but they never arrive.

we host our own servers - and there is no problem sending email from any other program, or any other website that we host? It is just so odd ??

I have checked the mail server log (/var/log/messages) and nothing shows up in there at all? We are using postfix.

when I look at the _misc_opt file it shows:

// Set an additional parameter for the return path:
if( ! empty( $sendmail_additional_params ) )
{
$additional_parameters = str_replace(
array( '$from-address$', '$return-address$' ),
array( $from, ( empty( $return_path ) ? $from : $return_path ) ),
$sendmail_additional_params );
}
else
{
$additional_parameters = '';
}

if( mail_is_blocked( $to_email_address ) )

no, haven't changed any core modules.
I am using 'photoalbum' skin.

5.2.2-stable released on 21/02/15

So if you have your own servers, I guess you have the skills to investigate this a little bit :)

The 'Ok' means the PHP mail function returned without error. After that you should look into your SMTP server error log if it has one.

I personally don't know the specifics of postfix (I use exim)

The only notable difference between b2evolution and a basic script is that b2evolution wants the emails to have a return-path address.

Please look at the following section of the /conf/_advanced.php file:

/**
 * Additional params you may want to pass to sendmail when sending emails
 * For setting the return-path, some Linux servers will require -r, others will require -f.
 * Allowed placeholders: $from-address$ , $return-address$
 *
 * @global string $sendmail_additional_params
 */
$sendmail_additional_params = '-r $return-address$';

Try -f instead of -r (in case your SMTP server just burps on -r)

try both -f and -r

try none of them (empty additional params)

http://b2evolution.net/man/installation-upgrade/configuration-files/advanced-php

Then the other difference might be that all emails being sent are MIME messages containing HTML and Plain Text versions of the message. But that shouldn't be an issue...

@hepkat63 were you able to solve this?

Thanks.

Ok, amended the _advanced.php file.
it had -r so changed it to -f - no good
tried -r and -f - no good.
tried removing the log - no good.

Each time - b2evolution shows mail sent OK - however the mail never arrives. The corresponding entry (ies) in the /var/log/maillog are all like this:

Mar 13 18:36:43 hosting postfix/smtp[6850]: 902DE4781E6: to=<[...]@gmail.com>, relay=127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1]:10024, delay=0.6, delays=0.02/0.23/0.05/0.29, dsn=2.5.0, status=sent (250 2.5.0 Ok, id=04979-06, BOUNCE)

@hepkat63 I'm not a sysadmin but there are two things that look weird for me (maybe both are normal, so if that is the case, just ignore this comment): 1) the relay is a local IP address so maybe remote servers do not accept email sent this way. 2) the word "BOUNCE" in the details of the status, I have been comparing with other servers' logs and didn't find it. Can you do the same ? I mean, compare this entry with other entries from emails that you actually know that have been correctly delivered.

In any case, as far as I know, none of these things have nothing to do with b2evolution.

What do you think @fplanque ?

I don't know PostFix, but this clearly slows that postfix gets the emails. So I would look for a solution in postfix, especially what it does with the emails. bounce definitely doesn't look normal.

Now what is the return path address of the emails? Is it correctly configured? Maybe the bounces get sent back to the return paths email address with a more detailed error message.

Maybe it would make sense to temporarily make the local root user the return path email so the bounce errors can be delivered locally and are easy to check.

Heck, maybe the whole problem is that b2evolution is using a custom From: address that is not allowed to send on the local postfix, so postfix thinks it's being used to relay spam so it decides to bounce the emails..