Newsletter not working .. when it used to just a week ago!

[pazzaglia]

Ciao Stefano,

I’ve been running the newsletter script for a few months now. I’ve been able to get several letters out without a problem. Since my last update the newsletter is acting kooky.

Last week’s newsletter went out, but in the newsletter listings it showed it went to 0 of 3231 subscribers – yet the statistics module shows that 1037 opened it.

Am sending a newsletter now – it SHOULD have started sending it be now, but the status still shows that it’s been sent to 0 of 3242 subscribers. I’m pretty sure the current letter is NOT going out because I used a couple of accounts to test newsletter when I installed it and they are the first to get the newsletter.

The only changes I have made to the program/settings is accepting the updates you sent out earlier, and updating the bounce email address.

How can I get newsletter to work flawlessly, again?

Ciao,

L

[pazzaglia]

I went in the Diagnostic tab and clicked on the “trigger now” button. The newsletter appears to have started going out now. But, what is blocking it?

According to the diagnostic panel the WordPress cron system status is:
ENABLED. (it’s ok)

Ciao,

L

[Stefano]

Hi, the bounce plugin should not be related to Newsletter sending problem, since Newsletter uses it’s own sending library. Did you changed something on Newsletter setting? For example the return path?

The sent newsletter which report the (0/xxx), has the “sent” status?

Stefano.

[pazzaglia]

OK, about two weeks ago, for the previous newsletter, I had changed the return path for bounced emails from blank to bounce@hippressurecooking.com – though I didn’t get any bounces in that mailbox last week.

For the current newsletter -it’s been stuck at 16 for about half an hour now, even though I have it configured to send 200 emails per hour.

Ciao,

L

[Stefano]

But the wp-cron is still active? Did you setup an external cron? And is working?

The sent 0/xxx is really strange since the counter is only incremented. That value was before reporting the right number?

There is a change that a database error can block the newsletter on first run and so the delivery engine wrongly set it as sent. So if you’re sure no email have been sent, it’s probably this case and the newsletter must be resent.

Do you have the logging active? If so the log files on wp-content/logs/newsletter/… can be of help to understand the problem. You can send it to me at stefano@satollo.net.

Stefano.

[pazzaglia]

The newsletter diagnostic panel says the wp cron is enabled. How can I check if it’s active?
I did set-up an external cron with setcronjob.com and it’s set to go every 30 minutes. But I can click a button to manually trigger it -which I have.

For the previous newsletter, the 0/xxx was reporting the right number while sending the newsletter – I did not really notice if it said the right number AFTER it was sent.

Will send the logging files, now.

Ciao,

L

[pazzaglia]

What happens if I push this button? I didn’t see anything written about it in the documentation (https://www.thenewsletterplugin.com/plugins/newsletter/newsletter-diagnostic).

Wondering if it might help.

In the meantime, my newsletter went out to only 32 subscribers and just stopped there, for now.

Ciao,

L

[pazzaglia]

I don’t know if this is related… I checked mysql database and got the following erros:

Problems with indexes of table wp_bp_notifications
More than one INDEX key was created for column user_id
Problems with indexes of table wp_post_list
PRIMARY and INDEX keys should not both be set for column list_id

The repair in phpmyadmin hasn’t fixed it. Wondering if this is blocking the newsletter.

Checked my error log and no script errors.

Ciao,

L

[pazzaglia]

Ok, here’s what I’ve been doing..
– cleaned-up mySQL database errors (mentioned earlier) and optimized the fields
– updated to the latest newsletter version (3.3.0)
– aborted the current newsletter and then hit “send” again.
Now it’s stuck at 0/3266 status “sending”.

Ciao,

L

[pazzaglia]

OK.. still trying to desperately get the program to work.
– I un-installed newsletter via the plug-in interface and removed the three mysql tables.
– I re-installed it, configured it, sent test email from WP and test emails from Newsletter and they all worked.
– I imported the wp_newsletter table with the subscribers in mysql database and made a new newsletter and hit “send”.

Same problem. It’s stuck at 0/3273.

There’s nothing more I can try on my own.

Ciao,

L

[Stefano]

Hi Laura, since it’s not possible that the plugin stops to work for no reason, can you send me an administrative account to check it again? Reinstalling or deleting the table does not change it since the options are saved by wordpress and the newsletter table does not affect the delivery engine.

Stefano.

[Stefano]

Hi, calling your wp-cron.php a value is returned while usually no an empty answer is expected. Have changed something on that file?

Probably your cron system is not working at all!

Stefano.

[pazzaglia]

No, the file on the server is dated 9/12/2012 – before the my wp install. So it must be the original configuration.

Can you point me to where I should look to fix it?

Thanks,

L

[Stefano]

If the file is the original, there should be a plugin which does something during the cron call, maybe blocking it.

If you surf:

http://www.hippressurecooking.com/wp-cron.php

you can see a “zero”. Try to disable the newsletter and if the call returns something different we met a Newsletter possible problem. If still a zero is displayed there should be something else.

Did you install other plugins recently?

Stefano.

[pazzaglia]

I went on a plug-in cleaning spree last week to remove anything that was causing fatal PHP errors and bringing down the website.

I disabled the newsletter, but the page is still returning 0.

So would de-activating each plug-in and trying to run cron find the culprit?

Thanks,

L

[Stefano]

It’s uncommon to have that page returning a number. Maybe it’s a problem maybe not.

Yes try to disable other plugin, one per time: if the zero disappear let me know which plugin is causing it.

Stefano.

[pazzaglia]

Grazie mille Stefano! Will work on that tomorrow.

What would be an appropriate return?

Ciao,

L

[Stefano]

A simple blank page.

[pazzaglia]

Stefano,

I had an A-HA moment last night and wondered… does a web host’s e-mail limit also count all of the reminders, notices, and notifications of new comments sent out by wordpress to myself and my readers via any other plug-ins and alerts sent by newsletter to let me know of new subscribers?

If so, since my limit is 2000 and I started the LAST newsletter at 200 emails per hour 10 hours before the end of the server’s day so it could go into the next day by itself I exceeded the limit for sure!

In the meantime, I have an email in to my host’s support people to find out if they turned off the cron. That seems the most logical reason why it would return something so funky and I can’t find that documented anywhere.

Ciao,

L

[pazzaglia]

Ciao Stefano, and update:
– I turned of all plug-ins and wp-cron.php still returned 0
– I contacted my web provider and they said they didn’t do anything to block my account and I wasn’t penilized for going over my email limit quota (whew!).
– I posted a request in the wordpress forums for help:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-cronphp-returns-0-stops-newsletter-scheduling-maybe-more?replies=1#post-4258600

SOME part of cron must be working because I’m still getting alert emails for new subscribers, new posts in the forums BUT scheduled posts are not being published so something is definitely NOT happening

Thanks so much for helping me spot the cause. Will get back to you if I can get it resolved to fill you in on the details.

Ciao,

L

[Stefano]

So your cron is not working. Notification for new subscribers, new comments, forum posts are “real time” not schedules. And the fact that your future posts are not published it means the cron is not working,

Can be a theme problem, maybe the theme does something wrong.

Please, do not try to change the theme, since some important configuration of widget may be lost.

Can you send the the access to your blog in my private email: stefano@satollo.net?

I’ll try to find where the problem is. An FTP account would be better if possible.

Stefano.

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