This feature is only available in the Pro version of Independent Analytics.
If you are not receiving the email report, there are a few steps you can take to debug and resolve this issue. We’ll also cover smart techniques for improving deliverability later in this tutorial.
How to debug the email
Please start by using the Send test email button to attempt a delivery of the email report. If you do not receive the email, continue with the following debugging steps.
Check the spelling of the email address
First, make sure you have the correct email address entered with the proper spelling.
Check your spam folder
If the email address is spelled correctly, check your spam folder to see if the email arrived there instead of your inbox.
Check if other emails are being sent by WordPress
Try sending a password reset email to check if any emails are being delivered from your website. You can do this quickly by opening your site in a private browser window and navigating to the login screen.
The password reset email is sent by WordPress core, so if you don’t receive this email, you can rule out any plugin bugs.
Configure an SMTP plugin
If you didn’t receive the password reset email, then you may need to configure an SMTP plugin in order to deliver emails from your site. We recommend WP SMTP, which is easy to use.
Using an SMTP plugin is generally a good idea because it will improve the deliverability of all emails sent from your website.
Install WP Mail Logging
If you configure an SMTP plugin and your site still isn’t sending emails, try installing the WP Mail Logging plugin. It will track every email sent by your website and will report on any configuration issues. It may highlight an issue with the SMTP configuration you can quickly solve.
Contact your host
If you are still not able to get emails to send from your site, please contact your web host and they should be able to help resolve the issue.
Enable debugging
If you received the password reset email, then this means there is not a sitewide issue with sending emails. In this case, please enable error logging on your website. Then, try sending a test email one more time and check if you see a new error message in the /wp-content/debug.log file. If you see an error pointing to our plugin, please share it with us at support@independentwp.com, and we will help resolve the issue.
How to further improve deliverability
If your email report is going to the spam folder or sending later than scheduled, there are a few steps you can take to remedy these issues.
The steps below will improve the deliverability of all emails sent by your website.
Add SPF and DKIM records
Your emails are more likely to end up in the spam folder if your domain doesn’t have SPF and DKIM records configured. This is especially true if you are sending the email report to multiple email addresses.
The SPF and DKIM DNS records help verify the content and sender of the email, improving deliverability. Google has a brief explainer video that sums them up well:
Adding these records will help all of your site’s emails avoid the spam folder, and it also improves protection against phishing attacks.
Use real cron events
A cron event is basically a scheduled task, and it’s the underlying technology used to send the email report. WordPress has a built-in cron system that tons of plugins use, and it makes it easy to schedule upcoming events.
However, the cron system run by WordPress isn’t a true cron system. For WordPress to run a scheduled event, it has to get loaded. For example, if there is an event scheduled for 5pm and nobody loads a page on your site at 5pm, the event won’t get triggered. Instead, if someone visits by 5:02pm, that’s when the event will run.
For this reason, scheduled events may run a few minutes late, but they can sometimes run much later.
If you have a new website with a small amount of traffic and an event is scheduled for 1am, it may not get triggered for hours. When this happens, cron tasks can get backed up, and then some of them may not run at all. This could prevent the email report from getting sent.
While this isn’t as much of an issue for high-traffic sites, it is always better to use a real cron system. Many web hosts will enable true cron events if you request it. Just ask them to disable WP Cron and use real cron events, and they should be able to set it up for you.
If that’s not an option, you can use a service like Easy Cron instead. It can trigger the site’s cron events every 20 minutes on the free tier, which should be enough to prevent any build-ups. They even have a plugin that makes setup easier.
With real cron events configured, the email report will be delivered precisely at the time selected.