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Checking that your emails go out

Password resets, magic links and verification codes are all email. Test delivery before you need it.

  • Beginner
  • 5 min read
  • Applies to 2.0

Send yourself a test

User Access → Notifications has two test buttons, and they answer two different questions.

Test SMTP Connection checks that the server details currently in the form can be reached and authenticated. Use it while configuring SMTP: it tells you whether the connection works, without sending anything to a recipient.

It appears for Other SMTP and Resend, which sign in with a username and a password. Gmail and Microsoft 365 do not: they are connected accounts, so there is no password for that button to try — Connect Account is the step that proves the credentials, and Send Test Email the one that proves the mail.

Send Test Email sends a real message of a chosen type to an address you give. Use it once the connection works, to see what your users will receive.

The Notifications tab, with the SMTP connection test and the test email form.

  • The test email arrives, in the inbox rather than the spam folder
  • The sender address is the one you configured
  • The template looks the way you intended

Why this matters more than it looks

Almost everything the plugin does at the boundary of an account is an email: a password reset, a magic link, a two-factor code, a new-account notice. If mail does not leave your server, those flows do not fail loudly — they fail as a user who never receives anything and cannot tell you why.

Test this before you switch a sign-in method on, not after.

If nothing arrives

WordPress sends through PHP's mail() unless told otherwise, and a lot of hosts either block it or have their address rejected by the receiving side. That is what SMTP is for: mail leaves through a mailbox that already has a reputation.

Set it up under Notifications → SMTP, then test again. Gmail and Microsoft 365 are set up by connecting the account — that is the only way the screen offers, because both are withdrawing password-shaped SMTP credentials and an app password that stops being accepted gives no warning.

Upgrading from an app password? Mail keeps going out with the password you saved, and the Emails tab says so — but the provider can withdraw it at any time, and nothing here will tell you when. Connect the account.

Microsoft's return address has a different shape, and the settings screen shows it: a path, …/wp-json/attributes-pro/v1/smtp-oauth/outlook, rather than the query string Google uses. Entra ID allows a query string in a redirect URI only for applications restricted to work or school accounts, and refuses the other form outright — URL may not contain a query string. Copy what the screen shows, register it on the Web platform, and keep the site off plain permalinks. Google's address is unchanged.

Enter the client ID and secret, then press Connect account: it saves them first and takes you to the provider in one step. Nothing needs saving beforehand.

The sender address and name you set here apply to all mail from the site, not only the plugin's own. That is usually what you want; it is worth knowing if another plugin was relying on a different sender.

Next steps

Something missing or out of date? Tell support.