3.4.0 update - Campaigns sends ok but newsletters only received by recipients in the same domain as the server

Weird behavior since just upgrading to 3.4.0. Campaigns are reporting as sent (800+ sent and campaign completes) but newsletters are only being received by recipients in the same domain as the server. Same behavior with ‘send test’, the message is only being received by recipients in the same domain. Gmail, Yahoo, etc. addresses are not receiving any newsletters.

I have been using PHPList on a shared HostGator account since Dec and have not seen this behavior until now. I can send emails on the same server without difficulty.

Any suggestions or solutions greatly appreciated.

@JeffG Stränge that this behavior coincided with the upgrade; nothing changed in the sending engine that I can think of…

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Thanks @samtuke for the info. Guess it’s not V3.4.0… I actually restored my V3.3.8 database and v3.3.8… Now seeing the problem also in 3.3.8… The campaign sends to everyone without any error messages however the only ones receiving the newsletter (or send test) are the emails in the same domain as the PHPList server. Again, I can send regular emails on the same domain email server without problems.

Now I am stumped! Is there a PHPList configuration I might be able to change or check? all the settings in config.php look the same as before this bug started.

I can check with HostGator to see if they might be blocking outgoing PHPList messages to other domains. That would be weird?

Thanks

Ok I fixed the problem @samtuke. The issue is that my most recent database has a bug. I created a brand new PHP database PHPl2, pointed to it via config.php and imported a database backup from a few weeks ago (Feb 15) and that has fixed the issue. Emails are going out to all domains once again normally.

I have done a few newsletters and also imported a few lists via .csv since the working Feb 15 backup. The question would be, what has happened to the database that caused this bug? I can certainly re-import those lists again and see what happens.

Thanks again if you have any more thoughts.

Jeff

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Oops! @samtuke, it was simply a bad URL in the test message I was sending out and my host was somehow blocking the message from going out. I fixed the URL and we’re back in business now. Thanks for the help.
Jeff

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@JeffG Great to hear you resolved it. Was the URL considered spam, or just malformed (invalid HTML)? Interesting that hostgator was so strict to block the mail just because of that.

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@samtuke, the url was malformed to a google form making it a bad link and Hostgator completely blocked the email from sending as a result, without any warning or block messages. I corrected the link and PHPList sent the newsletter out and was received by 800+ contacts. Interesting with Hostgator is that I could send that test same message with the malformed url on the same server using standard email without problems. It was only via PHPList send that Hostgator rejected the message from sending. I do have SPF & DKIM configured on the server but guess that did not make a difference.

BTW it is annoying that the Hosgator email ip addresses are blacklisted by a few servers so I occasionally see emails bounced as rejected. Makes me think about moving PHPList over to another server however, I have it configured perfectly on HostGator including cron jobs.

PHPList is really a perfect solution for someone like me who has legitimate verified lists of contacts that I frequently import and allows me to be in full control of the newsletter server. I am not a programmer but know just enough coding to navigate through configurations. I found Constant Contact and MailChimp to be terribly restrictive when it comes to importing new contacts as you have to verify ‘in blood’ that all contacts are legit and everyone has to 1st opt-in when I already have consent!

Thanks again,
Jeff

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@JeffG interesting that host gator was able to differentiate between test messages and real campaign messages, and that it successfully checked every link to apply their policy.

Happy to hear that phpList is working well for you - long may it remain so!