Admin Not Receiving Unsubscribe Notifications if UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION is false

ℹ️ Support
1

I’m encountering a very specific and persistent issue regarding admin email notifications for unsubscriptions, which seems to be directly tied to the UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION setting.

My Goal:
My primary goal is to have a single-click unsubscribe process for users (meaning they do not receive a confirmation email when they unsubscribe). However, I do want to receive an email notification as an administrator when an unsubscribe occurs.

Observed Behavior & Current Configuration:

In my config.php, I have:
define(‘UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION’, false);

When UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION is set to false, users successfully unsubscribe immediately without a confirmation email. However, I, as the administrator, do NOT receive any unsubscribe notification.

The Critical Finding:
If I change the setting to:
define(‘UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION’, true);

…then, when a user unsubscribes, I DO receive the admin unsubscribe notification email. The downside is that in this scenario, the unsubscribing user also receives a confirmation email, which is not my desired behavior for user experience.

This indicates that the UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION parameter is unexpectedly affecting not only the user’s confirmation email but also the admin’s unsubscribe notification email. This behavior seems contrary to the setting’s documentation, which typically focuses on the user-side confirmation process.

I’m at a loss for how to achieve both a single-click unsubscribe for users AND reliable admin notifications. Is this a known bug or an intended (though unusual) dependency? Is there a workaround to decouple the admin notification from the UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION setting?

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

2

These are two separate settings

// if a user should immediately be unsubscribed, when using their personal URL, instead of
// the default way, which will ask them for a reason, set this to 1
define('UNSUBSCRIBE_JUMPOFF', 0);

// To not send confirmation of unsubscription , instead of
// the default way, which will send it, set this to false
define('UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION', true);
3

I do already have below settings so that subscribers do not get the Goodbye email when they unsubscribe:

define(‘UNSUBSCRIBE_JUMPOFF’, 1);

define(‘UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION’, false);

But the problem is I still need to be notified by email if someone unsubscribes. If I use ‘false’, I no longer receive that email. If I use ‘true’, I will receive that email, but subscribers will also receive the Goodbye email. Is there a separate settings to ensure that I still get notified by email when someone unsubscribes?

4

@yagami_kira Which version of phplist are you using?

I have just tested this scenario with a new subscriber and the settings you showed above and it seemed to work correctly. Sending a notification email to the admin is independent of whether a confirmation email is sent to the subscriber.

image
image768×254 30.2 KB

From the bottom working up

email to the subscriber requesting confirmation
email to admin notifying of the new subscription
email to the subscriber after he has confirmed
email to admin notifying of the confirmation
email to admin notifying of the unsubscription

5

I’m using v3.6.16 .

In your example, does jim@aaa.com receive the ‘Goodbye from our newsletter’ notification email after they unsubscribed?

Because my ultimate goal is for them to NOT receive that Goodbye notification, but there should be an email notifying the admin for the unsubscription.

6

@yagami_kira No, that email was not sent to the subscriber. I was using the settings that you showed for one-click unsubscribe and to not send the unsubscribe confirmation to the subscriber. This works as expected.

define(‘UNSUBSCRIBE_JUMPOFF’, 1);

define(‘UNSUBSCRIBE_CONFIRMATION’, false);

If you are repeatedly testing with the same email address then, after unsubscribing, you need to subscribe again and confirm before unsubscribing. Unsubscribing a subscriber who has already unsubscribed won’t send any emails.

7

Yes, I was repeatedly testing with the same email address, and I redid the test by just removing the email from the blacklist. Now that you mention it, I realized that maybe that isn’t enough, so I tried not only removing the test email from the blacklist but also completely removing it from the system and resubscribing it again, like starting afresh. Thanks for pointing that out. Now, everything works as expected!