When Email Notifications Fail
Most failed notifications fix themselves: the app automatically retries every failed delivery several times in the background. This guide explains what happens automatically, and what to check when emails still don’t arrive.
Why notifications fail
Section titled “Why notifications fail”| Cause | Description |
|---|---|
| Email provider issue | Temporary service outage |
| Invalid recipient | Bounced email address |
| Rate limiting | Too many emails sent in a short window |
| Configuration error | Wrong API key or SMTP settings |
| Spam filter | Blocked by the recipient’s filter |
What happens automatically
Section titled “What happens automatically”You don’t need to click anything — the app handles failures for you:
- When a notification fails, it’s retried automatically (several attempts with backoff).
- If it still fails after all attempts, the failure is logged for our team.
- Your submission data is never lost — it’s always stored in the app, whether or not the email went out.
Find the root cause
Section titled “Find the root cause”1. Check your email provider settings
Section titled “1. Check your email provider settings”- Go to Settings > Email providers
- Open your provider (Resend, SMTP, …)
- Use Test and save to send a test email
If the test email fails, the error message tells you what’s wrong (bad API key, connection refused, etc.).
2. Check the recipient address
Section titled “2. Check the recipient address”- Typos in the recipient email (configured in the form editor’s Emails tab) bounce silently.
- Corporate spam filters are a common culprit — ask your IT to allow-list the provider’s sending domain.
3. Check the spam folder
Section titled “3. Check the spam folder”Ask whoever should have received the email to check their spam/junk folder, and mark it as “not spam” to train their filter.
4. Check the provider’s status page
Section titled “4. Check the provider’s status page”If all notifications suddenly fail at once, check your email provider’s status page for an outage — then wait; queued emails will deliver on retry.
Still failing?
Section titled “Still failing?”If the test email works but submission notifications don’t arrive:
- Verify the form’s recipients in the form editor’s Emails tab.
- Contact us from the Feedback page in the app with the form name and the approximate submission time — we can trace the delivery in our logs.