Unexpected 4-Minute Delay in Email Sending After Form Submission
I’m using Fluent Forms with FluentSMTP (linked to my Hostinger email). Whenever someone submits a form, the confirmation email takes around 4 minutes to arrive.
There are no delays configured inside the form settings, and SMTP is working correctly otherwise. I need the email to be sent immediately after form submission.
Can you help me understand why this delay is happening and how to fix it?
Forah moumni the FluentSMTP plugin itself doesn't have a built-in feature to delay the sending of emails. However, FluentSMTP is designed to work with other plugins and systems that can handle email scheduling and delayed sending.
When you send a test email directly from the FluentSMTP plugin (for testing purposes) to yourself do you see any delay in email delivery too? Or email delivery delays are only "visible" when a bulk emails/notifications or a single form submittion is being sent?
For troubleshooting you could disable FluentSMTP plugin and use your server mail function to send emails and see if there are any delays - but be careful when playing around with Prod server (your SPF, DKIM, DMARC records might not include your server IP for email sending and your test emails wont be delivered at all).
BTW: when sending bulk emails/notifications from any external ESP there might be some restrictions, queue (how many emails you can send per minute etc).
Also on the other side ISP can use different method of scanning (content, attachments, spam scoring) all incoming emails (especialy bulk) and that is why there might be some extra delays on the reciever end but in your case it is hard to say for me what is causing delay.
ps. dont forget that when you send 1000 email notifications they are not being delivered immiediatelly to your end users - its not your case here but still. I am not sure what is going in on your server - maybe some other automation is sending emails etc - check your fSMTTP log and timing (there should be any time delay between a form submittion and the outgoing email but when there is a delay between delivery then it is something to outside then or with your fCRM automation once a form is submitted).
Mat It’s only supposed to send email notification when someone submits the form. So, maximum 10 to 20 emails a day.
I forgot to mention that the emails arrive on gmail but they appear on inbox 4 minutes later (with the timestamp from 4 minutes ago).
I will try to remove fluent SMTP and try without it, if you have any other suggestions please help me 🙏
Forah moumni if you use a free gmail then delays in receiving might happen - check your sync settings in the gmail app.
ps. what ESP do you use for email sending? Please tell me that it is not gmail but SES. Gmail (especially free) smtp should not be used for your fSMTP - if you use gmail as a sender with fSMTP then you have your RCA and you need to change the ESP for sending emails from your WP.
ps. Free Gmail accounts have sending limits that, if exceeded, can cause delays - I hope its not your case.
Mat I’m currently using FluentSMTP with my Hostinger email for sending. The sender address is based on my domain (their Business Premium email plan), and all DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are properly configured and passing.
Forah moumni Thats Ok! (so it looks like the issue is not on the sending end).
One more question. The email delayed delivery to your gmail inbox is visible on both: web (gmail.com) and mobile app, right?
Silly question.. When you say gmail it means that you use real gmail/gsuite inbox or you use only gmail app but that app is configured with you external email account like hostinger?
ps. hostinger sending limits link just in case
I use hostinger email to send the email via fluentsmtp. The recipient of these emails might have a Gmail email. These recipients experience the 4 minutes delay
Forah moumni when the fSMTP log (timestamp) shows that there is no delay in sending email (form submittion time = fSMTP timestamp) then we need to assume that the email was sent from your end and the delay is on the receiver end. When the delay happen on a gmail.com (probably free account) and mobile app than nothing much (checking mobile app sync config + web access) I can suggest except the below simple check.
For a testing purpose you could change the recepient email to other in mailbox (other than hostinger mailbox and gmail mailbox) and see if there is that ~4 min delay too.
For testing purposes you could send also a plain text email notification from your fForm but I dont think its an issue (notification body content).
That is all what I could suggest (changing sender SMTP to any other one it would be too much I think to test it out but who knows maybe sender IP reputation is bad etc - https://check.spamhaus.org/).
ps. I dont think is a local antivirus issue which might be installed on the user device. When this issue is visible to gmail users ONLY then it might be gmail issue or the sender reputation (hostinger IPs range) in Google backend ONLY.
ps. Gmail employs various anti-spam techniques, including greylisting and rate limiting, which can introduce delays. You could examine the email header from these users: You can view the email header to see the path the email took and identify potential bottlenecks.
Maybe an issue with WPCron. If the regular WPCron is disabled and an external cron trigger this every five minutes could explain this issue. Check your cron settings.