Troubleshooting email problems
From time to time your patrons might report that they have not received an account related email. Here is how in general to find out what is up and what to do.
First check if it is one user, several users or all users:
One or some users - most likely something at the user's end, but could be a typo in their email address
Ask them to check their junk folder
Confirm the account has the correct address, and it's one that they check
Many or all users - check our service status page in case it is something at our end but if all your users are on the same email server, that could be what is blocking the emails
Check with your email provider
In all cases, it is also possible that you told the system not to send the email.
Customised email templates
If you have customised the email templates, it is worth considering whether the user would recognise them for what they are - e.g. does the activation email still include the link near the beginning?
You can also introduce problems yourself if you copy text into the email template from a word processor as that can include hidden tags or markup that can stop the email being sent.
Fixing typos in email addresses
Search for the affected account(s).
You may be able to spot the problem from the list view.
Access the account details to update the address.
Fixing spam filtering
In most cases, making sure *.openathens.net isn’t blocked will be sufficient, especially for end users.
If your end-users tend to have personal emails rather than your own it is worth checking the email templates for text that may trigger filtering. This can be things such as words in all caps, attachment types, and even words like 'free', or currency symbols.
If it is your own mail server, then it may also need to know that the emails come from severs at mail1.openathens.net or *.mailjet.com with return paths of @openathens.net or @bnc3.openathens.net. The return paths can look a bit strange due to measures put in place for bounce detection by MailJet. Your IT team will know that email is sometimes complicated, and what to do with this information. If they want to find out more about it, they can at: https://www.mailjet.com/blog/deliverability/return-path-customization-explained/
Checking you sent the email
The activity stream for an account will show whether an email was sent.
Check the defaults used for account creation under Preferences > Organisation (for each organisation)
If you use bulk upload, check that you are not specifying 'false' under 'emailUser'
Anything to watch out for?
The forgotten password page will not send an email to a user who has never activated their account, you will need to trigger an email from the administration interface. See: How to reset a password