Contact Form 7 Fix (what do try when you get the Failed to Send Message error)

One of the WordPress plugins I like to use is Contact Form 7, but it seems half the time I install it, I end up with that “Failed to Send Message” error, and it takes me a while of trial and error to remember how to fix it.

Well, I just fixed it on the website I’m currently building, so I figured I’d document the fixes for you guys, and for myself the next time!

A caveat- this is what works for Bluehost hosted sites, using Contact Form 7 Version 1.9.5.1, WordPress 2.9

1. Set up a admin@yourdomain.com email address on your server. (I forward that to my email while I ‘m testing the site, then that can be forwarded to the administrators current email later)

2. Ensure admin@yourdomain.com is set up as the admin email in WordPress (General settings: Email Address)

3. When you set up your form, Make sure the “To: ” email in the contact form settings is set to admin@yourdomain.com

(the key to all this being that I think the site domain needs to match the email address domain – it doesn’t have to be admin@, I just use that.)

Another thing that might help as well that I found in my research:

• Set up a wordpress@yourdomain.com email address on your server.