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• Wonderful plugin!
• I’m using it in all my sites!
• It would be great if it also had this feature…

You can support me by donating some money. You can even pay me a beer.
If I’m not too busy I am available to help or develop changes on request (payment/donation via Paypal). Please contact me at:

Why my newsletters are not sent properly? (eg. no progress on sending, staying at 0%, multiple messages to same recipient…)

You can try following tips if you experience problems on sending.
Use a plugin like as Cron View to check if EasyMail cron is properly scheduled.
Use a plugin like as WP Mail Log to check what happens when you send newsletters and e-mails with wp_mail() function (used by EasyMail).
You can often solve the problem increasing the wp_cron and php scripts timeouts.
Here is a summary of some solutions that might help you:

• add this line in [your-blog-url/]wp-config.php to increase memory allocated to php:

  define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '96M');

• modify the cron timeout in [your-blog-url/]wp-includes/cron.php (read more).
  From:

  wp_remote_post( $cron_url, array('timeout' => 0.01, 'blocking' => false, 'sslverify' => apply_filters('https_local_ssl_verify', true)) );

  To (they suggest 20 seconds, maybe you can try with a higher value):

  wp_remote_post( $cron_url, array('timeout' => 20, 'blocking' => false, 'sslverify' => apply_filters('https_local_ssl_verify', true)) );

• add these lines in [your-blog-url/]wp-config.php:

  @ini_set( 'upload_max_size', '100M' );
  @ini_set( 'post_max_size', '105M');
  @ini_set( 'max_execution_time', '600' );

• add these lines in [your-blog-url/].htaccess (if this file does not exist, create it):

  php_value memory_limit 96M
  php_value upload_max_filesize 100M
  php_value post_max_size 105M
  php_value max_execution_time 600
  php_value max_input_time 600

If you cannot solve the problem yet, you can try to use alternative cron. Add this line in your [your-blog-url/]wp-config.php:

define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);

Known bug in WP v. 2.9 / 2.9.2: please upgrade! The EasyMail v.1.6 and newer (with cron batch sending) works on WP 3.x and 2.9.1. It DOESN’T work on WP 2.9 and 2.9.2. (It seems to work with WP 2.8.x series, but I’ve not tested it enough and however I advise to upgrade). There is a known bug in the wp_cron system (a WP bug, not an EasyMail bug) in these WP versions. I advise to upgrade to the newest WP version.

What about subscription/unsubscription procedures?

Registered users can subscribe/unsubscribe either using a widget or through their profile page. If you are a new subscriber you can insert your name and email address in widget: you’ll receive an email with an activation link; click on this link to activate your subscription (the new subscribers will be deleted if they don’t activate the subscription in 5 days). To unsubscribe: at the end of newsletters there is always a link to unsubscribe.

Why don’t I see the subscription form in the widget, but yes/no radio buttons?

The widget shows different contents according to whether you are logged in or not. If you are registered and logged in (as admin too) the widget shows radio buttons (yes/no). If you are not registered or not logged in, the widget shows the subscription form (name, email) and the submit button.

When I try to submit the subscription form (name and e-mail) the “sending…” message appears, but a javascript error occurs and the loading wheel does not stop to run… What happens?

Sometimes a translation file can have a bad string (eg.a break line where it’s not permitted). If you can, switch to english language and try to subscribe again: if now it’s works it’s really a translation file bug. In that case please report it in the forum in order to alert everybody and let me repair the file.
Often there is a conflict with another installed plugin that could include javascript code in a wrong way.
Otherwise, be sure that your theme includes the wp_head() hook that the plugin uses to add javascript code.
Finally, there is a known issue on multisite using domain mapping plugin: you can read here to solve it.

Can I modify the style of the subscription form?

From v.1.8.2 there is a css file into the plugin dir and you can use and edit it. You can copy ‘alo-easymail.css’ to your theme directory and edit it there. Useful to prevent the loss of styles when you upgrade the plugin. Look inside this file for more css ids and classes. Then you have to go in Settings → Newsletter → tab General and enable it.
For example, you can use some available css id and class. About the form:

#alo_easymail_widget_form { /* the form */
    color:#000;
}
.alo_easymail_widget_error { /* error msg */
    color:#f00;
}
.alo_easymail_widget_ok { /* success msg */
    color:#0f0;
}

Then, the form is included in the widget and in the Newsletter page (or Newsletter subscription in older versions). If you want to use different styles, use the id of the container div that include form: for the page the id is always alo_easymail_page, for the widget is something like alo-easymail-widget-[n] where [n] is the widget number.

My blog background is not white… Can I modify the loading wheel of the subscription form?

You can add the following lines into the css file of your theme. You have to replace images/loading.png with the path and the name of the new loading image in your theme.

.alo_em_widget_loading img { display: none }
.alo_em_widget_loading {
	background: transparent url(images/loading.png) top left no-repeat;
	padding-left: 20px;
}

I have a problem with the formatting of the newsletter: the css or html tags are not shown correctly.

The WordPress rich editor is not very accurate, so if possible you have to disable it (you can create a new user for sending newsletters, then go to his/her profile and disable the rich editor). Then, use a very simple html and only inline css. About css read this Guide to CSS support in email clients. About html for newsletters read this useful guide. For more tips and resources you can read also this guide.

The newsletters don’t correctly show all the characters of my language. Why?

Maybe you are using an EasyMail version 1.6 or older. You may have to modify the collation of the EasyMail tables of your database. Probably the collation is not UTF8: you have to change it with utf8 general. Before, make a backup of your tables (do you want to loose all your subscribers?!).
If then the newsletters don’t show all the chars yet, you should upgrade to the latest EasyMail version, make a backup of EasyMail tables of your database, delete the EasyMails tables, then reactivate EasyMail plugin. Now there should be the EasyMail tables with the right collation and you can try to import your subscribers. More info on WP Codex.

What about the batch sending based on WP cron system?

After a newsletter is scheduled for sending, the plugin starts sending it to a small number of recipients every 10 minutes, until all recipients have been included. The number of recipients for each sending is calculated on the cut-off of emails you can send per day (you can setup it on Settings → Newsletter). The WP cron makes a sending when someone hits your blog after at least 10 minutes from the previous sending. If you receive one visit every 30 minutes you will have one sending every 30 minutes. If nobody visits your blog for more than 10 minutes, the number of recipients of the next sending is recalculated based on the time interval from the previous sending.
If you have few visits, you can ask your provider to setup a cron job that periodically hits the WP cron. The WP cron trigger is: http://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
Example #1 – Daily cut-off: 2000 emails. The standard sending: 13 emails every 10 minutes (2000 / 24 hours / 6). Sending 20 minutes after the previous one: 27 emails (2000 / 24 hours / 3).
Example #2 – Daily cut-off: 5000 emails. The standard sending: 34 emails every 10 minutes (5000 / 24 hours / 6). Sending 25 minutes after the previous one: 52 emails (5000 / 24 hours / 4).

• I’ve deleted the Subscription page…
• The Subscription page is missing!
• I’ve paste the [ ALO-EASYMAIL-PAGE ] code in another page

On installation the plugin adds a “Newsletter” page (or Newsletter subscription in older versions): useful for collect new subscribers and required to allow subscribers to manage their newsletter preferencies.
Two things about this page are required so the plugin can work properly:

1. the page must contain the [ ALO-EASYMAIL-PAGE ] code (without spaces between the brackets),
2. the value of a plugin option (“ALO_em_subsc_page”) must be the page ID: you can set up the subscription page on Settings → Newsletter → tab General.

These two constraints must be respected even if you want to create another subscription page instead of the default.
So if you have problems with the page a checklist could be the following:

• check if the page exists (in administrator menu: Pages) and it must contain [ ALO-EASYMAIL-PAGE ] (without spaces between the brackets);
• check if the subscription page is properly setup: on Settings → Newsletter → tab General.

What about the multilanguage system? Can I send a newsletter in several languages?

EasyMail has a own simple multilanguage engine. But I suggest you to use qTranslate plugin that is compatible with EasyMail.
Each subscriber will receive the e-mails in the language he used on registration/subscription.
The user language choice is based on qTranslate language select (if qTranslate is installed) or on browser language setting (if qTranslate is not installed).
The user language choice is accepted only if the selected language is available on blog:

• if qTranslate is installed you can add/remove the available languages using the qTranslate option page;
• if qTranslate is not installed you have to add/remove language files into /wp-content/languages folder, even if you don’t use a real multilanguage site.

In Users → Newsletter subscribers you can view (and manage) the language of subscribers: first, select subscribers, then use bulk action dropdown select (on top of the page) to edit subscribers.
In Tool → Send Newsletter you can send the newsletter according to languages you want: choose the languages using filter in recipients section, then insert the newsletter title and content in each selected language. If qTranslate is installed you can use the friendly multilanguage editor; otherwise you have to send a newsletter for each language.

EasyMail doesn’t work on my blog: what can I do?

First of all consult these resources:

• on EasyMail site: the guide, the FAQ, the forum (remember to use the search function and tags);
• on the WordPress Support Forum.

Then check these things:

• Check if the rest of the blog is working properly: frontend, backend, other plugins…
• Does the error occur when you’ve updated your blog or EasyMail or when you installed or updated some other plugins?
• If you’ve just updated EasyMail remember to de-activate and activate it again.
• Check the file permissions of EasyMail: 755 should be more than enough.
• Check the folder of EasyMail: it must be [your-blog-url]/wp-content/plugins/alo-easymail
• Look at the PHP and server error logs.
• If the site is still set to test you can set up WP_DEBUG to true to show errors and warnings.
• Maybe there is some conflict with other plugins: try to disable them all and see if it EasMail still does not work.
• Check your blog theme: a customised theme might be causing errors; you can try to activate the standard WP theme to see if the cause is the theme. E.g. your theme must include the wp_head() hook that the plugin uses to add javascript code
• To debug the WP cron you can use a plugin like as Cron View to check the cron tasks.
• You can debug newsletters: rather than the recipients, you can send all emails of a newsletter to the author or you can have them recorded into a log file. You can enable it in Settings → Newsletter → tab General.
• To debug the WP mail engine you can use a plugin like as WP Mail Log to check what happens when you send newsletters and e-mails with wp_mail() function (used by EasyMail).

Then, if you have followed all the above and you have not found any solution, you might open a new topic in the forum for help: please read the rules before posting.

I am available to help or develop changes on request (payment/donation via Paypal). Please contact me at:

What about the old plugin homepage (untill v.1.5) and all user comments?

You can find it here: Alo EasyMail Newsletter: plugin per WordPress per inviare newsletter.