Start with one affected notification
Record the order ID, expected email type, recipient, and time. Compare customer confirmations with admin notifications: if only one fails, its settings or trigger may be the cause.
Use the log as a decision point
| Evidence | What to check next |
|---|---|
| No attempt, disabled, or skipped | Expected order status, enabled notification, recipient, and missing conditions. |
| Failed | The recorded error, sending connection, credentials, and provider response. |
| Sent, but missing | Provider events, bounces, recipient filtering, spam, and authentication. |
Where available, open WooCommerce → Status → Logs and look for transactional-emails. “Sent” means a handoff to the mail system; it does not establish inbox delivery.
Confirm the expected order trigger
Check the affected order’s status. An unpaid order still pending payment may not trigger the expected notification. If payment succeeded but the status did not update, investigate the payment gateway and status transition before changing email delivery settings.
Changing a genuine customer’s order status just to trigger an email can send duplicate notifications or trigger connected workflows.
Review the notification and recipients
Open WooCommerce → Settings → Emails. Check the specific notification is enabled. For missing admin alerts, inspect the new-order recipient address. Compare the From name and address with the provider that actually sends the email.
Test the affected flow, not just SMTP
A successful plugin test confirms one sending path. It does not prove that the actual order event generates the expected message. Test the agreed notification as well and confirm receipt with the intended mailbox owner.
If the message was sent but did not arrive
Check the sending provider for accepted, rejected, deferred, or bounced events. If it reached spam, follow the sender authentication guide. Preserve relevant error details; do not paste passwords or API keys into a support request.
Prepare a useful repair request
- Store URL and the email type that fails
- Order status and approximate failure time
- Log outcome and a redacted error message
- Sending provider and recent changes
WooCommerce email troubleshooting · WooCommerce email authentication · Google email sender guidelines
Guidance reviewed October 10, 2026. Menus and available logs may differ by installed version.