Gravity Forms saves every entry, so a failed notification does not lose the lead. It also writes down what happened to each notification. Start there before you change any setting.
1. Read the notes on the entry
Open Forms, Entries, pick the form, and open your test entry. The Notes box lists each notification Gravity Forms tried to send and the result.
- A note says WordPress passed the email to the sending server. Gravity Forms did its part. The message was lost after the site: the From address, DNS authentication, or the spam folder.
- A note says the send failed. WordPress could not hand the email off. Look at how the site sends mail (step 4).
- No note for the notification. Gravity Forms never tried. The notification is inactive, its conditional logic did not match, or it is tied to a different event.
2. Check the notification settings
Edit the form and go to Settings, Notifications.
- Active. Each notification has a toggle in the list. An inactive one is skipped.
- Send To. The default admin notification uses
{admin_email}. If the WordPress admin address belongs to a developer, the notifications go there. Enter the right addresses. - From Email. It must be on the site’s own domain. Gravity Forms shows a warning below the field when it is not. A From address on another domain is the most common reason these emails are rejected.
- Reply To. Set it to the form’s email field.
- Conditional logic. If it is enabled, confirm that your test entry meets the conditions.
- Event. On forms with a payment add-on, a notification can be set to send when the payment completes. If the payment never completes, the notification never sends.
3. Resend what was missed
Once the cause is fixed, open each affected entry and use the Notifications box in the sidebar to resend. You can also select several entries in the entry list and resend in bulk.
4. Send through SMTP
Gravity Forms gives the email to WordPress, and WordPress by default uses the web server’s mail function. Many hosts limit it, and the mail is unsigned. Install an SMTP plugin, connect it to a real mail service, and send a test email from the plugin.
5. Check the domain’s DNS records
If mail leaves the site and does not arrive, run the domain through the SPF, DKIM and DMARC checker. Then search the recipient’s spam folder for the notification’s subject line.
6. Turn on logging if it is still unclear
Under Forms, Settings, Logging, enable logging for Gravity Forms and submit the form again. The log shows each step of the notification, including the reason one was skipped.
Keeping it working
The entry notes tell you what the site did. They cannot tell you whether the message reached the inbox. A notification can pass every check on this page and still stop arriving after a DNS change or an expired SMTP credential. General causes are in WordPress not sending emails: 7 causes.
Formitor supports Gravity Forms. It creates a tagged test entry on a schedule and confirms that the notification email was delivered to a real inbox. Setup is covered in monitoring Gravity Forms. The free plan covers 2 sites.