Author Topic: Daily mail messages piling up (Read 2388 times)

klausdahl · « **on:** April 22, 2006, 01:19:49 am »

Hi Dean,

Just a few days ago I discovered something strange about one of my lists.

The number of mailing DailyMail has begun sending out is steadily growning. It grows by one new mailing each day, so far as I can see.

Here is a screendump of the mailings and the number of messages that are left:

Any ideas about what can have caused this, Dean?

Best,
Klaus Dahl

DW · « **Reply #1 on:** April 22, 2006, 05:18:46 pm »

Klaus,

It would seem that your dailymail sending process is failing part way.

There are a number of reasons this might happen.

1. Your server could have implemented a strict time limit (ie. 30s) for PHP script execution. This is rare and not at all optimal for ListMail.

2. Your SMTP server could be erroring out possibly due to too many messages in a connection or another error. For the former case, you can tweak the value of "Reconnect every X emails" on the ListMail Config page.

3. Did you recently upgrade to a new version of ListMail? There could be a bug that is causing this.

Notes about the queue entries. The items in queue shown at the top of ListMail are listed in order of sending with the top being the least recent mailing/followups sent. When resuming these queues you should start at the top and work your way down. In order to prevent your clients receiving upwards of 10 messages in a single day you may want to resume one or two per day.

What I recommend is that you please submit your information to me so I can take a closer look at possibilities #1 and #2 mentioned above.

Regards

klausdahl · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2006, 12:28:06 am »

Thank you very much, Dean! You give your customers an outstanding service. I've sent you my info.

Warmly,
Klaus

vtm · « **Reply #3 on:** May 02, 2006, 11:30:07 pm »

Hi Dean

I'm finding the same problem on one installation - another on the same host is fine.

There are only small numbers of messages involved each time, so tweaking the value of "Reconnect every X emails" is unlikely to help. Which seems to rule out your suggestions 1 and 2.

I'm using v1.85.

Laurie

DW · « **Reply #4 on:** May 03, 2006, 09:09:13 am »

The problem could be due to invalid addresses. Try adding an email on a non-existent domain and sending a test email. Check out this post for more information on this known problem (on certain servers.)

Regards

vtm · « **Reply #5 on:** May 03, 2006, 04:44:40 pm »

I set up a new mailing list using the 4 dud emails Brett suggested. test4@net-rosas.com.br was rejected as invalid, and not added. Sent the 'welcome' message to the other 3, with no apparent problems. After 30 minutes sent a test message to the 3.

It's now 2 hours later, and this is in my bounce inbox:
550 <test1@cprk.com.my>:
Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual alias table

The dailymail error list has added several more entries, but none showing 1, 2 or 3 failed messages.

Laurie

DW · « **Reply #6 on:** May 04, 2006, 10:34:54 am »

Welcome messages are sent with PHP mail as opposed to SMTP which is used for list mailings. Unfortunately, PHP mail doesn't always tell us if there is a delivery problem.

Did you receive more bounces from the other addresses later on?

Try enabling the "SMTP log" with a test mailing to a test list containing at least a couple valid addresses. The option is near the bottom right of the "Send Email" page. When the mailing completes you'll be provided a link to view the log. Do you see the server accepting your messages correctly?

Quote

I'm finding the same problem on one installation

Can you describe again the symptoms? Are you not able to send any mail at all to a list containing valid addresses, or after/when you send mail is it erroring out each time, possibly due to these non-existent domains, leaving items in queue?

Regards

vtm · « **Reply #7 on:** May 04, 2006, 05:41:09 pm »

The log shows that all are being accepted, including <test1@cprk.com.my> and another invalid one on one of my domains, which end up in the bounce box. The other bad ones do not go to the bounce box, although there are a few from other mailings ending up there. The good addresses in the test (mine) are being delivered.

The errors are continuing to mount, but there are 40 lists on this installation, and I'm not sure which ones are producing the errors. The test list ( 6 addresses) does not seem to be.

Dailymail emails used to be delivered daily according to the cron setting, but that seems to have become erratic. The latest ones are Apr 24, 28, 30, May 3 - ie 2, 3 and 4-day intervals. Checking the cron settings - seems the hosting has changed on Direct Admin and there's a new cron setup - with no settings installed. I've added the LM cron, so will see what that produces tonight.