Pastmark can log every email that your site sends. It also logs every email that fails. Use it to check if a password reset or an order email really left your site.
Go to User Activity → Events and open the Email group.
The two email events #
| Event | Severity | When it is logged |
|---|---|---|
| Email Sent | Info | WordPress handed an email to the mail system. |
| Email Failed | Error | An email could not be sent. The row also has the error message. |
Email Sent does not prove that the email reached the inbox. It means your site passed the email on to the mail system.
Which presets include them #
| Preset | Email Sent | Email Failed |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Off | Off |
| Recommended (default) | Off | On |
| Complete | On | On |
Email Sent is off in Recommended on purpose. A busy shop can send hundreds of emails each day. You can still turn it on alone. Read Choose what Pastmark records.
What Pastmark saves #
| Saved | Details |
|---|---|
| To | The addresses in the To field. |
| Cc and Bcc | Only how many there are. The addresses are not saved. |
| Subject | The subject line. Read the warning below. |
| Attachments | Only how many there are. |
| Error message | Only for a failed email. |
| Sent by | The plugin or theme that sent the email, when Pastmark can find out. If not, it shows unknown. |
Pastmark never saves the message text, other email headers or the attached files.
In the log, the messages look like this:
Email "Invoice 1042 from Acme Studio" sent to 1 recipient(s).Email "Password reset for your account" to 0 recipient(s) failed to send.
Subjects are masked #
Pastmark hides the value after a secret key name, such as password=. It shows ***REDACTED*** instead. The same rule is used for other values in the log.
Only known key names are masked. A secret after a name that is not on the list, for example key=, is saved as it is written. Do not put secrets in email subjects.
Emails and privacy #
Email addresses are personal data. The WordPress tools Tools → Export Personal Data and Tools → Erase Personal Data include the email rows for an address. This works even when the address does not belong to a user.
- Export lists the email rows for that address.
- Erase replaces that address. The rest of the row stays.
Read Security and privacy.
Good to know #
- Form plugins: when a WPForms or Gravity Forms notification fails, you see two rows. One is the form plugin’s own “notification failed” row. It names the form and the entry. The other is the Email Failed row. This is on purpose.
- Pastmark emails: Pastmark’s own email reports, and the alert emails of Pastmark Pro, are logged as Email Sent like all other email, when that event is on.
- Only emails from this version on are logged. Older emails are not in the log.