Email Notifications: Setup and TroubleshootingPRO
This page teaches you how to set up and troubleshoot email notifications in FormForge Pro. You’ll configure the admin notification that fires on every form submission, learn the merge tags for pulling entry data into the email, set the sender From address, and work through the troubleshooting playbook when notifications don’t arrive. “My form is broken” is the #1 support ticket class for every form plugin, and the answer is almost always the same: WordPress cannot deliver mail reliably without an SMTP provider.
The Troubleshooting: emails not arriving section covers the fix for 95% of email delivery problems. Read it first if you have already configured your notification and are not receiving it.
How FormForge notifications work
When a visitor submits a form, FormForge saves the entry to FormForge > Entries, then fires an email notification. The notification is per-form, configured in the form builder’s Notifications tab. Every form has one notification enabled by default that goes to your site administrator email.
Email delivery uses WordPress’s standard wp_mail() function. That means whatever mail transport WordPress is configured to use (PHP mail() by default, or an SMTP plugin if one is installed) is what FormForge uses too. The plugin does not ship its own mail transport.
Configure the admin notification
Open the form in the builder
Go to FormForge > All Forms, click the form name to open it, then click the Notifications tab in the top navigation.
Set the Send To Email address
The Admin Notification block shows three fields. Send To Email defaults to your WordPress site administrator email. Change it to any single email address you want to receive submission alerts on. To route the notification to the person who just submitted the form instead, use a merge tag for their Email field (see the next section).
Customize the Email Subject line
Defaults to New Form Submission: {form_title}. Change it to whatever you want to see in your inbox. Merge tags work here too, so you can include entry-specific details.
Customize the Email Message body
Defaults to {all_fields}, which renders every submitted field as a formatted list. You can replace it with any HTML you want. Include specific field values by their merge tag, add branding, add helpful links, whatever the notification recipient needs.
Save the form
Click Save Form at the top right to persist the notification settings. Notifications fire on every subsequent submission.
Available merge tags
Merge tags are placeholders that FormForge replaces with actual entry data at send time. Every merge tag works in the Send To Email, Email Subject, and Email Message fields.
| Merge tag | What it renders | Example use |
|---|---|---|
{form_title} |
The internal name of the form | Subject: New submission on {form_title} |
{entry_id} |
The numeric ID of the entry (also the ID shown in FormForge > Entries) | Subject: Entry #{entry_id} from {form_title} |
{all_fields} |
A formatted list of every submitted field with its label and value | Message body: usually the default; drop this in anywhere for a full data dump |
{field_id} |
The value of a single specific field, where field_id is the numeric ID of that field |
Send To: {5} (routes to the value of field ID 5, useful if field 5 is the Email field) |
In the form builder, click any field on the canvas. The field’s settings panel shows its numeric ID at the top of the panel. Use that number inside curly braces to reference it in a merge tag: for example, {7} would be replaced by the value submitted for field ID 7.
Set the From Name and From Email
The From address applies globally to every form notification your site sends. It’s configured once on the FormForge settings page, not per-form.
Open the settings page
Go to FormForge > Settings. The General Settings section is at the top of the page, and the From Name / From Email inputs are the first two fields inside it.
Set From Name
The name recipients see in the “From” column of their inbox. Defaults to your site name. Set it to your business name or the department that handles submissions.
Set From Email
The email address recipients see. Defaults to your WordPress administrator email. This is the single most important setting for deliverability, so read the next info box before choosing a value.
Save settings
Save the settings page. The new From Name and From Email apply to all subsequent form notifications immediately.
Setting the From Email to something like notifications@yourbrand.com only works if yourbrand.com has proper SPF and DKIM records that authorize your web server (or SMTP provider) to send on its behalf. Setting it to notifications@gmail.com when you don’t actually send through Gmail is the fastest way to have every notification land in spam. When in doubt, keep the default (your admin email on the same domain as your WordPress site).
Send a confirmation email to the person who submitted the form
To acknowledge the submission back to the visitor who filled it out, route the Send To Email address using a merge tag pointing at their Email field.
Find the Email field’s ID
In the form builder, click the Email field on the canvas. Its settings panel shows the field ID at the top. Note the number (for example, 3).
Set Send To Email to the merge tag
In Notifications, replace the Send To Email value with the merge tag. If the Email field ID is 3, enter {3}. FormForge substitutes the submitter’s email at send time.
Customize Subject and Message for the recipient
Rewrite the Subject and Message body so they read as if you’re writing to the submitter, not to yourself. For example: Subject Thanks for reaching out, Message Hi, we received your message and will reply within one business day. For reference, here is what you submitted: {all_fields}.
Save the form
Save and test with a real submission. The submitter’s inbox should receive the acknowledgment within a minute (assuming deliverability is set up correctly, see the troubleshooting section below).
The form builder’s Notifications tab currently shows one Admin Notification block per form. If you want both an admin alert AND a submitter acknowledgment, the simplest path today is to put both addresses in the Send To Email field, separated by commas. WordPress’s wp_mail() accepts multiple comma-separated recipients and sends the same message to all of them. Multi-notification UI support with per-recipient customization is on the roadmap; check back for a future update.
Test your notification setup
Embed the form on a Private page
On any page or post, paste the form’s shortcode from FormForge > All Forms. Set the page’s Visibility to Private in the Publish panel so only administrators can view it. Save.
Fill in and submit the form
Open the page in your browser. Fill every required field with test data (including a real email address you have inbox access to, if you’re testing the submitter confirmation flow). Submit.
Check the recipient inbox
The notification should arrive within a minute. Confirm the From address is what you set in Settings, the Subject line rendered correctly (no raw {form_title} visible), and the field values in the body populated instead of showing raw merge tags. If nothing arrives within five minutes, continue to the troubleshooting section.
Verify the entry landed in Entries
Regardless of whether the email arrived, go to FormForge > Entries. The submission should appear at the top of the table with all field values captured. If the entry is present but the email did not arrive, the problem is email delivery, not form saving. That’s the exact scenario the troubleshooting section addresses.
Troubleshooting: emails not arriving
The single most common cause of “my form is broken” support tickets is not a broken form. The entry saved correctly; the email transport failed silently. WordPress hides mail failures from the admin UI by default, so a form can look like it’s not saving when in reality it saved perfectly and the notification bounced somewhere between your server and the recipient’s inbox.
Work through this checklist in order. Stop when the notification arrives.
Confirm the entry actually saved
Go to FormForge > Entries and confirm your test submission is there. If it is, the form is working; the problem is email delivery only. If it’s NOT there, the form itself failed, which is a different debugging path (see FormForge support hub).
Check the recipient’s spam / junk folder
WordPress-native wp_mail() messages very often land in spam because the sending server lacks proper authentication. Check the spam folder, and if you find the notification there, mark it as “Not spam” to help future messages land in the inbox. But the real fix is Step 4 below.
Send a test WordPress email to isolate the failure
The cleanest way to confirm whether WordPress can send mail at all is to install a small utility plugin like Check & Log Email (free from wp.org) and send a test message. If the test message also doesn’t arrive, the problem is site-wide WordPress mail delivery, not FormForge specifically. If the test DOES arrive but FormForge notifications don’t, the problem is in the notification config (see Step 6).
Install an SMTP plugin (fixes 95% of email issues)
Shared hosts and most cheap hosts do not deliver mail reliably via PHP mail(). The receiving mail servers reject or spam-folder messages that lack SPF and DKIM authentication. The fix is to route WordPress mail through a real SMTP provider. Install Royal SMTP (or WP Mail SMTP if you already use it) and connect it to a provider like Gmail, SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, or Amazon SES. Once SMTP is configured, WordPress-native mail (including FormForge notifications) uses the SMTP transport instead of PHP mail(), and deliverability improves dramatically.
Verify the From Email matches a domain you control
Even with SMTP configured, the From Email address (FormForge > Settings > From Email) has to match a domain that authorizes your SMTP provider to send on its behalf via SPF and DKIM. If your From Email is notifications@yourbrand.com, your SMTP provider (or your DNS) needs SPF/DKIM records that authenticate messages from that domain. Most SMTP providers walk you through this setup during onboarding.
Re-check the notification config
If mail delivery is working (Step 3 test passed) but FormForge notifications still don’t arrive, go back to the form’s Notifications tab and verify: (a) the Send To Email is a real, reachable address; (b) if using a merge tag like {3}, the field ID actually exists and captures a valid email; (c) the Save Form button was actually clicked (not just the notification field blurred).
Check the WordPress debug log for wp_mail failures
If the previous steps don’t reveal the cause, add the WP_DEBUG_LOG constant to wp-config.php and reproduce a submission. Any error output from wp_mail() lands in wp-content/debug.log. Common issues include invalid email header syntax, DNS lookup failures, and SMTP authentication rejections.
The seven steps above resolve the overwhelming majority of email delivery issues. If you’re still stuck, gather: (a) the exact From Email and Send To Email values you configured, (b) whether the entry saved in FormForge > Entries, (c) whether a plain WordPress test email works, (d) whether you have an SMTP plugin installed and connected. Send those details to support and we can dig in.
FAQ
Why am I not receiving email notifications from FormForge?
The most common cause is that WordPress cannot deliver mail reliably from the server it runs on. FormForge uses the standard wp_mail() function, and on most shared hosts wp_mail() routes through PHP mail() which lacks proper sender authentication (SPF, DKIM). Receiving mail servers reject or spam-folder those messages. The fix is to install an SMTP plugin like Royal SMTP or WP Mail SMTP and route mail through a real provider (Gmail, SendGrid, Postmark). The full playbook is in the Troubleshooting section above.
How do I send a confirmation email to the person who submitted the form?
In the notification’s Send To Email field, enter the merge tag for the form’s Email field: {field_id} where field_id is the numeric ID of the field. FormForge substitutes the submitter’s email at send time. Confirm the field ID from the form builder by clicking the Email field and looking at its ID in the settings panel. See the Submitter confirmation section for the full walkthrough.
What merge tags can I use in notifications?
Four merge tags are available: {form_title} for the form name, {entry_id} for the entry’s unique ID, {all_fields} for a formatted list of every submitted field, and {field_id} for the value of a specific field by its numeric ID. All four work in the Send To, Subject, and Message fields.
Where do I set the From address for FormForge emails?
FormForge > Settings has a From Name field and a From Email field in the General Settings section. These apply globally to every form notification. Defaults are your site name and the WordPress administrator email. Match the From Email to a domain you control so the receiving server can authenticate the sender via SPF and DKIM.
Can I send different notifications to different recipients from the same form?
The Notifications tab currently exposes one Admin Notification block per form in the UI. To send the same email to multiple recipients today, enter multiple email addresses in the Send To Email field separated by commas. WordPress’s wp_mail() accepts multiple comma-separated recipients. Multi-notification UI with per-recipient customization is on the roadmap for a future release.
Is the notification email plain text or HTML?
HTML. The Content-Type: text/html header is set automatically. You can include HTML markup in the Message body (formatted lists, bold text, links, images) and it renders in the recipient’s inbox.
Does FormForge log notifications so I can see if they were sent?
Not directly. FormForge fires the notification via wp_mail() and does not maintain its own delivery log. Install a plugin like Check & Log Email (free) or WP Mail Logging to see every outgoing message and whether wp_mail() returned success or failure.