# Quieting GuardPress Security Alert Email Flood > GuardPress sending the same security alert email daily, or 100+ emails after one plugin update: both stop after updating to GuardPress 1.6.24 or later. - Canonical: - HTML version: --- If GuardPress is sending you the **same security alert email every day for days or weeks**, or a single plugin update generated **100+ separate emails**, updating to **GuardPress 1.6.24 or later** resolves both patterns — no settings changes needed. Detail on which of the two patterns is yours, what to expect after the update, and how to dial notifications down further. ### Quick fix — almost always the answer Update GuardPress to 1.6.24 or later from **WP Admin → Plugins → Update Now**. Both patterns are resolved at 1.6.24+. The next scheduled scan after the update only sends emails for genuinely new findings. ## Is This Your Issue? #### Pattern A: Same alert every day for days or weeks A single GuardPress security alert — same subject line, same finding, same body — arrives in your inbox every morning. Could be a vulnerability scanner alert about a debug log, a file integrity change about a file that no longer exists, or a malware finding you’ve already triaged. The alert repeats every scheduled scan cycle until you update. ##### What the flood looks like in your inbox ![Inbox view showing two grouped email threads from Royal Plugins Team, each thread containing 31 copies — Security Alert: Unauthorized File Changes Detected and Security Alert: Critical Security Issue Detected](https://royalplugins.com/support/guardpress/images/guardpress-security-alert-email-flood.webp) Two threads, each grouping 31 identical copies of the same alert (62 total emails). GuardPress 1.6.24+ tracks an “already notified” state per unresolved finding, so a scan only re-emails when a finding is genuinely new or its state changes. #### Pattern B: 100+ emails from one plugin update You updated WooCommerce, Elementor, a theme, or any plugin that modifies a lot of PHP files. Within minutes your inbox fills with dozens or hundreds of **“Critical File Change Detected”** emails — one per file changed by the update. A typical plugin update touching 100+ files produces 100+ emails. ##### How to recognise it Each email has the same subject (`Critical File Change Detected`) but a different file path in the body. They all arrive within the same scan window (usually a few minutes apart). GuardPress 1.6.24+ replaces the per-file emails with a single consolidated summary per scan window. If either pattern (or both) describes what you’re seeing, this article is for you. If you’re getting emails for events you didn’t expect to be alerted on at all (e.g. routine logins by your own admin account), see [Sign-in Notifications](https://royalplugins.com/support/guardpress/#signin-notifications) instead. ## The Fix — Update GuardPress to 1.6.24 or Later Both bugs are fully resolved at 1.6.24. The update is the entire fix — no settings to change, no caches to clear, no config to edit. #### Open WP Admin → Plugins Go to **WP Admin → Plugins → Installed Plugins** and find GuardPress in the list. The version number is shown under the plugin name. #### Check the version If it says 1.6.24 or higher, you’re already updated — jump to [Verify the Fix](#verify). If it’s 1.6.23 or earlier, continue. #### Run the update If an update is offered inline, click **update now**. If WordPress shows you’re on the latest version but the version is still below 1.6.24, force a refresh from **WP Admin → Dashboard → Updates → Check Again** to bypass WordPress’s update-check cache. #### Wait for the next scheduled scan You won’t get instant feedback — the change takes effect on the next scan cycle (typically daily for file integrity / vulnerability scanner / malware scanner). Once a clean scan completes, the dedup hashes track the “already notified” state and future scans won’t re-email until the finding set genuinely changes. ## Verify the Fix Confirm both bugs are fixed: #### Confirm the version is 1.6.24 or higher **WP Admin → Plugins** → GuardPress entry → version under the plugin name. #### Wait one full scan cycle (24 hours is the typical default) If you were getting the “same alert every day” pattern, you should see *zero* repeat alerts the morning after the update (assuming the underlying issue hasn’t actually changed). If a new finding appears that wasn’t there yesterday, that’s a fresh alert — expected and correct. #### Run a manual scan if you want immediate feedback From **GuardPress → Malware Scanner → Run Malware Scan Now** or **GuardPress → Outdated Software → Run Scan**. After the scan, check that you receive at most one consolidated email even if there are multiple findings. If you trigger a plugin update right after, the file monitor should emit one batched summary instead of one-per-file. #### Send a test email if no alerts have arrived Use the **Send Test Email** button under **GuardPress → Settings → Notifications** to confirm email delivery itself is working — otherwise the “flood stopped” might just be a mail delivery failure. If the test email doesn’t arrive, install an SMTP plugin like [Royal SMTP](https://royalplugins.com/royal-smtp/) — transactional WordPress email frequently fails on shared hosting without one. ## If You Want to Dial Notifications Down Further The 1.6.24 fix stops the *excessive* emails. If you still want fewer emails overall — or want to route alerts to a different inbox — the controls live under **GuardPress → Settings → Notifications**: - **Enable email alerts** — master toggle for all GuardPress email notifications. Turning this off stops every alert (brute-force attacks, malware detection, file changes, vulnerability scanner findings, uptime monitoring). Not recommended — you lose visibility into real incidents — but it’s the nuclear option when you need email silence for a brief maintenance window. - **Alert Email** — the destination address. Defaults to the WordPress admin email. Set a separate ops inbox, shared team alias, or pager address if you don’t want alerts mixed in with general admin mail. - **Send Test Email** — verifies the configured address actually receives mail. If you’ve never received any GuardPress emails (even after triggering events), test here first — the answer is usually mail delivery, not GuardPress. Don’t reflexively disable alerts If you’re tempted to turn off email alerts entirely because of the flood, update first instead. Once you’re on GuardPress 1.6.24 or later, the normal cadence is roughly one email per genuinely new finding, which is what you actually want. ## Still Stuck? Email Priority Support If you’re on GuardPress 1.6.24 or later and emails are still flooding (or you’re receiving zero emails when you should be getting some), the cause is almost certainly outside GuardPress — usually mail delivery or a custom integration. Email **[support@royalplugins.com](mailto:support@royalplugins.com)** with the diagnostic info below. Priority email support is included with your GuardPress Pro license — typical response time is within 24 hours. #### Information to include in your email - **GuardPress version** from **WP Admin → Plugins** (must be 1.6.24 or higher) - **WordPress version** from **WP Admin → Updates** - **Which pattern you’re hitting** — repeat alerts (A), per-file flood (B), or both - **Sample of the duplicate emails** — subject line + the first two or three identical copies if possible (so we can confirm what alert type is repeating) - **Result of the Send Test Email button** from **GuardPress → Settings → Notifications** — did it deliver, was it delayed, did it land in spam - **Whether you have an SMTP plugin installed** — Royal SMTP, WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP, etc. Shared-host transactional email frequently fails without one, and broken delivery looks different from broken dedup Related GuardPress notification topics If your issue isn’t excessive emails but unexpected ones: - [**Sign-in Notifications**](https://royalplugins.com/support/guardpress/#signin-notifications) — emails sent on every successful sign-in by admin accounts. Configurable per role. - [**Uptime Monitoring**](https://royalplugins.com/support/guardpress/#uptime-monitoring) — sends a downtime alert when the homepage check fails. Rate-limited to one alert per hour. - [**Malware Scanner**](https://royalplugins.com/support/guardpress/#malware-scanner) — how Quarantine vs Delete vs Ignore work for triaging findings. - [**Vulnerability Scanner**](https://royalplugins.com/support/guardpress/#outdated-software-check) — what each finding means and when to act on it. [Back to GuardPress Support](https://royalplugins.com/support/guardpress/) [GuardPress Plugin Page](https://royalplugins.com/guardpress/)