Most websites nowadays incorporate advanced functionality, such as sending a confirmation message when a visitor registers on the site, emailing password reset links in case of a lost password, and providing people with a way to get in touch with the site owner via a contact form. All of these features have one thing in common – they utilize a mail server to send email messages. But sometimes things can go wrong and your mail script may not be able to send any messages at all. In this article, we will examine some of the more common reasons why a mail script might fail to send emails. We will primarily focus on how to fix a broken contact form, but most of these suggestions can be used to fix a general mail sending script as well.

Disclaimer: the suggestions, contained within this article, cover only the most common issues that can cause a contact form to malfunction. We cannot guarantee that following this guide will fix your broken contact form in every single case.

1. Make Sure That You Have Created an Email Account in Your Hosting Space.

Our first recommendation is to make sure that there is at least one email account present in the Email Accounts section of the Control Panel. An email account is required as it is used to authenticate you with the mail server every time you attempt to send a message.

In order to create an email account, you need to have an active web hosting plan. The good news is that mail account creation is supported on both our free web hosting and premium shared hosting subscriptions. In addition to an active hosting plan, a fully-qualified domain name is also required. You can purchase a premium domain name or you can use the Domain Manager section of the Control Panel to register a free .DX.AM domain name.

Once you have met the two criteria listed above, you can create an email account right from the Email Account section. If you have trouble creating an email account, you may refer to our guide on how to create an email address for your website.

2. Make Sure That One of Your Email Accounts Is Set up as a Default Mail Sender for Scripts.

In addition to having at least one email account in your hosting space, you need to make sure that one of your email accounts is designated as the default e-mail for sending messages via scripts. You can easily distinguish whether this option is enabled or not by heading to the Email Accounts section of the Control Panel and checking if one of the email accounts has the label default e-mail associated with it, as is shown in the screenshot below: