How to See What Emails Were Sent Through WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
WooCommerce is a powerful e-commerce platform, and a crucial part of its functionality is sending emails. Order confirmations, shipping updates, password resets – all these communications keep your customers informed and happy. But what if you need to check *what* emails were sent, and *when*? Maybe a customer says they didn’t receive an order confirmation, or you suspect an email automation isn’t working correctly. Don’t worry! This guide will walk you through several methods to see those WooCommerce emails.
Why is this important? Because successful e-commerce hinges on effective communication. If customers aren’t getting the information they need, they’re less likely to return. Checking your WooCommerce emails helps you:
- Ensure orders are processed correctly.
- Troubleshoot delivery issues.
- Verify email automations are functioning as expected.
- Provide excellent customer service.
- Order notes aren’t guaranteed to record *every* email sent. Some plugins or customizations might bypass this feature.
- You can only see *that* an email was sent, not the content of the email.
- WP Mail SMTP (Pro Version): While primarily focused on improving email deliverability, the pro version offers detailed email logging.
- Email Log: A free plugin specifically designed for logging emails. Simple and effective.
- WP Activity Log: A broader activity log plugin that can track WooCommerce email activity.
- Detailed information: See the *content* of the email, not just that it was sent.
- Troubleshooting: Identify and fix email delivery issues.
- Verification: Confirm email automations are working as intended.
- Searchable logs: Easily find specific emails based on recipient, subject, or date.
Let’s explore how to get this done.
1. Checking the WooCommerce Order Notes
This is the simplest and often the *first place* you should look. WooCommerce automatically adds notes to each order, and these notes often include records of emails sent.
How to find it:
1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel.
2. Go to WooCommerce > Orders.
3. Select the order you want to investigate.
You’ll see a section called “Order notes.” Look for notes that mention emails being sent. For example:
> “Order status changed from Processing to Completed.”
> “Email order details sent to customer.”
> “Resending order notification.”
Example:
Imagine a customer emails you complaining they never received their order confirmation. You go to their order details in WooCommerce and see this in the order notes:
> “Email order details sent to customer. ([email protected])”
This confirms the email *was* sent. Now you can politely ask them to check their spam folder, or double-check the email address they provided during checkout. Knowing the email *was* sent is half the battle!
Limitations:
2. Using a WooCommerce Email Log Plugin
For a more comprehensive view of sent emails, a WooCommerce email log plugin is your best friend. These plugins record *every* email sent by WooCommerce, including the recipient, subject, date, time, and even the *content* of the email. This is invaluable for debugging and ensuring your email marketing is working as expected.
Here are a few popular options:
Example using Email Log (free plugin):
1. Install and activate the “Email Log” plugin.
2. After activation, a new “Email Log” menu item will appear in your WordPress admin.
3. Click on it to see a list of all emails sent.
4. You’ll see columns for “To,” “Subject,” “Date,” and “Actions.”
5. Click “View” under the “Actions” column to see the full email content.
Real-world scenario:
You’ve set up an abandoned cart email sequence, but no one seems to be receiving them. With an email log plugin, you can easily filter by the “Abandoned Cart” email subject and see if those emails are even being triggered by WooCommerce. If they aren’t, you know there’s a problem with your abandoned cart plugin or its configuration.
Why Use a Plugin?
3. Checking your SMTP Provider Logs (If Applicable)
If you’re using an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) service like SendGrid, Mailgun, or Amazon SES to improve email deliverability (which is highly recommended!), you can check *their* logs as well. These logs provide even more detailed information about email delivery status, including bounces, spam complaints, and delivery times.
How to access:
1. Log in to your SMTP provider’s dashboard.
2. Look for a section called “Activity,” “Logs,” or “Email History.”
3. You’ll typically be able to filter by recipient, subject, and date range.
Example:
Let’s say your email log plugin shows that an order confirmation email was sent, but the customer still claims they didn’t receive it. You can then check your SMTP provider’s logs. If you see a “bounced” status for that email, you know the customer’s email address is invalid or there’s another delivery issue.
Reasoning: SMTP logs provide a definitive record of whether an email was *actually* delivered to the recipient’s mail server. This is the most reliable way to confirm email delivery.
4. Examining WooCommerce Code (Advanced)
If you’re a developer (or comfortable diving into code), you can examine the WooCommerce core files or plugin code to understand how emails are being sent. This is rarely necessary for basic troubleshooting but can be helpful for debugging custom email integrations or complex issues.
Example:
You suspect a custom plugin is sending duplicate emails. You could examine the plugin’s code for the `woocommerce_email` action hook to see how it’s interacting with the WooCommerce email system.
// Example: Examining a plugin's code for email hooks
add_action( ‘woocommerce_email’, ‘my_custom_email_function’, 10, 3 );
function my_custom_email_function( $email_class, $email_id, $order ) {
// Your code to send a custom email
// Check if the email is already sent before sending again
if ( ! get_post_meta( $order->get_id(), ‘_custom_email_sent’, true ) ) {
// Send email code here
update_post_meta( $order->get_id(), ‘_custom_email_sent’, true );
}
}
Caution: Modifying core WooCommerce files is strongly discouraged as it can cause compatibility issues and break your site during updates. Work with custom plugins and themes instead.
Conclusion
Checking WooCommerce emails is vital for maintaining a healthy and communicative e-commerce store. Starting with the order notes is a quick and easy way to see if basic emails were triggered. For more in-depth tracking, an email log plugin is invaluable. And finally, checking your SMTP provider’s logs offers the ultimate confirmation of email delivery. By using these methods, you can ensure your customers receive the important updates they need, leading to happier customers and a more successful business.
