The following article is one solution of a few to fix problems you could be facing when trying to make WordPress form plugins work on GoDaddy servers(using either gmail or hosted email). In this case, the solution required that GoDaddy make the change on their end. So stop pulling your hair. It’s not you, it’s them.

First I should mention that in my clients case, her website was comprised, in other words hacked. Hackers injecting malicious code in your website can really do some damage. In some cases, damage you can’t come back from. So always always, make sure you have backups in place. Now I’m not 100% positive that her website being hacked was the cause for her system malfunctioning, but that’s what GoDaddy says. And since they fixed it after talking to them for the 4th time, i’m not complaining. Godaddy is really hit and miss on getting someone who is knowledgable about your problem. Which is why I highly recommend hosting with SiteGround.

Secondly, I’d like to mention she is using a 3rd party email (gmail) in her forms for notifications and not a hosted custom email . Which in this case, it probably wouldn’t make a difference, but it’s good to know for those of you who have similar issues.

In order to spare you the long chat conversation between me and the agent, here is a shortened version with all the important parts addressed.

Support: I checked our Splunk tool for email result and found out the the email are being dropped due to bad account.
Heather: aha 🙂
Heather: how do we fix her bad account?
Heather: whats so bad about it?
Support: I will give you steps on how to fix that.
Heather: thank you
Support: The user’s email is being blocked because the hosting plan has been compromised, and is sending spam as a result.
Heather: aha
Heather: you’re a genius
Support: n order to reinstate email functionality on the hosting account, the customer will have to address the following items
Heather: okay, I just want the forms to work
Support: Kindly list the steps.
Support: 1. Scan all local computers which may access this account for the presence of malware, such as trojans, keyloggers, viruses, etc.
Support: 2. Update all logins associated with your account, using strong passwords, including: FTP, database, and applications, etc.
Heather: we had malware removed a week ago?
Heather: it’s clean now.
Support: Alright.
Support: We will request now for spam emails.
Support: 3. Update and maintain all hosted applications and their add-ons (plugins, themes, widgets, modules, etc) with the most current, secure, versions.
Support: 4.Review all hosted content for malicious and unrecognized files, and clean/remove/replace content as necessary.
Heather: yeah, that’s done. we can’t update one of them because it will crash the site.
Support: 5. Add a Captcha, or human verification method, to all submission style forms or comment sections that you have on any sites in the hosting. This includes any log in pages for CMS application or anything that has fields to enter content with a submission button of some type.
Support: Once you are done, I will reach out to a Tech Lead to reinstate email functionality on the hosting account

Solution

After clearing the the hacked site and setting my client up with Captcha on all her forms and login, they reinstated her email (which can only be done on GoDaddy’s end) and her emails started magically working. No SMTP setup required. What a relief.

Now one thing I did do for my client that her previous developer didn’t do was set her up with Gravity Forms. I setup all my clients with Gravity forms because it’s important for clients to have a record of all messages stored inside the website, in the event that something happens with the servers and emails like in the case of this client. Which I’ve seen a lot of email problems in the 8 years I’ve been doing this. Unfortunately, she went a few weeks without being notified of emails and none of her messages that were made thru the contact form, were ever saved. So unbeknownst to her, she lost a lot of potential work which is not good for her business.

Other Solutions To GoDaddy Email Problems

How to Make Gravity Forms Work with GoDaddy Hosting
In this article, Chad explains how to change your email routing to work with the “Remote Mail Exchanger” and then forward the email address. I’ll save ya some time. This only works with hosted custom emails. Not 3rd party emails like Gmail.

How To Fix GoDaddy Blocking Emails from Contact Forms
In this solution, Bill shows us how to setup a WordPress SMTP plugin to work with GoDaddy Servers. Again in this case, this will only work with GoDaddy hosted emails.

How to Use SPF Text Record to Stop Go Daddy and Other Hosts from Blocking Emails from Website Contact Forms
In this tutorial we are making a change to the SPF TXT Records in DNS settings in order to get our hosted custom emails to work on GoDaddy Servers.