WordPress refuses to send mail, “…your host may have disabled the mail() function”

Question

Step by step: First find the file where the error message appear. I use Notepad++ and the CTRL + F command to search in files. It is a good idea to search only the first few words of the error message, because some error messages are combined of different messages.

Your error message appear in wp-login.php and holy luck, only there. So let’s have a look why this error could occur.

if ( $message && !wp_mail($user_email, $title, $message) )

There are two conditions. $messagehave to be true (not an empty string, not false, not null, etc). And wp_mail() shouldn’t return false.

One line above, there is a filter $message = apply_filters('retrieve_password_message', $message, $key);, so it is possible that a plugin (or theme) use this filter and returns a value that is not true (empty string, false, null, etc.).

But it is much easier to check if wp_mail() is working or not. Write a small plugin to send a test mail to yourself:

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: Stackexchange Testplugin
 * Plugin URI:  http://yoda.neun12.de
 * Description: Send me a test email
 * Version:     0.1
 * Author:      Ralf Albert
 * Author URI:  http://yoda.neun12.de
 * Text Domain:
 * Domain Path:
 * Network:
 * License:     GPLv3
 */

namespace WordPressStackexchange;

add_action( 'init', __NAMESPACE__ . '\plugin_init' );

function plugin_init(){
    $to      = '[email protected]';
    $subject="Testemail";
    $message="FooBarBaz Testmail is working";

    wp_mail( $to, $subject, $message );
}

(This is PHP5.3 code. If you are running PHP5.2, remove the namespace things)

The plugin should send a testmail immediately after activation. If not, calling some backend pages (e.g. dashboard) should do it.

If the testmail does not arrive, then you probably have an issue with wp_mail(). So turn on debugging:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true );
@ini_set( 'display_errors',1 );

Put this code into your wp-config.php and retry sending yourself a testmail. Now you should get some error messages and they also should be logged into wp-content/debug.log (The debug log can grow very large if there are more errors caused by plugins and/or themes).

At this point, you got good informations if wp_mail() fails and if so, why. If wp_mail() work correctly and the testmail arrived, go back to top and find out why $message is not true.

If you have issues with wp_mail(), so keep in mind that wp_mail() does not use PHPs mail() function. WordPress use a PHP class (PHPMailer). Maybe you just need a plugin to use SMTP instead of sendmail. Or the problem is located at another place. We don’t know. You have to investigate.

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