Hello Langermann,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

Can you please let me know if you have configured a cronjob for scheduled emails?

cron is a Linux utility that schedules a command or script on your server to run automatically at a specified time and date. A cron job is the scheduled task itself. Cron jobs can be very useful to automate repetitive tasks like in our plugin for notifications.

Depending on the server, there are different configurations for it, which you can contact your hosting provider about, or you can check out one of the solutions for it on this link.

Also, you can try this:

*/15 * * * * wget -q -O - "https://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=wpamelia_api&call=/notifications/scheduled/send"

Or this:

*/15 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php ~/public_html/wp-cron.php --action='wpamelia_api' --call='/notifications/scheduled/send'

Or this:

GET 'https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=wpamelia_api&call=/notifications/scheduled/send' > /dev/null

WP Crontrol plugin is the best option if you're not familiar with cron jobs. You can find more info about it, and detailed instructions on how to set it up in our FAQ section.

So, if you already read that, and still need some clarification here's some further info.

You copy only the URL from below a scheduled notification:

Then, go to Tools/Cron Events, and click on the "Cron Schedules" tab. In it, add a 15-minute interval:

Then go back to the "Cron Events" tab and click on "Add new":

Below it, select the "PHP Cron event" radio button, and add the URL you copied from Amelia/Notifications in this form:

file_get_contents("yourURL");

Below it add the name and set it to run a few minutes in the future, using the provided time format. So, if you're adding the cron event at 12:45 (local, current time), set it to run at 12:50; and then select the schedule you previously selected:

Click on Add Event, and that's it.

The cron runs every 15 minutes and checks if there's an email to be sent. So, in Amelia Notifications, your scheduled notifications are set to run every day at a certain time. If you set that time to be 15:00 (for example), the emails will be sent when the cron runs after that time.

For example, there's an appointment booked for tomorrow, and it's currently 14:44 - the cron runs, but since it's not yet 15:00, it doesn't send anything. It runs again after 15 minutes, so at 14:59, but there are still no emails flagged by Amelia, so it doesn't send anything. Then it runs again at 15:14 and it sees there's an email that should've been sent at 15:00, so it sends the email. It will only send emails when Amelia sees an appointment scheduled for the next day.

I hope that helps.

Hello Langermann,

I can see that you have the "PHP Mail" mail service set up.

Please note: We strongly recommend changing mail service setting to SMTP because email that is sent with PHP Mail generally gets flagged as spam by mail servers and also can take some time to send. See below how to configure SMTP mail services.

• SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) – In this article, we show how to configure the SMTP mail service for Gmail, but you can set it up for any other outgoing service that supports SMTP for a mail client. When you select this option, four inputs will appear – you need to populate them to configure SMTP properly. A Google SMTP example:
  • SMTP Host – smtp.gmail.com
  • SMTP Port – 587
  • SMTP Secure – TLS
  • SMTP Username – Your Gmail address
  • SMTP Password – Your App password (details about setting up an app password can be found in the yellow notice section below)

  The most commonly used SMTP Ports are 465 and 587. Port 465 uses “SSL” as SMTP Secure, while port 587 uses “TLS” as SMTP Secure. Make sure to check what the correct SMTP settings are for your mailing provider.

Google SMTP (Gmail accounts):

From 30 May 2022, Google will no longer support the use of third-party apps or devices which ask you to sign in to your Google Account using only your username and password, so “Allow less secure apps” will be removed.

In order to continue using SMTP with Gmail, you will need to set up an App Password for Amelia. App Passwords can only be used with accounts that have 2-Step Verification turned on. Instructions about this can be found on Google’s Documentation, here.

For detailed set-up instructions, please take a look at this article on our official support platform.

Microsoft SMTP (outlook, hotmail, live, and office365 email accounts):

If you’re having issues using SMTP with your Microsoft account, please make sure to set up an App Password for Amelia. App Passwords can only be used with accounts that have 2-Step Verification turned on in the Security Basics section of your Microsoft account. Instructions about this can be found on Microsoft’s Documentation, here.

For detailed set-up instructions, please take a look at this article on our official support platform.