Could not instantiate mail function

[nihkiruks]

From time to time we're getting this error in Activity log:

 

Admin Email Notification Sending Failed - Could not instantiate mail function. (Subject: WHMCS New Order Notification) 

 

and all the time:

 

Admin Email Notification Sending Failed - Could not instantiate mail function. (Subject: WHMCS Cron Job Activity) 

 

Sometimes e-mails are sent OK. Any ideas why?

[mylove4life]

Try SMTP and see if that works better.

[nihkiruks]

I'd like to see what's wrong with current approach. Is there any way to debug it?

[ChrisGooding]

We have also started seeing this.

 

We are using php mail, and would also like to see if there is anyway to get a more detailed error log from this....

 

Also, we are experiencing it when try to send emails to clients when using the send mail function from the clients overview page.

 

The really odd thing is that on some occasions the emails come through fine, wheras other times no emails come through. This applies both to the admin email address, and to customers.

 

or better yet hear how to stop it if someone has sussed it already:)

Edited August 4, 2010 by ChrisGooding

[badkarma]

did anyone ever solve this?

We are seeing the same error messages

[harveygwa]

i just had this issue the other day and just got it fixed a few minutes ago.

i dont really know what it was myself but might help some resellers.

 

what ever the problem was it needed root access. i sent a ticket to my hosting company and with in a few minutes they messages back saying it should be working now and it fine.

 

so all i can say about this is you must need root acces coz i tryed everything i could including SMPT emails.

 

could of been somthing like a simple reboot???

[And then there was one les]

There are many possible causes but the most likely causes are a php configuration error or missing mail modules. I would switch to SMTP mail anyway, PHP mail gets marked as spam much more frequently than smtp mail.

 

Also make sure your mail server is marked as an authoritive mail server for the domain, You can do this by editing your dns zone and adding spf records for your mail server IP's (once you get your mail working). While it doesn't guarantee that your mail wont get marked as spam, it does help to authenticate mail that came from your system and not some other spoof system.