Immediate-alerts Email Notification not sending emails

Question

The alerts are working, but for some reason the "Send e-mail when ownership is assigned" on a task list is not working.

A task is assigned to a user however Immediate-alerts are not sending the emails. I tried with the below commands

stsadm -o updatealerttemplates -url http://testserver -f "c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML\alerttemplates.xml" -LCID 2057

stsadm -o setproperty -pn job-immediate-alerts -pv "Every 2 minutes between 0 and 59" -url http://hulmossteam:25000

also, turned off and turned on the "Send e-mail when ownership is assigned?" setting but still not able to fix the issue.

any thoughts ?

Update:
Deleted the existing Tasks list and created a new Tasks List still it is not working...

I could see the below entries are in the dbo.ImmedSubscriptions Table against that site-collection

UserEmail=
ListURL = Lists/Tasks
AlertTitle = System
AlertType = 536870912
AlertTemplateName = SPAlertTemplateType.AssignedToNotification

I have restarted the Timer job but still no luck, subscription emails are working so I guess SMTP is configured correctly.

I did not do an IISRESET, is that mandatory?

Answer 1

The first thing to realize is that SharePoint has basically two methods of sending emails

a) In response to an event on a page load/postback - such as

• The Alert Me confirmation message or

• Assigning a task (the one you are missing)

• Adding someone to a site.

b) From the the SharePoint timer service which includes all the Alert Me type emails including the "Immediate" one (its not really immediate, its every 2 minutes by default.)

Your missing emails are coming from a) and not b) - so I don't think mucking around with the alerttemplates.xml file or the job-immediate-alerts setting is going to help.

The first things to discount

• SPAM filters

• Incorrect email addresses in the person you're assigning a task to (don't assume because its right in AD its right in SharePoint - click on the name in the task list and verify)

Then I would check are you getting the "Alert Me Confirmation" emails when you sign that same person up to an alert.

If you DON'T get that then I would look at anti-virus blocking smtp emails from the W3P worker process (the timer service runs in a different process).

If you do then gawd only knows - time for Microsoft PS?

I've put together a troubleshooting guide for SharePoint Alerts - but I don't think its going to help much in your case.

Answer 2

Checked the timerlock table on the content database and it was running on the Inactive SharePoint Server. so, Stopped the Timer service temporarily on that server which moved the timerlock to the active Server.

Steps to resolve the issue:

• Make sure you have SharePoint already configured for outgoing emails.
• Make sure that you have alerts for the document library turned on if you are testing with the document library.
• Run this command from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN: stsadm -o updatealerttemplates -filename "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML\customalerttemplates.xml" -url
• Run this command: stsadm -o setproperty -pn job-immediate-alerts -pv "every 1 minutes"
• Run this command from the command prompt: iisreset
• Run this command from the command prompt: services.msc
• From the services window, restart the Windows SharePoint Services Timer.

Answer 3

Use:

stsadm -o updatealert -url [current url] -oldurl [old url]

It will update Siteurl column in Immedsubscription table and maybe something else

You need to update your stsadm : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4388

Answer 4

I am currently facing the same issue but bit of strange manner, I have followed all the steps above given by you and it is working only for me. It is sending mails only if am added as new user but not any one else. we are migrating data from different servers to our own servers currently and it is SharePoint 2010. Can you please help me with this. Thanks in advance.

Answer 5

the main point that fix my problem which occured after moving to new farm was the following

3. Is your Exchange server allows SharePoint to Send Mails? In Exchange Server, If anonymous Relay settings is not enabled, then you must add your WFEs in the relay list.? Make sure your ALL Sharepoint WFE's IPs are added in allowed Relays or Receive connectors in Exchange Server. If you use multiple domains, add all of them. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288949.aspx Watch the 'DROP' folder in the mailroot of the SMTP server.

Read more: http://www.sharepointdiary.com/2012/02/sharepoint-alerts-not-working-troubleshooting-checklist.html#ixzz3C3jbADd3

adding all the servers (except database servers) in the Exchange relay list fix the problem