Codeigniter emails not being received by gmail

Question

I have an app where i'm sending emails on certain events, but when i used my gmail account, i never receive the emails and they are not in my spam folder. When i send them to my work email, i receive them instantaneously.

What do i need to do to get the emails through to google?

I'm using the standard codeigniter email configs (which i think uses sendmail).

I'm using google apps for business and i have the MX records setup that google provides.

Do i need anything else? Also, i'm using subdomains in my app, does that affect what i may need to setup?

EDIT

When i use smtp like this example Sending email with gmail smtp with codeigniter email library , the page never seems to come back. It eventually just timesout.

Answer 1

The only plausible explanation for this behaviour is a SPF Check failure. SPF or Sender Policy Framework is a new technology that allows easy detection of spam. Gmail honours SPF unless you manually mark those emails as not spam. Regardless of this, if you have received emails on another address then they must have reached Gmail too. Check your spam thoroughly, as Gmail does not discard emails even on very high spam suspicion rather they end up in the Spam folder.

You can set up a SPF that allows your webserver to send emails which will result in Gmail accepting emails sent by your webserver as authentic. See http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-set-up-and-create-sender-policy-framework-spf-domain-dns-txt-record-with-wizard/ and a wizard from Microsoft.

Answer 2

You will probably see, that at some point in the future, you'll get them all appearing in Gmail. Google is most likely seeing if the sender is spam, and holding those messages. I've experienced that before setting up dev servers. I would suggest using a transactional email service, like Mandrill or SendGrid. You'll find you get a lot of info from those services that you forgo if you simply send an email through PHP.

Answer 3

The Filter Theory The other possibility is that the poster has a filter set up on their GMail account that is filtering out the emails.

I would make sure that you are sending the required header information as well. Have you tried registering a new gmail account and sending it to that user?