Brian_Seipp1 reports an issue with setting up reply-by-email on a Discourse forum using a Gmail account. Although the forum successfully polls the inbox and logs initial welcome emails, replies sent via email do not appear in the forum or the Gmail inbox. Brian_Seipp1 notes a complete lack of error logs on either the Discourse or Gmail side, expressing confusion over the “radio silence.” They seek updated instructions or advice to resolve the problem.
RGJ suggests checking the “Rejected” and “Received” sections in the Admin Emails panel for clues. Simon_Manning adds that if no bounce message is received, the email likely reached Gmail, so the user should check the Spam folder or any filters that might be moving messages out of the inbox. Brian_Seipp1 confirms that only initial welcome emails are visible and believes polling is correct. Brian_Seipp1 also states that the Spam folder is empty, noting the account is fresh with no obvious filters.
rogerreed analyzes the situation, suggesting that since delivery works but replies fail, there may be an issue with how Discourse handles incoming emails. They advise verifying the reply-by-email settings and the incoming email address, and re-checking mail logs to ensure emails are actually reaching Discourse, as the absence of errors might indicate the emails are not getting through at all.
I set it up using gmail account, and followed all the instructions listed in that guide (including trying both to use an app password and a separate attempt with ’ access from less secure apps’ turned on.
My forum does seem to poll the remote inbox for emails (as I can see in the received emails log the initial gmail welcome emails were seen by the forum). However when I reply to a topic via email the message doesn’t appear in either the inbox I setup or the forum. Additionally there are no logs that provide any feedback on the request, neither on the side of the sender or on discourse/the gmail inbox to indicate what might be going on. I have checked ~/logs as well and not seen any indication of the email being received or seen. The complete radio silence has me rather stumped. I would expect either a bounce message on the sender side or something indicating an error on the discourse side.
Is there any advice or maybe a more updated set of instructions I should follow that might help me resolve this?
If you don’t find anything in Discourse as @RGJ suggests, did you check the GMail account’s spam folder? Alternatively, could there be a filter in the GMail account which is causing the email(s) to skip the inbox?
If you aren’t receiving a bounce email, that suggests the GMail account has received it (assuming the To address was correct) so it will probably be in one of All Mail, Spam or Bin.
The only emails that are there are the initial couple emails gmail sends to itself when you open an account (welcome email etc). Based on that being there I believe the polling is correct.
That was my thought initially as well, but when I check the spam folder I don’t see it, and it is a fresh account, so unless there is a default setting I am not seeing that is filtering emails (besides spam) I would expect it to show up there.
Based on the fact that emails can be delivered but replies aren’t getting through it does sound like there is an issue with handling incoming emails. Make sure that your reply by email settings and your incoming email address is correct, check your mail logs, as if there aren’t any errors the emails probably isn’t even getting to Discourse.