They are necessary for any WordPress form website because they allow you to communicate with visitors and collect their contact information. However, they can occasionally fail, resulting in a poor user experience and the inability to collect important information.

Fortunately, there are various methods for troubleshooting WordPress forms and getting them up and running again.

In this post, we will explain what to do if your WordPress form does not work and provide our top troubleshooting methods.

An Overview of WordPress Form Errors

Forms allow you to build an email list, secure user registrations, gather user feedback, and more. When your form stops working, you may lose prospective leads and lower site engagement.

Before we get into troubleshooting solutions, it’s important to understand the most common WordPress form issues. Here are some of the most popular ones:

The Form Is Not Submitted Correctly

This could be for a variety of reasons, including plugin incompatibilities, wrong form configuration, or server-side issues.

The Form Is Not Sending Notification Emails

This is frequently the result of misconfigured form plugins or SMTP settings.

Validation Errors

These problems come when users complete forms and receive error messages indicating that required fields are missing or inaccurate. They are often caused by incorrect form field settings or compatibility issues with other software.

Spam Submissions

Even with anti-spam methods such as CAPTCHA, certain forms still receive fake or spam submissions. They not only overload your inbox, but they can also slow down your website if left ignored.

What to Do When WordPress Form Does Not Work

In this part, we’ll go over 7 troubleshooting strategies to assist you resolve WordPress form issues.

Here’s an overview of all the tips covered in this tutorial. If you’re interested in a certain tip, you can use the link to jump ahead in the article. Let’s get started.

1. Update WordPress, Themes, and Plugins

Outdated software is a leading cause of website issues, including form mistakes.

Software engineers are constantly working on improving their products. With each update, developers correct software issues, patch security flaws, and improve functionality.

Keeping everything up to date keeps your WordPress site, including its forms, functioning smoothly and safely.

To update your WordPress site, start by going to Dashboard » Updates.

The ‘Updates‘ section lists any available updates for the WordPress core, plugins, and themes.

If a WordPress core update is available, prioritize it first. To safely upgrade your WordPress, check out our complete guide to WordPress updates for beginners.

Once done, scroll down the page to begin upgrading your plugins and themes.

We recommend doing updates one at a time to avoid any problems. To accomplish this, tick the box to the left of the plugin or theme name and select ‘Update Plugins‘ or ‘Update Themes‘.

After updating your WordPress core, plugins, and themes, go back to your form and test it to see whether the issue has been resolved.

2. Check for Plugin Conflicts

WordPress plugins are wonderful for expanding your site’s functionality, but they don’t always work well together. Additionally, conflicts between plugins can cause trouble with your forms.

To determine if a plugin issue is causing your form troubles, go to Plugins » Installed Plugins in your WordPress dashboard.

From here, select the ‘Active‘ option to get a list of all presently active plugins on your site.

You must now disable all plugins except the WordPress form plugin that you are currently using. To do this, click the ‘Deactivate‘ button next to each plugin’s name.

Alternatively, you can deactivate all of your plugins by clicking on the boxes to the left of their names.

Then, select ‘Deactivate‘ from the ‘Bulk actions‘ dropdown menu, then click the ‘Apply‘ button.

With only the form plugin allowed, you can test your form to determine whether the problem persists. If the form works properly, the conflict was most likely caused by one of the deactivated plugins.

Now let’s figure out which plugin is causing your form troubles.

To do this, go to the ‘All’ page and reactivate your plugins one by one by clicking ‘Activate‘. Then, test the form each time to identify the conflicting plugin.

If your form stops working after you reactivate a plugin, you’ve identified the problem. To resolve your form troubles, you may wish to look into plugin alternatives.

3. Clear Cache

Caching is an excellent approach to speed up your WordPress site. However, it may display ineffective versions of your website’s components, such as forms. With this in mind, emptying your browser cache may help alleviate the problem.

Similar to the browser cache, caching plugins may serve an older version of your form. If you’re using a caching plugin, you may also clear your WordPress cache to make sure that your form is showing the most recent version.

Learn how to clean browser and website caches in our WordPress cache-clearing guide.

After clearing your cache, you can return to the page where you displayed your form. Then you should test it to check if the issue has been solved.

4. Review the Plugin Settings

Incorrect form plugin settings can also cause form difficulties. So, reviewing and altering these parameters could help you overcome your form troubles.

In this part, we will demonstrate how to review the WPForms plugin settings. If you’re using a different WordPress form plugin, see the documentation.

To get started, navigate to the WordPress dashboard and choose ‘WPForms‘. This will take you to the Builder’s ‘Forms Overview‘ screen.

Then, simply hover over the form that isn’t working from the list of all forms and select ‘Edit‘. After that, you will see the WPForms builder interface.

Spam prevention makes sure your form does not get fraudulent submissions. So, if you’re having spam submission troubles, check your spam protection settings.

For this, navigate to Settings » Spam Protection and Security. Then you can check to see if your spam protection is turned on.

Next, let’s double-check your notification settings.

In the ‘Notifications‘ area, check for typos in the email addresses in the ‘Send To Email Address‘ column.

If you have multiple receivers, make sure you use a comma to separate each one.

If you are unsure whether you have properly configured multiple email recipients, we recommend reading our article on how to construct a contact form with multiple receivers.

The next step is to see what occurs when a user submits a form. This will allow you to guarantee that redirects, thank you messages and other follow-up activities are appropriately configured.

You can start checking in the ‘Confirmations‘ section.

If you select ‘Show Page‘ as your confirmation type, make sure the page is live on your WordPress site. And if you select ‘Go to URL (Redirect)‘, double-check the related link to make sure it works.

6. Check Web Server Configuration

Outdated server software may cause compatibility difficulties between WordPress and your form plugin. To ensure smooth functioning, make sure your server matches WordPress’s basic needs.

WPForms allows you to see what server software your site is using, as well as the versions of PHP and MySQL.

To obtain these details, go to WPForms » Tools » System Info in your WordPress dashboard.

Then, go through ‘System Information‘ to find the ‘Webserver Configuration‘ section.

Once you’ve discovered it, simply compare the PHP and MySQL versions to WordPress’s minimum needs.

As of the most recent WordPress version (6.6.1), the minimal needs are:

PHP: Version 7.4 or above.
MySQL requires version 5.6 or higher

If your server is not running the correct PHP and MySQL versions, please contact your WordPress hosting provider. Most hosting companies will assist you in upgrading your server’s software to suit the latest WordPress needs.

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The Final Thought

If your WordPress form isn’t operating properly, it can be irritating, especially if it affects user experience and conversions. Following these seven troubleshooting steps can help you identify the root cause and resolve the issue quickly. Whether it’s checking for plugin incompatibilities, updating ineffective plugins, or changing form settings, fixing these frequent issues helps keep your forms running smoothly.

Remember, a properly working form is important for capturing leads, gathering feedback, and improving overall website performance. Stay proactive, and your WordPress forms will continue to be trusted and useful instruments for your website’s success.