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Common questions and troubleshooting

Answers to common questions and the quickest routes to fixing things.

No mails are logged at all

  • Check whether the system plugin plg_system_maillog is enabled (System → Plugins). Without this plugin nothing is captured.
  • Is enable logging set to yes in the options?
  • Is the context selected in which the mail originates? A mail from a cron run is only captured if CLI is enabled.
  • Do log rules exclude the mail? Check the mode include matches only in particular.

If hooking into the mailer ever fails (after a major Joomla update, say), Mail Log reports that in the backend with a warning and writes it to the Joomla log — so you notice it instead of quietly getting no more entries.

I see the list but no message texts

To read the bodies you need the permission view mail content — it is deliberately separate from merely viewing. Have it assigned to your group under Options → Permissions.

An entry shows "metadata only" instead of text

That is usually intentional: the mail was classified as sensitive (a password reset, for example) and therefore stored without a body. Alternatively the default mode stores only a short excerpt. You control both in the options under body storage and sensitive content — changes affect new entries.

"Resend" is not possible

If the mail was stored with metadata only or truncated, the full text is missing and the mail cannot be reconstructed. For encrypted bodies the Joomla secret must be unchanged. If the message was about a waiting time: there are 30 seconds between two sendings of the same mail, and at most 20 repetitions are possible.

The update is not found or fails

  • Click Check for Updates first to refresh the cache.
  • Is the download key entered at the update site — and without spaces at the beginning or end? A space copied along with it leads to "Package download failed".
  • If need be, download the new version manually and install it via System → Install.

Encrypted entries have suddenly become unreadable

The key is derived from the Joomla secret (in configuration.php). If that was changed, previously encrypted bodies can no longer be decrypted. The secret should only be changed deliberately and with care.

The database is growing a lot

Set up the task clean up old log entries and set an entry retention (default 180 days) or a maximum number of entries. Also store only as much body as you really need — the default "metadata + excerpt" is frugal already.

Where are the attachments?

Out of the box outside the publicly reachable area, in the Joomla log directory under com_maillog/attachments. They are reachable only through the component with a permission check, not by a direct URL.

What happens when uninstalling?

The four database tables with all log data are removed. Attachment files already captured stay in the protected directory, so that uninstalling by accident destroys no evidence — delete that folder by hand if you need to.

Applies to version 1.0.4.

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