Reading this now.  Will report on what I find.  http://codex.simple-press.com/…..-by-email/

In reading this, I think I have everything set right: 

“For an email reply to be accepted by Simple:Press and published, the user who sent the email must have the appropriate permissions to either reply or start topics in the specified forum.”  Yes, I added that to “Standard” which the user is set to.

They must also have the necessary Post by Email permission.  Is that what i described above?

Finally they must send the email using the address set in their WordPress/Simple:Press profile.  Yes, did that. 

The Post by Email plugin will also add a new field to their Simple:Press profile that enables them to enter a secondary email address that can also be used for sending email replies. Simple:Press will check for either their original profile address or this special email address and either will be accepted and allow publication of their reply to the appropriate forum topic.  Yes, it does. 

I’m not sure what I’m missing.  How do I post by email?  Do I just reply to the email I received by my subscription?

first, two ways to use pbe (post by email)… 

one is new topic…  subject is the new topic name… to address is the  forum email address you created… content is the body…

second is to reply to an admin notification or a subscription notification email… 

but yes, fundamentally, you reply to the notification emails…  in those emails, you will see some text that tells you to remove stuff below

[– To reply by email insert your text above this line – instructions below –]

it will vary from client to client…

but more to the point now…  have you set up an email address per forum?  and set up the pbe options on forum – options – email settings?

what happens whey you run the test mail server connection?

I understand now what to do (thank you) but I’m having trouble configuring it correctly.  

I created a new email address for each of seven forums (@outlook.com)–all with the same password.

I assigned those email addresses to each forum. 

I am having trouble configuring the Options/Email Settings: 

Is the “Name of the Mail Server” supposed to be incoming (pop3.live.com) or outgoing (smtp.live.com)?

I tried pop3.live.com and got an error: “Connection to mailbox ksforum-the-food-craving-relief-forum@outlook.com failed” but when i tried smtp, it spun for many minutes.  

For Outlook.com, I can use SSL (port 995) or TLS (port 2).  Is one better than the other?  Can I use either?  

the mail server will typically be the incoming server… you are getting email vice sending…  not sure what you mean by smtp failed…  you will want pop3 or imap…  and which port you use will likely be determined by which you choose…

best way to test is set up you email client to receive email from this server… verify its working.. then set up the same in the forum…

Great idea to set up using an email client.  I did this, and received email into my mac mail.  I used the same settings in Options/Email Settings: 

Server: imap-mail.outlook.com

Port: 993

Use: SSL

Correct Password

Check every 1800

Again, I got Connection failed, but I will wait until the morning to see if a post I submitted via email worked.  Is it possible that the correct settings will fail, yet the feature will work?  Any other tips?

993 is your POP3 port?
Is this is failing – for test purposes can you turn off SSL, double-check the POP3 port and try the test connection again?

This is the last thing I’m struggling with before we want to go live.  I’ve tried so many different configurations of imap, pop3, port number, with and without SSL; and have still not been able to connect–even though it works on my email client.  Can you recommend an email provider (gmail, hotmail, etc) and provide an example of the settings to make it work?  I don’t really care which I use–I have to set up new accounts for each forum regardless.  

Do I have to have every Forum email configured before it will work?  I noticed on the failure note that it is actually using one of the email addresses that I’ve assigned to a forum even though there’s no mention of it on the Options/Email Settings page. 

Thanks in advance. 

yes, you want each forum to have its own email account…  the account, must of course exist on your email server…  the email addresses for each forum are set up on the edit forum admin panel… so forum – forums – manage groups and forums… edit a forum and enter the address for pbe in the input field…

double check your settings on forum – options – email settings…

make sure the server is correct and matches exactly in your client…same for port and security…  its not email client or server specific, so not specific but different per server…

typically, pop3 is on port 110, imap is on 143…  you would have ssl and tls off…  you could of course, use the ssl versions too… that would move pop3 to 993 and imap to 995…  for ssl, you probably want ssl or tls checked…  but all this would be in your email client too…

at the top of the section of the panel where these settings are is a red box with some text… what does it say?  make sure you are using pop3 if it says imap is not available…

Well, it was operator error: it turned out that several sites I went to said to use port 993 (and so did my mail client).  I tried pop.gmail.com, SSL, 995 and it worked.  I’m now just waiting to see if the post I made shows up. 

I kept it set to 1800 second (30 minutes).  Is there any reason that I can’t make that time much shorter?  This will be a very low volume forum.  What setting would you recommend? 

FYI: There’s a typo on “Unique” on Forums – Manage Groups and Forums page:

“Unqiue Post by Email Address for this forum”

Sorry, I thought i had it resolved.  While I do get a “Connection Successful” message, I don’t get Topics posted from emails.  

Here’s what I did: 

• Assigned the email accounts to the forums
• Set the “Check for new email interval (in seconds)” to 180 (3 minutes)
• Emailed from the email account on my WordPress user that has access to the forums and to each of the unique email addresses. 
• Verified by logging in to each of the gmail accounts that the email arrived
• Waited for about 45 minutes. 
• Logged in to the Forum, but no new topics.  

Could this be due to a statement you made earlier: “the account, must of course exist on your email server… ”  I don’t have a mail server–my site is hosted by Hostgator.  Will this feature work by simply having an email account configured properly, or do I really need my own mail server? 

If you are on hostgator you have an email server… It’s part of your package… I was saying the email address has to exist…

First, don’t check for the email in a client… You essentially mark it read then… Just have patience…

After the email should have been processed, if it didn’t show up, check the email log on forum – tools – post be email log… See if error or else…

Also remember that it uses wp crown, so you have to have activity on your site… That is pages being visited… It’s how wp kicks off cron jobs…

So let’s try again and look at the log…. Dont look at email with client or Web… If nothing we may have to test WP cron on your site…

I sent an email to all seven Forums.  Each of them gives this error in the Email Post Log: “Failed Permissions Check.”  Is this different from the Connection Test (which passed)?  

I read your post here: https://simple-press.com/support-forum/sp5-plugin-topics/post-by-email-invalid-user-email-and-failed-permissions-check/

It reminded me that I set it up so Standard can reply to Topic via email, but not create–so I changed it.  

I sent a single email to all seven forum email addresses.  Two of them posted and five of them gave me an error: “Flood control exceeded” which I’m assuming will go away if i were to post to one at a time.    

It looks like my issue is resolved, but I will test it a bit more.  

Thank you for your awesome support!

Yes, the user must have permission to post by email….

Additionally, to be attributed to the right user, the ‘from’ email address has to match the email address in your profile…