Mailto links not working

  • Unknown's avatar
    brianitsimplifiedwebcom · Member ·

    Hello,
    When I create simple “mailto:” links on my site, once the page is published and I click on the link, nothing at all happens.

    For example, I highlight the phrase, “email me here” and create a link (mailto:(email visible only to moderators and staff)).

    I can click on that phrase and a new email window does not pop up, like it does on any other site.

    Can anyone steer me in the right direction on this?

    Thanks!

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    I do not see any sites under your @brianitsimplifiedwebcom WordPress.com account when I check on our end. You can confirm by visiting this page: https://wordpress.com/sites.

    Is it possible you created your site under a different login with us or are using another provider like GoDaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator, etc. instead? What is the URL of the site you are needing help with?

    Happy to check in our system so we can take a closer look.

  • Unknown's avatar
    brianitsimplifiedwebcom · Member ·

    Thanks so much for responding. I’m sure it’s a case of not being familiar with the nuances of WordPress. When I hard-code a site, I just do a “mailto: link and it works.

    We are hosted on HostGator. I’m a bit confused about where I should go to request help… wp.com or wp.org.

    The url is:
    https://crcct.org/events/mens-prayer-breakfast/

    I linked 2 phrases in the article to send email to one of our members, and both of them are non-responsive to a click.

    I really do appreciate your reaching out to help!

  • staff-totoro · Staff ·

    We can’t help directly because we don’t host crcct.org on our WordPress.com managed hosting. As a result, we can’t take a closer look at your site.

    Instead your host (Hostgator) uses the open-source variant of the WordPress platform which functions differently than what we offer here on WordPress.com.

    The good news is that help is available here at the open-source WordPress forums: https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/

    The folks in that forum are more familiar with these kinds of issues and are in the best position to help.

    Also, without having the ability to look at your site I can suggest that “mailto” links are not the best solution and so we don’t actually recommend those at WordPress.com. The reason for this is that those links do not work for all visitors, only for visitors that have a standalone email app of some kind (Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail) will those links work.

    If your visitor uses webmail like Gmail, where they log in to a browser window to check their email (and don’t use an app to manage their inbox) these mailto links will not work. If the visitor clicks on one, nothing happens. :(

    For example, if you use webmail instead of an app to check your email, these links would not work for you as you have mentioned. Instead we recommend a contact form of some kind on your site as that will work for all visitors, whereas mailto links will not.

    Hope that helps!

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