When Tendlio can’t be sure this site is your live store, it pauses emails to customers, automatic discounts and price tests, the summary email, and usage data. It does that on a site your host marks as staging, and on a site whose address no longer matches the one Tendlio was set up on.
Why Tendlio pauses a copy #
A staging copy, or a backup restored at a new address, carries your whole database: your customers, the switch that says sending is Live, and your email provider’s key. Without the pause, a copy would email your customers, with links to the copy, and Auto outlet would change prices in a catalog nobody meant to touch.
What stops, and what keeps working #
On a copy, Tendlio stops:
- emails to customers: campaigns, cart reminders, review requests, welcome emails and second-order nudges. Test emails to yourself still go out.
- automatic discounts from Auto outlet, and new price tests. You can still undo an Outlet discount or a price test.
- the weekly or monthly summary email.
- usage data to Tendlio.
- the warning that something on your site stops Tendlio from counting product visits, because a copy has no shoppers to count.
Your reports and analysis, the storefront widgets, and the rewards a shopper claims at checkout, such as a free gift, keep working.
The Email sending page, the Environment row under Plugin on Help → System status, and the Auto outlet page each say when this site is treated as a copy.
If your host marks the site as staging #
Some hosts mark their staging sites as staging for WordPress. Tendlio reads that mark and pauses the site without a question, because no answer you give on the copy could change what the host says. Your live store isn’t affected. On Help → System status, the Environment row under Plugin then shows your host’s word for the site, for example Staging, and what Tendlio pauses there.
If your site’s address changed #
Tendlio compares your site’s address with the one it was set up on. When they differ, a notice says This site’s address changed since Tendlio was set up, so Tendlio paused customer emails, automatic discounts and the summary email here. It shows at the top of every Tendlio page, and for administrators across your WordPress admin too. The notice has no close button: it goes away once an administrator answers, and only an administrator can.
- In the notice, click Review and answer. The Site address page shows the address Tendlio was set up on, this site’s address, what’s paused here, and what keeps working.
- Pick the answer that fits:
- This is a copy, keep everything paused: for a staging site, a backup or a test copy. Nothing changes, and the notice goes away.
- I moved my store to this address: only when you’ve moved your store, and your customers use it at this address. On the next screen, Confirm your store moved here, click Confirm, this is the live store, or Go back if this is a copy after all.
When you confirm a move, customer emails and automatic discounts carry on from this address.
If you said this site is a copy and later need to change that, Help → System status links to the Site address page.
Which address changes ask #
- Switching from http to https doesn’t ask, because the same site serves the same store.
- A new domain, adding or dropping www, moving the store into a subfolder, or a new port all ask.
- A copy on a host that doesn’t mark staging sites, such as a copy you made by hand, gets the address question. Answer that it’s a copy.
Answer soon after you move your store #
While the question is open, emails to customers wait and Auto outlet doesn’t change prices. Once you confirm the move, and while sending is Live, Tendlio drops the cart reminders, review requests, welcome emails and second-order nudges that have waited more than 14 days, because they’d arrive too late to make sense, and sends the rest.
When Tendlio can’t tell a copy from your store #
- A copy that keeps your live store’s address, on a host that doesn’t mark it as staging, looks like your live store to Tendlio. If you make a copy like that, do two things on the copy as soon as it’s up. On Email sending, switch Emails to customers to Off and click Save sending settings. On Auto outlet, set Mode to Preview and click Save outlet settings.
- A backup restored onto your live store has the same address, so Tendlio can’t tell it apart from your store either. The restore brings back the emails that were waiting when the backup was made, so emails that went out after that can go out a second time. Right after a restore, switch Emails to customers to Off, and look at Waiting emails. Delete N waiting emails, which works while sending is Off, removes everything that’s waiting. The restore can also erase Tendlio’s record that an email, such as a review request, already went out, so Tendlio can line it up again later. Look at Waiting emails once more before you switch back to Live.
For developers #
If you run your live store under an environment type other than production on purpose, you can tell Tendlio to ignore that type with the tendlio_environment_is_production filter, returning true. Tendlio still checks the site’s address.
Additional resources #
- Emails aren’t going out: what else can hold customer emails back.
- How sending works: waiting emails, the daily limit and email analytics: what happens to emails while they wait.
- How to set up Auto outlet to clear your dead stock
- How to use the System status page
Frequently asked questions #
Will my staging site email my customers? #
No, not while Tendlio can tell it's a copy: when your host marks it as staging, or when its address differs from your live store's. It pauses customer emails, automatic discounts, price tests and the summary email there.
I moved my store to a new domain. Why did emails stop? #
Tendlio can't tell a move from a copy, so it pauses and asks. Click Review and answer in the notice, then I moved my store to this address, and confirm.
Does switching to https pause Tendlio? #
No. Tendlio ignores http and https when it compares addresses, so moving to https doesn't ask anything.