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Alex SchutteAlex Schutte 

Send Welcome Email not working in new Salesforce Customer Community

We just upgraded/migrated our Customer Portal to the new Customer Communities platform (but kept the Customer Portal licenses and did not migrate to new Communities licenses) and now when we create a new Community User the Welcome email is not sending at all - regardless of whether or not you check "Generate new password and notify user immediately" or not - have tried both ways on initial creation and either way it does not send the welcome email.

In the Manage Communities Setup option we do have "Send welcome email" checked and created a new email template to be used with it. The template is active and Available for Use. All of the Portal Profiles and permissions have been given access to the new Community. 

When I first Published the new Community I did not have the Manage Communities Setup option "Send welcome email" checked because I didn't want to blow up all the existing Users' inbox. We were already sending an email to customers announcing the upgraded Community. But then once it was Published and the new email template was created the setting was checked back to "Send welcome email".

What does work is after you create the new user and leave "Send welcome email" unchecked, Save it. Then go back and click 'Edit' and now check "Send welcome email". That will then send the email template set for the 'Forgot Password' and 'Change Password' options in the Manage Communities Setup options.

And apparently, SFDC changed how they treat these emails from Portal to Communities, but does not mention this in any documentation. In Portals an auto-generated password used to be contained directly in the email template, inserted at the bottom.

Now, in the new Communities, that auto-generated password is no longer included, but they changed how they do this for security reasons (winter 14 release update apparently) and instead of sending a username and password in the email they now send a special link that allows people to click and change their password.

The trick is that your forgot your password email template needs to include this special merge field (undocumented anywhere by SFDC from what I found):

{!Community_Url}

If you include that it will be replaced with a special url that allows the user to change their password and logs them in. Thread where I first found this out: http://salesforce.stackexchange.com/questions/17887/communities-forgot-password-emails

This is being successfully included in the 'Forgot Password' and 'Change Password' email templates that were created. So when I go back to the newly created User and click 'Edit' and now check "Send welcome email", it does send the email template set for the 'Forgot Password' and 'Change Password' options to the new user and they are able to get in after setting their password.

Any ideas or help you can provide??

Thanks,
Alex
Raghavendra ARaghavendra A
Hi Alex,

Have you added the User's Profile to the Available profiles in Community settings? This can be one step missing.

OR

The mail will defenitely be in Junk Folder.

I often anyone of the above when I add user to a community.

Defenitely the welcome email will be sent.

Please let me know if this helps.

Thanks,
Raghu
Alex SchutteAlex Schutte
Hi Raghu, yes the users' Profile has been added to the Available profiles in the Community settings. Have tested with 5 different email accounts and the Welcome email is not in Junk. The email that goes out for Reset/Forgot Password (as mentioned above) does get sent though and was found in the Inbox not Junk.

Thanks,
Alex
Raghavendra ARaghavendra A
Hi Alex,

I think we are missing something fundamental here.

I always recieve emails either in inbox or junk. Reset passwords are always recieved in my Inbox.

So, let me research more and get back to you.

Meanwhile could you please create a developer instance, set up demo cummunity and add users to it. Please use the same email IDs that you are using now where emails are not getting generated. So we will come to know if there is a problem only for those who migrated from Portal to communities.

Alternatively, I will also do my research and get back to you soon.

Regards,
Raghu
FlorSFFlorSF
Alex, I have the same problem, the {!community_url} is populating fine in the forgot password email but not in the welcome email.
Did you figure it out?
Thanks!
Ajay_SFAjay_SF
Hi Folks,

I'm facing the similar issue with the visualforce email template. Whenever I'm referencing the field on the User fields, the email is not getting delivered to the recipient. 

Thanks!
AJ
Suzanne TimmerhansSuzanne Timmerhans
I am facing problems with the Community_Url which is directing users to a now inactive community URL rather than the current active one.  I have a case open with Salesforce and they claim they have no record of any problems similar to my own!  Yet there is case after case here about it - Did anyone get their issues resolved?  Did anyone have to open a case with Salesforce?  I feel like I am exising in a parallel universe - users report the problem here and Salesforce Support never heard about it before?????
Ranu Agarwal iBirdsRanu Agarwal iBirds
You can use {!$Network.NetworkUrlForUserEmails} into Visualforce email template to send password setup Url of community and can set this template into community to send Welcome email to portal user, You can also handle on the basis of profiles etc into VF email template.
Kevin Jackson 11Kevin Jackson 11
 How can I use {!$Network.NetworkUrlForUserEmails}.  Can someone provide sample code?  I have added this to a VFP email template, but the url does not show up.  I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
Jessica Eiselman 3Jessica Eiselman 3
I know this post is old, but in case someone else encounters this I recently ran into the issue of the community welcome email not sending out when adding new community users and I realized that it was because my community wasn't activated. Once I activated the community the welcome emails sent out.
harika raju 27harika raju 27
how to create welcome message for login users in salesforce
Betty Holloway 7Betty Holloway 7
I just ran into this issue myself. If you go to Setup > All Communities > Manage > Administration there is a tab called "Email" and you need to check "Send new member email" and it will look up to the default template
Kushal MaluKushal Malu
I just ran into this problem, but the scenario is a little different. I had to send welcome emails to the portal users 10 and 20 days after the creation of the user. So wrote a nightly batch job.
It is working absoultey fine except a link to reset the password is not working even if using  {!$Network.NetworkUrlForUserEmails} merge field as @Ranu Agarwal iBirds said.
But it seems that is merge field only works if the email is triggered from inside the community.

Do anyone have any possible solutions as to how can I use the reset passowrd link in my email ?

Note: I am sending the email from a batch class and using a custom welcome email template.

Thanks in Advance,
Kushal
Clément BinetClément Binet
Hi all,

Is anyone able to answer the question above? I've got the same issue.
Deepak Sahu 33Deepak Sahu 33
i am not getting welcome and rest password e-mail for creating new community use. i tried a lot but ones clicked enable community user button and fill all the require information but after that i am not getting mail. i also add community profile in community member section and i also checked welcome email checkbox in community. i also check Test Email Deliverablity, its working fine but still i am not getting welcome and rest password for new community user. Please help me out.

Thanks.
 
SFDC 1904SFDC 1904
I am facing same issue. 
Michael Alamag 2Michael Alamag 2
I've got same issue. Is there anyone here who already fixed this?
 
Richa MathurRicha Mathur
I ran into the same issue. Had send the welcome email to 4 contacts but instead of 4 only to 2 contacts received the welcome email. Email is correct and had also checked the junk folder it is not even there. Can anyone suggest how to fix this  issue. Is there anyone who already fixed this?
Cat StolzCat Stolz
I'm having the same problem--my community is active, send welcome email is checked, the user's profile is assigned to the community. And when I enable customer user, they do not get any email.
Yinghao LiYinghao Li
For sandbox, need make sure turn on 'All Email' in Sandbox Delivery Settings. then config Email Sent from Experience Cloud Sites
After that, all works for me.

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=000332265&type=1
https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.networks_customize_email.htm&type=5