The emails you send to candidates via Personio can sometimes fail. You might see an error message in the candidate profile or notice that a message hasn't been sent. It’s likely that there’s a connection problem between Personio and your email server. This article explains how to test if emails are sending and retrieve potential error messages. This can help your internal IT department to solve the issue.

If you’re reading this article, then you’ve already set up candidate communication via email. This article is relevant if the setup you’re using is the Google integration, Microsoft integration, or SMTP. 

Tip:
If the Autoresponder isn't sending candidates an automated confirmation email after they submit an application, learn how to set up automated confirmation emails.

Before you start

To try the suggestions in this article, you need permissions for your company’s Recruiting settings. You ultimately need to involve your internal IT team in solving the issue. This is because the solutions require adjustments to your IT environment.

It’s useful to check in advance which connection you’ve set up. Go to Settings > Recruiting > General and open the Recruiting email settings. Here, you can see which recruiting email option you're using, for example, the Google integration. If you’ve set up connections for different legal entities, check each domain.

Create a candidate profile for testing purposes

We recommend creating a mock candidate profile to test if you can send emails correctly. You can delete this later.

1. Go to Recruiting > Applications and click Create application.
2. In the email field, use an email address that you can access. Avoid using an email address that’s already in use by one of your employees.
3. Finish creating your test application. Personio automatically creates a candidate profile.
4. In the candidate profile, go to the Messages tab.
5. Send a message to your test candidate.

You can now check if the email appears in your chosen inbox. If so, the email setup is working correctly.

If you’re using an SMTP connection, try retrieving a potential error message

If you’re using an SMTP connection, you can try retrieving an error message. This can help your IT team to better understand the issue. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Recruiting > General.
2. Go to Recruiting email settings.
3. Click Edit to open the settings.
4. Under Your domains, select the affected domain.
5. Click on SMTP settings and Check connection.
6. Reload your browser tab to retrieve a potential error message.
7. Contact your internal IT team and forward the error message displayed. They can use our troubleshooting guide to help solve the issue.

Once your IT team resolves the issue, send a test email from your mock candidate profile. Try this even if it looks like everything works as expected.

If you’re using the direct integration with Google or Microsoft, try reactivating the connection

If you’re using the direct integration with Google or Microsoft, there might be a connection problem. There’s no option to get a detailed error message, unfortunately. With the help of your IT team, you can try reactivating the direct integration.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Recruiting > General.
2. Go to Recruiting email settings and click Edit to open the settings.
3. Under Your domains, select the affected domain.
4. Click Personio email service and activate it. You need to activate this option temporarily while adjusting your chosen integration.
5. Reactivate your Google or Microsoft direct integration. You can find more setup information in our dedicated article.

To check if emails are sending correctly, send a test email from your mock candidate profile.