Symptom
- How to diagnose a variety of email issues specific to Performance or 360 forms
- Email notifications for a performance form or 360 form not working at all or as expected
Environment
- SAP SuccessFactors 360 Multi-Rater
- SAP SuccessFactors Performance Management
Resolution
- This KB article will help you troubleshoot a variety of email issues.
- By nature email issues can be difficult to troubleshoot as the issue often lies with the clients software or systems and not the product, so often we are troubleshooting a “failure to receive” as opposed to a “failure to send”.
- This provides only the MAIN tests a client can take to rule out likely causes.
- If the client is unable to self-resolve the issue with these common causes, please open a support case as our engineers have a number of more involved tests we can run.
- Since most issues can be resolved without involving Product Support with the following checks, we recommend they always be done first by you or your administrator.
- SuccessFactors Support or Partners should NOT start by opening a COSR ticket until you have fully evaluated the email issue based on the options below.
- First establish the facts based on the tests outlined, so that should a COSR be needed, it is to request specific actions based on the supporting information we gather and submit in a case.
For the same sender and the same receipt, the system won't trigger email notifications.
For example,
- PM form:
A user launches a form and he/she is the first step user.
The form is sent from step A to step B, and steps A and B are the same user. - 360 form:
Form's originator generates a new 360 form and he/she is the first step user.
Form's process owner started 360 review and he/she is one of the participants.
*For more roles involved in the 360 review, please see the KB article 2068683 - Participants - Description of the roles involved in the 360 Process
No users getting ANY emails from SuccessFactors
Are you a new client just started using SuccessFactors?
- Yes > This is probably an issue with a new client where our email servers and or emails are being blocked. See the KB article 2087468 - Emails Blocked Due to Spam Filters, Spoofing, IP Address Allowlists (Emails Not Getting Delivered)
- No > When did this begin? If you have been using the product for some time and users have not historically had any issues receiving emails, then try to establish with your IT if anything on end recently changed with your email Servers.
Check if the Mail Preference "Single Recipient" has been enabled in Provisioning > Company Settings. See the KBA 2087739 - Email Notifications: Setting a Single Sender and Single Recipient for Email Notifications.
360 External Participants Do Not Receive Welcome Emails When Added to the System
Check KB article 2086598 - 360 External Participants Do Not Receive Welcome Emails When Added to the System - Email Notifications.
Test 1: Check Individuals Email/Notification Settings
Go to Admin Tools > Update User Information > Change User Email Notification:
- If it is just one or a few users > Search for the user(s) having issues to confirm that emails are enabled for them.
- For any user you see that does not have Email Notification checked, check the box and save the setting.
- This should resolve the issue if it was noted the user reporting issues did not have emails enabled.
- Inform the client of the setting you found and have them retest to confirm the user is now receiving emails.
- If the setting was checked then continue to troubleshoot.
Test 2: Confirm User Account is Valid
Go to Admin Tools > Update User Information > Manage Users > Search for user > Confirm they are active:
- If the user cannot be found then they may not be an active user.
- Emails will only go to an active user with a valid email address.
- You might want to perform a quick Send System Message test by changing the email address to your own address and confirming you get the email for this username.
- This quickly confirms in general this user’s account does not have any unusual problems.
- Make sure to note the user’s email address and restore when completed.
Test 3: Send Direct Email Message
If this is a case of just one or a few users not getting ANY emails then:
- Send a direct email to them. Ask them to acknowledge they have received this direct email.
- Once they respond we have the first basic confirmation the user does receive emails.
- If they never respond the user may have an issue that their IT needs to address.
Test 4: Send System Message
Go to Admin Tools > Send User Welcome Email:
- Change the email address on record via Admin Tools “Manage Users” to an address such as Yahoo, AOL that will not be impacted by your internal systems.
- From admin tools send a System Message email to the user you entered your email address for.
- This will test that the user account is valid. It will also give us a confirmation that the SuccessFactors product is sending emails
- Confirm message: 1 users have been sent with the email notifications
- Document the time you performed this test
- Confirm you receive the system message for this user account.
- If you receive the email immediately it confirms a basic test that our system is sending emails, and that this user account will receive emails if they have a valid email address that has no spam or spoof blocking occurring.
- If you do NOT receive the email we have our basic confirmation that Performance Manager is NOT sending emails.
Test 5: Check E-Mail Notification Templates Settings
If NO ONE is getting a specific email then this might be your first test, as opposed to the last test.
Go to Admin Tools > Performance Management > E-Mail Notification Templates Settings:
- Confirm that the email notification that you are expecting to receive is enabled.
- If disabled enable it and perform a test that will trigger that email notification.
- Check Recipients settings: For some email templates such as Completed Notifications there is a “Recipients” setting.
- This can be set to send notifications to specific roles such as E, EM & EH.
- Make sure that this has not been set to exclude the person/role that is not getting the notification.
- Click & open the specific notification in question.
- Make sure that there are no error/alert icons being displayed in the body of this notification.
- If this issue relates to specific languages, then be sure to “Switch To” button to check the content for the specific languages.
- Correct any alerts being shown in the templates.
- If “Specify Different Template for Each Form” feature is being used, switch to the template in question to check settings.
- You might want to disable this feature if the issue is specific to emails not being received just for this one template or email type.
- Remember to re-enable once testing is complete.
Test 6: Confirm Consolidated Emails is not enabled
- Go to Admin tools > Performance Management > E-Mail Notification Templates Settings > Open specific email template> Confirm if “consolidated notifications” is enabled or not.
- If it is, then users will only get emails once a day.
- If users are getting emails delivered the next day this might explain why it is not received immediately.
Test 7: Check Routing Map
Go to Admin Tools > 360 Reviews or Performance Management > Manage Route Maps.
Scenario: For issues where some people may get emails, but at least one person expected is not getting an email at the right step:
- Validate the route map is setup to send emails to the correct person(s).
- Find the associated form's route map in “Manage Route Maps”.
- Open the route map and confirm the username(s) and role(s) for each step. EM, E, EX, U, etc.
- Confirm that whoever should get the emails does indeed have this role. If U step make sure username is correct and valid.
Test 8: Create and Route a Test Form
- Go to Admin Tools > Performance Management > Launch Forms.
- If none of the above has worked, it is a good step to launch a test form.
- Before launching change the test users email address to yours, so you get all emails.
- Then walk the form through each step and document just what is working at each step and what is not for each user.
- The results can provide insight into the issue and may help you resolve without needing to open a support case, or might give you more evidence to provide in your case if one needs to be opened.
Final Steps
- If none of the above works, please open a support case
- A call can be scheduled to perform a more thorough round of tests.
Migration of Email Notification Services
The following email-related jobs have been moved to our new S2 scheduler service:
- Processing consolidated emails
- Scheduled Email Notifications
- Form Due/Late Notifications
- Step Due/Late Notifications
See Also
Support & Partners, please use our Main Email Troubleshooting solution to gather diagnostic information.
Keywords
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