Q: What causes Email Notification Not Sending in ServiceNow?

Notification is inactive or conditions don't match — Check the notification record's Active field and When to send conditions. Navigate to System Notification > Email > Notifications and verify the specific notification record's state and condition logic. Recipient list resolves to empty or invalid users — The Who will receive tab may reference groups/roles with no members, or user email addresses are missing. Check the notification's recipient configuration and verify target users have valid email addresses in their user records. Notification already fired and Send When is 'Always' — When Send When field is set to 'Always', the notification fires only once per record. Check sys_email table for existing email records for this notification and record, or the notification's execution history. User notification preferences blocking emails — Individual users may have disabled email notifications in their preferences. Check the target user's notification preferences under User Administration > Users, find the user, and review their notification settings. SMTP outbound email server not configured — Instance-wide email configuration issue. Check System Properties > Email Properties for SMTP server settings, or navigate to System Mailboxes > Administration > Outbound Email Configuration to verify setup.

Question 1

What causes Email Notification Not Sending in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Notification is inactive or conditions don't matchhigh likelihood

Check the notification record's Active field and When to send conditions. Navigate to System Notification > Email > Notifications and verify the specific notification record's state and condition logic.

Recipient list resolves to empty or invalid usershigh likelihood

The Who will receive tab may reference groups/roles with no members, or user email addresses are missing. Check the notification's recipient configuration and verify target users have valid email addresses in their user records.

Notification already fired and Send When is 'Always'medium likelihood

When Send When field is set to 'Always', the notification fires only once per record. Check sys_email table for existing email records for this notification and record, or the notification's execution history.

User notification preferences blocking emailsmedium likelihood

Individual users may have disabled email notifications in their preferences. Check the target user's notification preferences under User Administration > Users, find the user, and review their notification settings.

SMTP outbound email server not configuredlow likelihood

Instance-wide email configuration issue. Check System Properties > Email Properties for SMTP server settings, or navigate to System Mailboxes > Administration > Outbound Email Configuration to verify setup.

Question 2

How do you fix Email Notification Not Sending in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

How to fix it Navigate to System Notification > Email > Notifications and locate your notification record. Verify the Active field is checked. If unchecked, check it and save the record. Click the When to send tab. Check if your conditions match the current state of the record that should trigger the notification. Test the condition by using the Test button next to the condition field with a record number that should trigger the notification. Click the Who will receive tab. For each recipient entry, verify the users, groups, or roles actually contain members with valid email addresses. If using groups or roles, navigate to User Administration > Groups or User Administration > Roles to confirm they have active members. Check if the notification already fired by navigating to System Logs > Emails and search for your notification name and target record number. If emails exist but Send when is 'Always', change it to 'Record is updated' or delete the existing email records to allow re-firing. Verify target users have email addresses by navigating to User Administration > Users and checking the Email field for each recipient. Check user notification preferences by opening the target user record and clicking Notification Preferences related list. Ensure email notifications are enabled. Test the complete notification by using Send Test Email button on the notification record, or create a test record that matches your conditions.

Question 3

How do you prevent Email Notification Not Sending in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Always test notification conditions using the Test button before activating, and verify with actual record numbers that should trigger the notification. Create a dedicated test group with your email address as a member to safely test notifications before adding production recipients. Set up email notification monitoring by creating a scheduled report on the sys_email table to track notification delivery success rates. Document recipient logic clearly in notification descriptions, especially when using complex role or group hierarchies that may change over time. Use 'Record is updated' instead of 'Always' for Send when field unless you specifically need one-time notification behavior.

Email Notification Not Sending in ServiceNow

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