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Your Joomla mail settings are wrong.

I know it sounds completely ridiculous, but I've troubleshot this exact problem enough times to know what it looks like and why it happens. Let me explain what's going on and how to fix it.

When the "Monitor Global Configuration" or "Monitor component configuration" options are enabled in the Configure WAF page (default: both enabled) an email is sent to the "Email this address on monitored configuration change" every time the Joomla global configuration and component options are changed respectively. Admin Tools only provides the subject line and content of that email. The actual email sending is handled by Joomla, based on your mail settings in your Global Configuration options. I have seen many (too many...) cases where the mail configuration of a Joomla site is flat out wrong and results in a time out.

Of course, you might wonder, how can you change the mail settings when this requires editing the Global Configuration which tries to send an email, causing a timeout before the Global Configuration settings are saved.

Well, start by going to Components, Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF. Click on the "Hardening Options" tab, find the "Monitor Global Configuration" and "Monitor component configuration" options and disable them. Click on the Customisation tab and set "Send troubleshooting email on administrative functions" to No as well. Click on Save & Close.

Now you can go to System, Global Configuration. Click on the Server tab and click on the Send Test Email button at the bottom. If your email settings are correct you will see the page scroll back up and you will a message similar to "The email was sent to [email protected] using SMTP. You should check that you've received the test email." The email address and the method the email was sent (e.g. SMTP) depends on your site's configuration. If you do not see this message even after 15 seconds have passed you know your site's mail configuration is wrong and you need to fix it. As far as I remember, after entering the correct mail configuration you will have to click on Save before clicking on Send Test Email again for the changes to apply.

Once you are able to send (and receive!) the test email you can go back to Components, Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF. Click on the "Hardening Options" tab, find the "Monitor Global Configuration" and "Monitor component configuration" options and enable them. Click on the Customisation tab and set "Send troubleshooting email on administrative functions" to Yes as well. Click on Save & Close.