The public form says "Sending secure messages is not available right now"

No valid recipients are configured. Open Components > Secure Messages > Options > Recipients and check the list: one recipient per line, either email@example.com or Name|email@example.com. Lines whose e-mail address is invalid are silently skipped - a single typo in the only address produces this notice.

The form says "Could not save the message" or "the link could not be e-mailed"

If this happens after several messages in a row, you are hitting the rate limit: the public endpoints allow at most 20 messages and 10 link e-mails per hour from the same IP address, so the form cannot be looped to fill your database or to flood your mailbox. The counter clears by itself within the hour. This also affects your own testing from a single computer.

If it happens on the first attempt, it is a genuine error: check that the recipient you picked is still in the configured list, that the captcha (if any) was answered, and look for the actual cause in System > Global Configuration > Server > Error Reporting or your PHP error log.

The e-mail never arrives

Secure Messages sends through Joomla's own mail system. Test it under System > Global Configuration > Server > Send Test Mail; if that fails, fix your site's mail settings (SMTP is far more reliable than PHP mail). Also check the recipient's spam folder - a message consisting mostly of a long link is a typical spam-filter trigger, which you can soften by personalising the mail template.

The link shows "This message is no longer available"

Expected in three cases: the message was burned after its first opening, it expired, or it was deleted from the backend. If the recipient claims they never opened it, note that some corporate mail scanners and link-preview bots follow links; the message page is safe against that (the message is only burned when someone actually clicks Show message), but a colleague or shared mailbox may have opened it first.

"Could not decrypt this message"

The decryption key is missing or incomplete. The key is everything after the # in the link; some chat apps and mail clients cut links there. Ask the sender to re-send the full link, preferably as-is from the original e-mail. For password-protected messages, "Wrong password" means exactly that - check for keyboard layout and copy-paste whitespace issues.

The captcha does not appear

The component option only activates whichever captcha plugin is selected under System > Global Configuration > Site > Default Captcha. Configure and publish a captcha plugin there first.

The public form shows no password field

Password protection is set to one of the default modes. Open Components > Secure Messages > Options > Field modes and set Password protection to Sender chooses; the default modes mean messages from the public form carry no password at all (see the Configuration article for why there is no admin-set password).

The cleanup task fails with "Is it already running?"

Misleading Joomla message: it usually means the Secure Messages - Cleanup plugin is disabled, so the task type cannot run. Enable the plugin under System > Manage > Plugins and run the task again.

The module shows nothing at all

The module renders only when the Secure Messages component is installed and enabled. Also check the module's menu assignment and that no second send form is on the same page.

Still stuck?

Please contact us with your Joomla and package version and a description of what you tried.