Issue: Marketing email confirmation status stuck at “User clicked confirmation” — despite using HubS

[Tobainen]

We are implementing a GDPR-compliant double opt-in (DOI) process in HubSpot, but the property Marketing email confirmation status never updates to “Confirmed”, even though users click the confirmation button and land on the correct HubSpot-hosted confirmation page.

✅ Our Setup

• DOI email includes a button:

  • Link to: Email subscription link

  • Subscription type: Subscription confirmation

• Confirmation page is set to a HubSpot-hosted landing page (no redirect)

• GDPR data privacy setting is active:

  Send emails to contacts with legal basis is turned ON

• We assign legal basis (Freely given consent from contact) and multiple subscription types via workflow

• Contacts land on the correct confirmation page after clicking

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🔁 Workflow Overview

📄 Workflow –

Triggered by Mail Subscription = Yes

• Sends the DOI email

• After that, it assigns:

  • Several communication subscription types

  • Legal basis (Freely given consent from contact)

📄 Separate Workflow –

Triggered by Click on Confirmation Link

• Trigger: Marketing email confirmation status = User clicked confirmation

• Action: Sets a field (User Status = active)

• ❌ No subscription types or legal basis assigned here

🚨 The Problem

Even after the user lands on the HubSpot confirmation page, the Marketing email confirmation status stays on:

“User clicked confirmation”

And never updates to:

✅ “Confirmed”

As a result, emails are not sent, and we see the following error on the contact timeline:

❌ “There was an issue sending an email to this contact. This recipient has unsubscribed from this subscription type or there isn’t GDPR-compliant legal basis for sending to them.”

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🧩 Additional Context

We use the following GDPR settings:

• ✅ Data privacy settings: ON

• ✅ Send emails to contacts with legal basis: ON

  (see screenshot)

The DOI confirmation page is not redirected, and the subscription link is configured correctly.

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❓ Our Questions

1. Does the subscription type in the email button need to match exactly the subscription types we assign in the workflow?

2. Should the subscription types be assigned before or after the confirmation click?

3. What could cause the confirmation status to remain stuck at “User clicked confirmation” even when the HubSpot confirmation page is shown?

Thanks in advance for your support!

[Tobainen]

Thank you for your fast and professional reply.

Our setup:

• The subscription type “Service Emails” is managed via a workflow, triggered by a checkbox in a third-party registration form.

• The workflow explicitly sets both:

• The subscription (for Service Emails)

• The legal basis (“privacy/legal basis for communication” property) in HubSpot

• Before sending any email, we ensure the following properties are set:

• The contact is subscribed to the Service Emails subscription type

• The legal basis is set in the contact record

• The “Marketing email confirmation status” is set to “User clicked confirmation”

The issue:

• When sending emails, we receive the following error message (even though all the above fields are set):

“Email cannot be sent because the recipient does not have a legal basis for communication with your company. For more information, see the subscription details in the contact record. Privacy/Legal basis must be set.”

• As a result, emails are not being delivered.

Our question:

• What could be causing this error, even though both the subscription type and legal basis are set in the workflow?

• Are there any additional steps or required fields we need to set to ensure that the legal basis is recognized and emails can be sent?

Thank you for your help!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

@Tobainen in your second screenshot, are you first sending the email, then setting the subscription type opt-ins? If so, that is likely the reason. HubSpot requires the opt-in to be present before sending the email. You need to change the order of workflow actions.

Also, please confirm that your marketing email is using the correct subscription type: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/create-marketing-emails-in-the-drag-and-drop-email-edi...

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @Tobainen,

A few things to unpack here – happy to help.

First off, the marketing email confirmation status staying "User clicked confirmation" is expected behavior and correct. "User clicked confirmation" means that they are confirmed, there is no process that would further change this value. There is nothing that would ever change it to "Confirmed".

This list here has a lot of legacy values: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/what-is-the-marketing-email-confirmation-status-contac...

The only relevant for your process are "User clicked confirmation" and "Customer marked confirmed" (the latter being the value that contacts take when you manually confirm them – it would be better called "Contacts marked confirmed" as it does not relate to customers only). These are the ones your process should revolve around. It is misleading and the documentation is bad, yes, but take it from someone who has set up more than 50 GDPR-compliant double opt-in processes: "User clicked confirmation" is correct and final.

Regarding your questions:

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@Tobainen wrote:
Does the subscription type in the email button need to match exactly the subscription types we assign in the workflow?

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It's important to understand that, out of the box, the double opt-in and subscription types are entirely unrelated. HubSpot treats these as separate processes and there is (out of the box) no link. The double opt-in process is not affected by subscription types, subscription types are not affected by the double opt-in process.

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@Tobainen wrote:
Should the subscription types be assigned before or after the confirmation click?

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The subscription type should theoretically be set during the form submission already. In the form, if you set up the consent options correctly, the checked box will set the subscription type to opted in already.

If you want to update an additional subscription type after, I would do it after the email confirmation. But technically, it doesn't matter. In the future, when building email lists, you should always filter for both the subscription type opt-in and the email confirmation. There are ways to get away with just one but it's less reliable, more prone to error and filtering for both is simply more reliable. I'll die on that hill 😄

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@Tobainen wrote:
What could cause the confirmation status to remain stuck at “User clicked confirmation” even when the HubSpot confirmation page is shown?

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See above, not stuck, expected behavior.

As far as your workflow design goes, here's what I would propose:

• One workflow to send the double opt-in email, document the double opt-in email send date, and nothing else
• Another workflow that enrolls confirmed contacts (Marketing email confirmation status is any of User clicked confirmation or customer marked confirmed), then sets the required subscription type opt-ins, optionally documents the confirmation date, and optionally sends a welcome email

Lastly, the "Send emails to contacts with legal basis" as part of the GDPR settings only requires there to be a subscription type opt-in for the subscription type used in the marketing email, not a confirmed email address. In other words, there is no connection between the GDPR settings and the double opt-in process out of the box.

Best regards!