Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email

Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email

by Derek Chirnside -
Number of replies: 8

I've just read the thread https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=277594 again, and wondering if there is a simple statement of what the Moodle server needs for this functionality to work.

  1. I have set up in 2.8+ all the admin settings, and the emails are arriving in the gmail account.
  2. Using the settings here: https://support.google.com/mail/troubleshooter/1668960#ts=1665018,1665144
    ie port 993, imap enabled in the gmail account, SSL set to autodetect

But the posts are not appearing in the forum.

Any suggestions as to what to think about at the server end?  I do not have access to this, but IO want to know what to ask.

Many thanks

-Derek



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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email

by Andrew Lyons -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Derek,

Just to confirm, you are:

  1. Receiving an e-mail from the forum
  2. This e-mail indicates that you can reply
  3. You are then replying to that e-mail
  4. The Recipient includes the sub address
  5. You have not read the messages in the destination mailbox
  6. Cron is running

If all of that is good, then check the output from cron - it should give you some diagnostic information to help track down any issues.

Andrew

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In reply to Andrew Lyons

Re: Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email | still failing. :-(

by Derek Chirnside -

Andrew, thanks for these points.

Yes to them all.  Checked all the various settings, passwords, ports . . .

Our wonderful hosts have just sent this:

Opened up firewall, but just getting a different error now...
Unable to connect to IMAP server. Failed with 'Mail server denied authentication.'

For gmail, on the settings page we have

  • imap.gmail.com:993
  • SSL autodetect 

Any other suggestions?

Any idea what to check n the light of this error?

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email | still failing. :-(

by Andrew Lyons -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Derek,

Here are the settings I have been using:
messageinbound_mailbox moodleverptest
messageinbound_domain gmail.com
messageinbound_host imap.gmail.com
messageinbound_hostssl
 SSL (Auto-detect SSL version)
messageinbound_hostuser moodleverptest

I can confirm that these settings to indeed work for me.

Can you confirm that you've enabled IMAP in your GMail settings (https://support.google.com/mail/troubleshooter/1668960?hl=en-GB&rd=2 gives some info on how to do so).

Andrew

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In reply to Andrew Lyons

Re: Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email | still failing. :-(

by Derek Chirnside -

Well, tried all these settings and various options.

IMAP definitly enabled.

:993 gor imap.gmail.com aand no :993

All the SSL options for messageinbound_hostssl

messageinbound_hostuser with and without the @gmail.com

So, my conclusion is that it must be at the server end.

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email | still failing. :-(

by Andrew Lyons -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Derek,

Can you possibly post the output from cron - this will provide some useful debugging which should help identify the issue.

Andrew

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In reply to Andrew Lyons

Re: Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email | SOLVED

by Derek Chirnside -

Andrew: This is very poor form to not reply back with our findings.

We eventually found the problem was with Google.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en-GB

Needed to reduce the security to enable the IMAP process to work.

I did fleetingly think of adding this to the docs, but was unsure of my ground.

-Derek


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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Server requirements for "reply to forum" via email | SOLVED

by Andrew Lyons -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Derek,

Thank you for the update, and good to hear that it's solved. I would be great if you could update the docs for this - I suspect that others may also hit this pitfall.

Most kind of Google to give us information on how we can fix the issue at our end...

It's a little strange generally - I set up a brand new gmail account for testing on two days ago and didn't have to jump through any of these hoops. I wonder why that would be.

Thanks,

Andrew

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