Setting up outgoing email config in Moodle 3.10 NOT WORKING :(

Setting up outgoing email config in Moodle 3.10 NOT WORKING :(

by S _Ke -
Number of replies: 2

Hi there, I've recently had Moodle 3.10 installed on a hosted server.  I followed a Moodle docs to set up the outgoing email configuration using the details from my hosting provider.  

When sending a test email I keep getting this message: Your site couldn't communicate with your mail server. Please check your outgoing mail configuration.

Everything appears to be configured correctly.  I even sent my Moodle site URL, email username and password and moodle credentials to the hosting company and they had a play around and this is how NTC configured the outgoing email. (pls see attachments)  Using these settings they were able to send the test email. Originally I had the SMTP Auth Type set to LOGIN, this was changed to PLAIN by the server host tech guy.

Now I'm logged back in as administrator - the test email wont send even with the same settings that NTC input. Any idea what's wrong?

Here's the reply I got from the hosting provider tech team:

There is something else affecting connections in your website which we can not detect or debug. Settings are updated with the correct information and still the connection from your application can not be processed.

Test script although indicates no troubles:
http://inspire-yulearnonline.com/1testsmtp.php

and you can check test message sent to your address: (blanked out for privacy)

You should revise if some plugins are installed to the website that may affect that or check Moodle for some debugging options to check more details of actual trouble in processing connection from the Moodle script.

Any idea if and what plugin could be affecting this or anything else that is stopping the configuration of my outgoing emails?

Thanks in advance!

Simone

Attachment outgoing email settings configured by NTC.png
Attachment outgoing email TEST MESSAGE ARRIVED.png
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In reply to S _Ke

Re: Setting up outgoing email config in Moodle 3.10 NOT WORKING :(

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
The built in "Test outgoing mail configuration" yoursite/admin/settings.php?section=outgoingmailconfig is pretty accurate. If your SMTP provider contradicts that, you need a second opinion. For example, you could configure Thunderbird on your PC/Laptop and try sending e-mails using the credentials provided by your provider.

Thunderbird has the nice feature that you can leave some options as "Auto" and it tests many combinations for you. Once successful, find out the specific settings one-by-one and compare with what you've been doing.

Any serious SMTP provider will debug with you. They look at the log trace at their end and tell you what you've been doing wrong. (They don't have to debug the Moodle side, as they claim, they need to look at what happens on their side.)

BTW, the port 485 is already suspicious, port 587 is more common.
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