new registration problem, activation email does not gets send

[beartest]

Hi, I have a problem.

Sometimes the activation email gets send, sometimes not, when new members try to register.

I can see the new members who try to register in the forum , in the members area but their status is shown as "awaiting activation"

Any ideas?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

If you do a test registration, do you receive the email?  Anything in error log?  If some are received and some are not, I'd guess they're all being sent but some are being dumped as spam on the receiving end.

[beartest]

Sometimes I receive the email. I made an account and received activation email 4 hours after.

It was not in spam folder, the email which I received.

SO emails are getting delayed.

Any ideas why and how to fix?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Do you have mail queue enabled?

[beartest]

no, i enabled it now.

I will check and then report back.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Don't think that's the problem.  If queue is disabled, single emails should go out immediately.  A four hour delay may mean a problem on server end, you should contact host support, see if they can trace it.

[beartest]

I use siteground as host. They always tell me that I should contact the developer.

If I have something that I can tell them, that the problem is with the host, it would be helpful.

[beartest]

I did what was entailed here

https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/E-Mails_-_Why_are_members_not_getting_emails_sent_from_the_forum

But I did not received an email to the test account.

So, the problem is with host right?

What if I use an SMTP server to send out emails?

I refreshed the testmail.php file in the browser few times and then I got an email.

Any ideas what's happening and what to do?

[beartest]

Okay, I solved it.

I found some useful info on how to configure gmail with smf using smtp to send email.


I used the information shared here.

I also enabled access to less secure apps with gmail, which can be done here.

https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps

In order to use this, 2FA authentication has to be disabled with gmail.

Ok I have found a resolution to this problem, which requires a minor code change.

The clue was in this post here:

EHLO invalid argument in ssmtp


What I've done is edit Sources/Subs-Post.php as follows:

Code (Find) Select Expand

// EHLO could be understood to mean encrypted hello...
if (server_parse('EHLO ' . $modSettings['smtp_host'], $socket, null) == '250')


Code (Replace With) Select Expand

// EHLO could be understood to mean encrypted hello...
// if (server_parse('EHLO ' . $modSettings['smtp_host'], $socket, null) == '250')
if (server_parse('EHLO ' . 'localhost', $socket, null) == '250')



All seems to be working now.

[shawnb61]

Thanks for sharing that.  Very helpful.

[vbgamer45]

Less secure apps with Gmal is going away in June of this year...so heads up.

[beartest]

Some people mentioned using other mail services, will figure out something then.

If you have any pointers, do share.

[vbgamer45]

That is probably the easist way. Otherwise it requires OAuth tokens which SMF doeesn't have support for. I have done work with phpMailer to allow  but is a very complicated setup for most people.

[beartest]

That is probably the easist way. Otherwise it requires OAuth tokens which SMF doeesn't have support for. I have done work with phpMailer to allow  but is a very complicated setup for most people.

You lost me at OAuth token

I will use some different mail service once the gmail less secure apps expires. Thanks for letting me know. Google didnt mentioned it when I was disabling it.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Why aren't you using the mail service in your host account?

[beartest]

I tried, i set up an email with the host and the credentials that they provided, I used it for SMTP mail in SMF.

However, I have my domain with namecheap and hosting with siteground.

I emailed their support that do I need to update some records with the domain company to make it work, but it took them so long to reply.

I started searching for other solutions and then gmail thing turned up.

Its working and for now, I have a major load off my head.

Not that my forum is swarming with people who want to register but can't take the chance right?