Using Gmail for mail delivery is a very easy to do where your settings are concerned but the mail server connection can be finicky. Please be sure to review all the information provided in this tutorial including your settings, troubleshooting and extra notes sections.
Delivery Method: SMTP
SMTP Authentication Required? Yes
SMTP Port: 587
SMTP Character Set: utf-8
SMTP Security: TLS
SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Username: youremailaddress@gmail.com
SMTP Password: yourgmailpassword
An alternate SMTP setting might be SSL with port 465 instead. This depends on your server configuration.
Additional Resource: General Gmail server SMTP settings are on their website here:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/176600?hl=en
1. Gmail has a feature you may need to turn ON. The feature is called “allow less secure apps“. Any system either not using gmail auth or a 2-step verification, is considered “insecure” in the eyes of Gmail. iDevAffiliate, like thousands of other commercial products, uses a PHP library called PHP Mailer. It uses TLS or SSL with an encrypted password.
Enable Access For Less Secure Apps
2. Unlock the captcha for your Gmail account. This allows third party “devices and applications” to connect to your account.
If neither of the above two options work, you will need to consult your web hosting provider and/or server admin to ensure ports are not blocked and that an outbound connection from your server to the Gmail servers can be made. This is purely something your web hosting provider and/or server admin needs to look at for you. You’re welcome to open a support ticket with our support dept. but please know there is little we can do to assist here. Everything we have to offer in terms of Gmail connectivity is in the tutorial here.
When using Gmail for mail delivery, you will find things like the ‘contact form’ don’t work as expected. We’re using your Gmail account to deliver the message but the ‘sender’ is shown as the person completing the form. Gmail will automatically convert the sender to the Gmail account owner offering you no way to hit ‘reply’ with a message back. They do this for to help with spam control and abuse. If using Gmail, we suggest disabling the ‘contact us’ form.
While Gmail will certainly work and you’re welcome to use Gmail for delivery, if asked, we will always recommend using a standard SMTP account instead. They are usually created and provided by your web hosting provider. Something like partners@yoursite.com for example. Your web hosting provider can give you the specific SMTP settings need to connect to your email account. Often times its the same settings you might use in Outlook for example.