PHP mail function not sending

Question

For some reason, my PHP mail is not sending.

This is my script:

$tom = $email;
$subjm = 'Company: Forgotten password';
$msgm = "-- DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL --\nHi,\nYou have forgotten your password.\nHereby we want to supply a you a new one.\nNew password: $pass";
$msgm = wordwrap($msgm, 70);
$mail_sent = @mail($tom, $subjm, $msgm);
echo "$tom <br /> $subjm <br /> $msgm";
echo $mail_sent ? "Mail sent" : "Mail failed";
echo "<br />Your new password has been sent to the email you've signed up with.<br />If you can't find the email, please wait a few minutes or check your spam box.";

However, it always gives me "Mail failed", and I do not see it in mailbox. I've checked if the correct emailadress was being produced by my script ($email), and it was. So I'm kinda lost as to why it will not send.

This is entirely dependent on the underlying SMTP setup you are using or your server has provided to PHP (ie, sendmail or qmail, etc.). — Jared Farrish
– Jared Farrish, Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 19:17
mail uses server's inbuilt mailing service, sendmail usually. If you're sending emails from your local testing machine and if it's on Windows - then you need to set up mail server first. — Furicane
– Furicane, Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 19:18
What are you using for your SMTP server? I am not seeing any authentication information in the above. Are you using the Mail class from PHP or Pear? — user978122
– user978122, Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 19:20
Try including a from address as well; see the manual entry for an example / how to send additional headers: php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php — stealthyninja
– stealthyninja, Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 19:21
You are supressing the error with that @ before mail. Remove the @ and try again so you can actually get an error. — IOrlandoni
– IOrlandoni, Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 19:24

halfdan · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-20 19:28:24Z

2

You need to supply a from address in order to conform to RFC. Also the return value of mail does not tell you if the mail was sent or not. It does only tell you if the underlying mail server accepted the mail.

For a more elegant way to send mail not only using your local sendmail but by any SMTP server have a look at phpmailer.

answered Nov 20, 2011 at 19:28

halfdan

34.3k8 gold badges82 silver badges88 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Deniz Zoeteman · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-20 20:26:52Z

1

As a follow up to the comments, I contacted my webhost. They tell me I can't send emails using the mail function to recipients that are not on the domain. I'm resolving the issue with them.

Edit:

I needed to add a From:, and the emailadress of From should be a @mydomain.com address, not external. It works now.

edited Nov 20, 2011 at 20:26

answered Nov 20, 2011 at 19:27

Deniz Zoeteman

10.2k26 gold badges74 silver badges98 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP mail function not sending

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related