Mail server errors and spam
When you have set your hosted site to send announcements from your own address, two things can go wrong: your mail server refuses the site, or it accepts the message and your members' mail services treat it as spam. This page covers both. It is for the admin who set the mail server up.
Run a test
In the admin panel, open Email and press Send me a test email. The test is sent through your saved settings to the address you logged in with.
- If it works, the page shows "A test email is on its way to" followed by your address.
- If it fails, the page shows one of the messages below in red. Where your mail server gave a reason of its own, it is added at the end as: The server said: "..."
You can run one test every 30 seconds. Sooner than that, you get "A test was sent a moment ago. Wait half a minute and try again."
The test only uses settings that have been saved. If you have changed a field, press Save first.
What each message means
| Message | What it means | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| "Could not connect to the mail server. Check its name and the port." | Nothing answered at that name and port. | The spelling of Server (SMTP host): it is usually smtp. followed by the provider's name. Then try the other port: 587 if you chose 465, or 465 if you chose 587. |
| "The mail server answered, but not as a mail server should on this port." | Something answered, but it did not speak the language of a mail server, or not on that port. | The port. A server that expects 465 will not make sense of a connection on 587, and the other way round. Also check that the name is your provider's outgoing (SMTP) server, not its incoming (IMAP or POP) one or its website. |
| "The mail server does not offer an encrypted connection on this port. Try port 465 or 587." | The server would only talk without encryption, which your site will not do. | Change Port to 465 or 587 as the message says. |
| "The mail server did not accept the username and password." | The server was reached and refused the sign-in. | The Username: usually the full email address. The Password: retype it in case of a stray space. For Google, the usual password is always refused: you need a 16-character app password, and 2-Step Verification must be on. If the account's password was changed recently, enter the new one. |
| "The mail server will not send from that address. It usually has to be the account's own address, or one it is allowed to send as." | You signed in, but the account may not send as the Send from address. | Set Send from to the account's own address. Or, in Gmail, add the address as a "Send mail as" alias first. |
| "The mail server refused the recipient." | The server would not send to the address the test was going to, which is your own login address. | Unusual. Read what the server said. Some accounts may only send to addresses within their own organisation until a setting is changed, and a new account may be limited at first. |
| "The mail server refused the message." | The server accepted the sign-in and the addresses, then turned the message down. | Read what the server said. A sending limit reached for the day is a common cause. |
| "The test email could not be sent." | It failed in a way that fits none of the above. | Check every field, save, wait half a minute and try again. If it persists, get help. |
| "Save a mail server first." | There are no saved settings to test. | Fill in the form and press Save. |
Reading "The server said"
The words in quotation marks after The server said: come from your mail provider, not from us. They often begin with a three-digit number and are written for technicians, but they usually name the problem: "Username and Password not accepted", "Application-specific password required", "Daily sending quota exceeded". Search your provider's help pages for those words, or send them to your provider's support.
The test worked but the email did not arrive
"A test email is on its way" means your mail server accepted the message. It does not mean the message reached your inbox.
- Wait a minute or two.
- Look in your spam folder.
- Check that the address named in the message is one you can read. It is the address you log in to the admin panel with.
If it is in spam, read on.
If messages land in spam
A mail server accepting a message is not the same as the message reaching an inbox. Your site's Email page puts it like this: "An address that has not sent much email before is often treated with suspicion at first, so your first announcements may go to some members' spam folders even when everything is set up correctly."
New sending addresses
Mail services such as Gmail and Outlook judge a sender by its history. An address, or a whole domain, that has never sent to many people at once has no history, so its first messages to a list are treated with caution. This wears off as members open your emails.
What your members can do
Ask members, at a rehearsal or in the member portal, to:
- find the announcement in their spam or junk folder and mark it Not spam (the wording differs between mail services);
- add your sending address to their contacts.
As the page says, "it settles down as more of them open your emails."
SPF, DKIM and DMARC, in plain words
These are three DNS records on your domain that let a receiving mail service check that a message claiming to come from yourchoir.org really does. Without them, mail from your domain looks less trustworthy.
| Record | What it does |
|---|---|
| SPF | A list of the mail services allowed to send email for your domain. |
| DKIM | A signature your mail service adds to every message, which the receiver can check against a key published in your DNS, to show the message was not forged or altered. |
| DMARC | Tells receivers what to do with a message that fails the other two, and where to send reports. |
You do not set these up with us. They belong to your domain and your mail provider. Ask your mail provider (Google Workspace, Purelymail or another) for its instructions: each gives the exact records to add, and most have a page that checks whether they are in place. The page advises: "It also helps to check with your mail provider that your domain has its SPF, DKIM and DMARC records in place."
These records are separate from the record that connects your domain to your website, and adding them does not affect your site.
A free Gmail address
An address ending @gmail.com works, but you cannot add SPF, DKIM or DMARC records for it because the domain is Google's. An address at your choir's own domain gives you more control.
A large choir takes a minute or two
Your mail account is not a bulk mail service, so your site hands it messages a couple at a time: two a second at most. Sixty members take about half a minute, and a few hundred take a few minutes. The Announcements page shows "Sending: 12 of 40" as it goes, and you can leave the page.
Your mail provider may also limit how many messages an account can send in a day. If a very large announcement stops partway with addresses listed under "Could not send to", ask your provider what its limit is.
If announcements arrive from our address after all
When your mail server refuses a message during an announcement, that message is sent through us instead, so that it still arrives. Members then see it coming from the usual Choir Master CMS address. Nothing on the Announcements page tells you this has happened. If a member mentions it:
- Open Email and press Send me a test email.
- Fix whatever the message reports. A password that has been changed or an app password that has been revoked is the usual cause.
Going back
If you cannot get your own server to behave, press Stop using it on the Email page. Announcements go back to being sent through us, which needs no setting up. See How your site sends email.