Question

PHPMailer can not login to smtp gmail

Please if someone can help me out. I have a web app working fine on xamp using PHPMailer. It logs in on gmail and send the mail without any problem.

But when I try the same code on Digital Ocean the smtp fails to login.

I enabled my login on gmail to accept non secure aps and I am not using 2-step verification.

I run the composer on digital ocean server and apparently everything is fine

I verified the port 587 using ufw . It is okay too.

I logged the response on server using : $mailer->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_SERVER;

And the result is below:

I have hidden the ip address with some xxx

2021-08-05 21:58:46 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [68.183.xxx.xxxx]250-SIZE 35882577250-8BITMIME250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XOAUTH2 PLAIN-CLIENTTOKEN OAUTHBEARER XOAUTH250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-PIPELINING250-CHUNKING250 SMTPUTF8 2021-08-05 21:58:46 CLIENT -> SERVER: AUTH LOGIN 2021-08-05 21:58:46 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6 2021-08-05 21:58:46 CLIENT -> SERVER: [credentials hidden] 2021-08-05 21:58:46 SERVER -> CLIENT: 334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6 2021-08-05 21:58:46 CLIENT -> SERVER: [credentials hidden] 2021-08-05 21:58:46 SERVER -> CLIENT: 534-5.7.14 <https://accounts.google.com/signin/continue?sarp=1&scc=1&plt=AKgnsbt534-5.7.14 gC6q8AVF6VkIfSeXOxjPInPmwRqrlPulbLr63fjfJ7tqG74TVoNCg3hnNmYaAVyzZlNsu534-5.7.14 zJQ90JpRroyE1jegxyI9j28KKiPOt0NHIw5m0Gix8hHC6TlwO9M3BjO7ylcP4RKj>534-5.7.14 Please log in via your web browser and then try again.534-5.7.14 Learn more at534 5.7.14 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78754 b23sm3497724qkl.113 - gsmtp 2021-08-05 21:58:46 SMTP ERROR: Password command failed: 534-5.7.14 <https://accounts.google.com/signin/continue?sarp=1&scc=1&plt=AKgnsbt534-5.7.14 gC6q8AVF6VkIfSeXOxjPInPmwRqrlPulbLr63fjfJ7tqG74TVoNCg3hnNmYaAVyzZlNsu534-5.7.14 zJQ90JpRroyE1jegxyI9j28KKiPOt0NHIw5m0Gix8hHC6TlwO9M3BjO7ylcP4RKj>534-5.7.14 Please log in via your web browser and then try again.534-5.7.14 Learn more at534 5.7.14 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78754 b23sm3497724qkl.113 - gsmtp SMTP Error: Could not authenticate.

Thank you very much


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Bobby Iliev
Site Moderator
Site Moderator badge
August 9, 2021
Accepted Answer

Hi there @zeppy,

I could suggest a few things:

  • Make sure that you are using TLS with port 587
  • Make sure that your password is correct
  • And finally enable applications to access your Gmail account:

https://accounts.google.com/b/0/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

On there click on Continue button to complete the step.

If your account uses 2-Step Verification, you may need to create an application-specific password to sign in with your application.

Let me know how it goes. Regards, Bobby

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