In a discussion titled ‘Issue with creating admin account for first time’ under the Installation category and tagged with ‘email’, Inspector reports being unable to create the first admin account due to activation emails not being sent, despite successful SMTP configuration with their provider (Spacemail), which works in Thunderbird. They’ve followed troubleshooting steps from this guide but still face issues. anon82911141 advises against using Spacemail for Discourse, as it’s not designed for bulk or commercial email sending, and recommends switching to services like Mailjet or Mailgun for Discourse-specific emails. pangbo suggests a workaround: creating an admin via command line using rake admin:create to bypass email verification, though Inspector notes this doesn’t solve the broader user registration issue. ufukayyildiz points out that TLS must be enabled for port 465. Inspector confirms SMTP settings still fail, and anon82911141 reiterates that Spacemail is unsuitable for Discourse, recommending alternatives. Inspector notes cost and access limitations with other providers, while anon82911141 clarifies Spacemail’s personal-use nature. pfaffman suggests checking if the ‘from’ email address (e.g., noreply@your.forum) is authorized by the SMTP provider, and notes potential port blocking (e.g., Net::ReadTimeout), recommending port 2525 or contacting the host to unblock. Inspector tried Brevo but couldn’t get custom email to work. The core issue remains: email delivery failure preventing admin creation and user registration, with suggested fixes including switching providers, adjusting SMTP settings, or using command-line admin creation as a temporary workaround.
I have tried my doctor also as this topic suggests.
These are the results
Hi,
Spacemail isn’t recommended as a mailing service for Discourse as it’s recommended for personal usage. It is very likely that they are going to block mass emails and/or it just simply won’t work. I use it too.
Try using Mailjet, combined with Spacemail, and simply use Mailjet for Discourse-emailing and leave Spacemail for personal use. You can have more than one mailing provider in DNS records.
Edit:
You can bypass it as @pangbo has suggested but it’s not a long-term solution.
You can create an admin using command line, thereby bypassing the email verification.
./launcher enter app
rake admin:create
for port 465, TLS must be true.
This does work but my primary problem is that users cannot register because of that problem.
I have tried, it doesn’t work.
Spacemail isn’t recommended as an email provider as you most likely have their personal business account package which isn’t intended as a sending service. View my reply and use another provider such as Mailjet or Mailgun which you can use on the side for Discourse, it’s free.
Most of the “supported” hosting is extraordinarily overpriced and has very strict limits. And my provider doesn’t have any package they give SMTP access to all accounts.
As said, I use Spacemail - it is not for commercial sending, it’s not an email provider, it’s a personal business email service.
See Troubleshoot email on a new Discourse install.
A common problem is that the notification email is set to something that your smtp service won’t send from. It’s likely sending from noreply@your.forum and you likely need to change it to your email address.
But in the other topic you created for this problem you say
So your vm is blocking outgoing access to that port. Many services support port 2525 for this reason. You might be able to open a ticket and get them to unblock it.
I have used brevo. I could not get my custom email to work.