I successfully set up Discourse on my AWS instance using the AWS Lightsail service. Currently, I am attempting to register my admin account on the Discourse forum, and it is sending an activation link to the email address I specified during the Discourse setup. However, upon checking my email inbox, I am not receiving any emails. Initially, I configured “email-smtp.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com” as my mail server in the Discourse setup. Subsequently, I discovered that our email accounts are hosted on the server “smtp.zeptomail.in.” I updated the Discourse settings accordingly, but I am still not receiving emails. I have checked the spam folder, and I am using port 587 for email. Please help me out. Your assistance in resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated.
AI-generated summary
Kuldeep_Kumhar successfully installed Discourse on AWS Lightsail but is not receiving activation emails for admin or new user accounts, despite configuring both AWS SES (email-smtp.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com) and ZeptoMail (smtp.zeptomail.in) as SMTP servers. They confirmed checking spam folders and using port 587. merefield suggested bypassing email activation by creating the admin account via CLI using rake admin:create, which Kuldeep_Kumhar confirmed worked — but the core issue remains: new users still don’t receive activation emails. merefield advised checking email logs on both the server and the email provider for SMTP status codes (e.g., “250 OK”). pfaffman asked if Kuldeep_Kumhar rebuilt the app after changing SMTP settings and recommended reviewing the official guide: Troubleshoot email on a new Discourse install. The root cause likely lies in misconfigured SMTP settings, missing rebuild, or provider-level restrictions.
Doesn’t solve your email problem, but normally, on a new instance, you can register an admin account like so:
cd /var/discourse
./launcher enter app
rake admin:create
… and follow the instructions …
Thank you for your response!
I followed the steps you suggested, and now I can see the Discourse forum on our website work.scube.co However, I’m encountering an issue where I’m unable to create new users because they are not receiving the activation link via email.
I’m seeking assistance in understanding why the activation emails are not being received. Could you please help me identify the possible reasons behind this issue? Your guidance would be greatly appreciated.
What does it say in your email logs? Both on your server and at the email service? On Discourse are you seeing “250 OK”?
Did you rebuild after you made those changes?
Have a look at Troubleshoot email on a new Discourse install