Moving WordPress e-mail from a mailbox to SMTP Relay: what changes in your SMTP plugin

WordPress & CMS·· 48 views· 3 min read

The short answer: the SMTP plugin you already use will do. Four things change: the server (the Email Center one, not your mailbox server), the username and password (the credential ones, not the mailbox ones), and the sender, which can be any address on the verified domain. In the plugin, choose «Other SMTP», TLS and port 587. Setting WordPress up to send by SMTP for the first time is covered in making WordPress send e-mail properly.

What changes and what stays

Plugin field With the mailbox With SMTP Relay
Server The mail server of the domain mailboxes. The server in the Email Center Connection card.
Port and encryption 465 or 587. 587 with TLS (STARTTLS) or 465 with SSL/TLS.
Username The full mailbox address. The credential username.
Password The mailbox password. The credential password.
Sender Usually the mailbox address itself. Any address on the verified domain.

Step by step

1 Verify the domain in the Email Center before you touch the site. See getting started with SMTP Relay.
2 Create a credential just for this site, for example «Main website WordPress».
3 In the plugin, swap the details: «Other SMTP», server, port 587, TLS, authentication on, credential username and password.
4 Choose the sender and turn on Force From Email, if the plugin has it.
5 Send the plugin test e-mail and check it in the Email Center log.
6 Test the forms too, and the password reset e-mail: those are the ones visitors notice first.

Contact forms

Form plugins usually let you choose the sender of each form. Put an address on your domain there, never the visitor e-mail field: that one goes in Reply-To. With the visitor address as the sender, the e-mail is refused, because their domain is not verified. See which senders the relay accepts.

Two SMTP plugins at once cause trouble. If the site has an old SMTP plugin that is deactivated but still installed, or the form plugin has its own SMTP settings, make sure only one of them is sending.
Why it is worth switching: you no longer depend on a mailbox password (someone changes it and the site stops sending), you no longer count against the hourly sending limit of mailboxes, and you see every e-mail in the log, with its status.

WordPress still not sending after the switch? Open a ticket with the plugin name and the error message, without the password.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Making WordPress send e-mail properly, with SMTP

The WordPress password reset e-mail does not arrive

WooCommerce e-mails not arriving: what to check

Which sender addresses SMTP Relay accepts: verified domains, several domains, name and Reply-To

Your application sends from a mailbox: when to switch it to SMTP Relay

SMTP Relay not sending: connection, TLS, login, sender and recipient problems, one by one

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