Hi Friends,
I’m trying to fix a 500 error with locally running Ghost sites not sending email. I’ve tried the usual SMTP setup and the api_key setup. All fail. I’ve tried every combination of settings in every thread, post, or article I can find on the subject.
Environment:
- Mac OS 15.5
- Ghost 5.129.1
- DB: SQLite
- Browser: Chrome
Reproduction:
- Install ghost locally
- Add mail settings to
config.development.json
- Restart ghost
- Go to
/ghost
to setup an account. - Poke around.
- Log out.
- Try logging back in.
The purpose of the local setup is to work on themes locally first before pushing them to a server, but after a day I’m logged out of new ghost installs, and logging in doesn’t work. I receive a generic Email error advising me to check my email settings.
Here is the relevant part of the log:
{
"res":{
"_headers":{
"x-powered-by":"Express",
"content-version":"v5.129",
"vary":"Accept-Version,
Origin,
Accept-Encoding",
"cache-control":"no-cache,
private,
no-store,
must-revalidate,
max-stale=0,
post-check=0,
pre-check=0",
"access-control-allow-origin":"http://localhost:2371",
"content-type":"application/json; charset=utf-8",
"content-length":"339",
"etag":"W/\"153-el4fja4K+S2Gx8dnKS2IDfdCyRM\""
},
"statusCode":500,
"responseTime":"138ms"
},
"err":{
"id":"2bf9b580-5dbe-11f0-b5b5-4b6fff9962f1",
"domain":"http://localhost:2371/",
"code":null,
"name":"EmailError",
"statusCode":500,
"level":"normal",
"message":"Failed to send email. Please check your site configuration and try again.",
"help":"\"Please see https://ghost.org/docs/config/#mail for instructions on configuring email.\"",
"stack":"EmailError: Failed to send email. Please check your site configuration and try again.\n at Object.sendAuthCodeToUser (/Users/karlweber/sites/kowfm/versions/5.129.1/core/server/services/auth/session/session-service.js:284:19)\n at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)\n at async Object.createSession (/Users/karlweber/sites/kowfm/versions/5.129.1/core/server/services/auth/session/middleware.js:16:17)",
"hideStack":false
},
"msg":"Failed to send email. Please check your site configuration and try again.",
"time":"2025-07-10T18:46:21.145Z",
"v":0
}
Any help would be much appreciated friends. Thanks.
-kow