Need help with email setup

If you’re looking for help, please provide information about your environment. If you delete this template and don’t provide any information, your topic will be automatically closed.

If you aren’t running the latest version of Ghost, the first thing we’ll ask you to do is update to the latest version of Ghost.

And

  • How was Ghost installed and configured? On Ubuntu 22.04 from DigitalOcean Marketplace.
  • What Node version, database, OS & browser are you using?
    – Node: v18.20.4
    – MySQL Database: 8.0.39.0
    – OS: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
    – Browser: Firefox 129.0.2
  • What errors or information do you see in the console?

Latest output from /var/log/mail.log:

Sep  1 20:49:24 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78371]: connect to ourtwocentstravel[127.0.1.1]:25: Connection refused
Sep  1 20:49:24 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78371]: C2A7B8A48D: to=<tedl@ourtwocentstravel>, relay=none, delay=402, delays=402/0.01/0.01/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to ourtwocentstravel[127.0.1.1]:25: Connection refused)
Sep  1 20:49:52 ourtwocentstravel postfix/pickup[77257]: DD05C8A48B: uid=1001 from=<tedl@ourtwocentstravel>
Sep  1 20:49:52 ourtwocentstravel postfix/cleanup[78369]: DD05C8A48B: message-id=<20240901204952.DD05C8A48B@packer-66b36682-8b7f-ef4b-8392-c4f5e4ef3765>
Sep  1 20:49:52 ourtwocentstravel postfix/qmgr[1575]: DD05C8A48B: from=<tedl@ourtwocentstravel>, size=395, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Sep  1 20:49:59 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78377]: DD05C8A48B: to=<ted.leroy@protonmail.com>, relay=mail.protonmail.ch[176.119.200.128]:25, delay=7, delays=0.01/0/6.9/0.12, dsn=5.5.2, status=bounced (host mail.protonmail.ch[176.119.200.128] said: 504 5.5.2 <tedl@ourtwocentstravel>: Sender address rejected: need fully-qualified address (in reply to RCPT TO command))
Sep  1 20:50:00 ourtwocentstravel postfix/cleanup[78369]: 014AD8A48F: message-id=<20240901205000.014AD8A48F@packer-66b36682-8b7f-ef4b-8392-c4f5e4ef3765>
Sep  1 20:50:00 ourtwocentstravel postfix/qmgr[1575]: 014AD8A48F: from=<>, size=2815, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Sep  1 20:50:00 ourtwocentstravel postfix/bounce[78372]: DD05C8A48B: sender non-delivery notification: 014AD8A48F
Sep  1 20:50:00 ourtwocentstravel postfix/qmgr[1575]: DD05C8A48B: removed
Sep  1 20:50:00 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78371]: connect to ourtwocentstravel[127.0.1.1]:25: Connection refused
Sep  1 20:50:00 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78371]: 014AD8A48F: to=<tedl@ourtwocentstravel>, relay=none, delay=0.01, delays=0/0/0/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to ourtwocentstravel[127.0.1.1]:25: Connection refused)
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/pickup[77257]: 18EA28A487: uid=1000 from=<ghost-mgr@ourtwocentstravel>
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/cleanup[78369]: 18EA28A487: message-id=<20240901205113.18EA28A487@packer-66b36682-8b7f-ef4b-8392-c4f5e4ef3765>
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/qmgr[1575]: 18EA28A487: from=<ghost-mgr@ourtwocentstravel>, size=424, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78377]: 18EA28A487: to=<ted.leroy@protonmail.com>, relay=mail.protonmail.ch[185.205.70.128]:25, delay=0.68, delays=0.01/0/0.58/0.09, dsn=5.5.2, status=bounced (host mail.protonmail.ch[185.205.70.128] said: 504 5.5.2 <ghost-mgr@ourtwocentstravel>: Sender address rejected: need fully-qualified address (in reply to RCPT TO command))
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/cleanup[78369]: D112A8A490: message-id=<20240901205113.D112A8A490@packer-66b36682-8b7f-ef4b-8392-c4f5e4ef3765>
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/qmgr[1575]: D112A8A490: from=<>, size=2868, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/bounce[78372]: 18EA28A487: sender non-delivery notification: D112A8A490
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78371]: connect to ourtwocentstravel[127.0.1.1]:25: Connection refused
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/qmgr[1575]: 18EA28A487: removed
Sep  1 20:51:13 ourtwocentstravel postfix/smtp[78371]: D112A8A490: to=<ghost-mgr@ourtwocentstravel>, relay=none, delay=0.01, delays=0.01/0/0/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to ourtwocentstravel[127.0.1.1]:25: Connection refused)
Sep  1 20:51:33 ourtwocentstravel postfix/scache[78378]: statistics: start interval Sep  1 20:49:24
Sep  1 20:51:33 ourtwocentstravel postfix/scache[78378]: statistics: domain lookup hits=0 miss=1 success=0%
  • What steps could someone else take to reproduce the issue you’re having?
    Enter

echo “test email” | mailx -s “test” ted.leroy@protonmail.com
to try to send test message and find that it will not send.

Should the “Subscribe” button work out of the box with no email configuration using an internal mail server, or is a connection to a mail server required?

I’m trying to set up a mail server with not much success so far, but on reason I’m doing so is that my “Subscribe” button was not working. I received a message “Failed to send magic link email” when testing. If it should work out of the box, I can refine later, but please let me know where to find the minimal configuration steps. If a mail server is needed, please help me find instructions for setting it up.

Here’s the mail config from /var/www/ghost/config.production.json:

  "mail": {
    "from": "admin@ourtwocentstravel.com",
    "transport": "SMTP",
    "options": {
      "host": "mail.privateemail.com",
      "port": 587,
      "auth": {
        "user": "admin@ourtwocentstravel.com",
        "pass": "--redacted--"
      }
    }

I’m using NameCheap hosting for DNS and have a business email account available on NameCheap for this domain.

You need to set up a mail server, minimally for transactional email. For bulk too, if you want a newsletter.

I don’t think that DO “one click” install has email set up out of the box. The easiest option is probably to set up mailgun. You’ll need an account for newsletters anyway. (Gmail is another option ONLY for transactional. How to deliver Ghost emails from your local dev setup
)

Thanks Cathy!

I’m going through the process of mailgun setup.

I’ll mark as the solution when I have it working.

Kind regards,

Ted

I’ve set up Mailgun and all seems to be working.