Error: Missing credentials for "PLAIN"

[nothing2obvi]

Hello. I'm using these environmental variables for SMTP. What's wrong with it? I can't sign up on the instance.

mail__transport: SMTP
mail__from: "Name <[email protected]>"
mail__options__service: Mailgun
mail__options__host: smtp.mailgun.org
mail__options__port: 587
mail__options__secureConnection: "false"
mail__options__auth__user: [email protected]
mail__options__auth__password: smtppassword

These are the logs:

Error: Missing credentials for "PLAIN"
    at createMailError (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/core/server/services/mail/GhostMailer.js:81:12)
    at SMTPConnection._formatError (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-connection/index.js:809:19)
    at SMTPConnection.login (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-connection/index.js:454:38)
    at /var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-transport/index.js:272:32
    at SMTPConnection.<anonymous> (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-connection/index.js:215:17)
    at Object.onceWrapper (node:events:638:28)
    at SMTPConnection.emit (node:events:524:28)
    at SMTPConnection._actionEHLO (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-connection/index.js:1371:14)
    at SMTPConnection._processResponse (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-connection/index.js:993:20)
    at SMTPConnection._onData (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-connection/index.js:774:14)
    at SMTPConnection._onSocketData (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.130.2/node_modules/nodemailer/lib/smtp-connection/index.js:195:44)
    at TLSSocket.emit (node:events:524:28)
    at addChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:561:12)
    at readableAddChunkPushByteMode (node:internal/streams/readable:512:3)
    at Readable.push (node:internal/streams/readable:392:5)
    at TLSWrap.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:191:23)

Thanks!

[iainsmacleod]

Here is what I use for my working instance:

mail__transport: "SMTP"
mail__service: "Mailgun"
mail__options__host: "smtp.mailgun.org"
mail__options__port: 465
mail__options__secure: true
mail__options__auth__user: "[email protected]"
mail__options__auth__pass: "yourAuthenticationPassKey"
mail__from: "'Your From Name' [email protected]"

[nothing2obvi]

Thank you for sharing. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I changed a few of the environment variables to match yours, but am using the SMTP settings under Domain Settings on Mailgun. I don't have a custom domain. And should I change it to [email protected]? Or keep what's listed on Mailgun?

[nothing2obvi]

Nevermind, I'll try using a custom domain and report back.

[nothing2obvi]

@iainsmacleod Yeah I'm confused. I'm successfully sent mail with swaks using port 587, but when I input that same information as environment variables, making sure to use port 587 and setting "secure" to "false", I still get the same error.

      mail__transport: "SMTP"
      mail__from: "'My Name' [email protected]"
      mail__service: "Mailgun"
      mail__options__host: "smtp.mailgun.org"
      mail__options__port: 587
      mail__options__secure: "false"
      mail__options__auth__user: "[email protected]"
      mail__options__auth__password: "smtp-password-here"

[iainsmacleod]

I'm not sure how to help at this point. You seem to know more than me, I will say I am using a different port from you, but I will just have used what mailgun told me...I'm sure.

Here is a guide relative to my implementation:

https://blog.macleod.systems/how-i-use-my-private-domain-for-email-with-improvmx-mailgun-dyndns-and-ghost-cms/

[tianon]

I think mail__options__auth__password is supposed to be mail__options__auth__pass 👀

[tianon]

See also https://ghost.org/docs/config/#secure-connection

[nothing2obvi]

That worked! Thank you!

Btw, all those mail environment variables aren't anywhere in the documentation. It would be great if they were added.

[iainsmacleod]

My God, you da man...I did not see that difference, and I scanned line by line. Brain works in mysterious ways!

[tianon]

Btw, all those mail environment variables aren't anywhere in the documentation. It would be great if they were added.

From https://hub.docker.com/_/ghost:

Configuration

All Ghost configuration parameters (such as url) can be specified via environment variables. See the Ghost documentation for details about what configuration is allowed and how to convert a nested configuration key into the appropriate environment variable name:

$ docker run -d --name some-ghost -e NODE_ENV=development -e url=http://some-ghost.example.com ghost

(There are further configuration examples in the compose.yaml listed below.)

Going to https://ghost.org/docs/config/#running-ghost-with-config-env-variables leads to https://ghost.org/docs/config/#mail which includes this:

"mail": {
  "transport": "SMTP",
  "options": {
    "service": "Mailgun",
    "auth": {
      "user": "[email protected]",
      "pass": "1234567890"
    }
  }
},

From this, we can infer environment variables like mail__options__auth__pass. 👍

[iainsmacleod]

Learn something new everyday, I did not realize that is how the schema translates to a variable. Thanks for sharing. I do think it could be more obviously stated in documentation...but even if it isn't, this thread exists.