Sending email via Node.js using nodemailer is not working

Question

I've set up a basic NodeJS server (using the nodemailer module) locally (http://localhost:8080) just so that I can test whether the server can actually send out emails.

If I understand the SMTP option correctly (please correct me if I'm wrong), I can either try to send out an email from my server to someone's email account directly, or I can send the email, still using Node.js, but via an actual email account (in this case my personal Gmail account), i.e using SMTP. This option requires me to login into that acount remotely via NodeJS.

So in the server below I'm actually trying to use NodeJs to send an email from my personal email account to my personal email account.

Here's my simple server :

var nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport("SMTP", {
    service: 'Gmail',
    auth: {
        user: '*my personal Gmail address*',
        pass: '*my personal Gmail password*'
    }
});

var http = require('http');
var httpServer = http.createServer(function (request, response)
{
    transporter.sendMail({
       from: '*my personal Gmail address*',
       to: '*my personal Gmail address*',
       subject: 'hello world!',
       text: 'hello world!'
    });
}).listen(8080);

However, it's not working. I got an email by Google saying :

Google Account: sign-in attempt blocked If this was you You can switch to an app made by Google such as Gmail to access your account (recommended) or change your settings at https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps so that your account is no longer protected by modern security standards.

I couldn't find a solution for the above problem on the nodemailer GitHub page. Does anyone have a solution/suggestion ?

Thanks! :-)

Answer 1

The answer is in the message from google.

• Go to : https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

• set the Access for less secure apps setting to Enable

For the second part of the problem, and in response to

I'm actually simply following the steps from the nodemailer github page so there are no errors in my code

I will refer you to the nodemailer github page, and this piece of code :

var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
service: 'Gmail',
auth: {
    user: 'gmail.user@gmail.com',
    pass: 'userpass'
}
});

It differs slightly from your code, in the fact that you have : nodemailer.createTransport("SMTP". Remove the SMTP parameter and it works (just tested). Also, why encapsulating it in a http server? the following works :

var nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
    service: 'Gmail',
    auth: {
        user: 'xxx',
        pass: 'xxx'
    }
});

console.log('created');
transporter.sendMail({
from: 'xxx@gmail.com',
  to: 'xxx@gmail.com',
  subject: 'hello world!',
  text: 'hello world!'
});

Answer 2

Outdated: refreshToken and accessToken no longer exist in JSON file output

For those who actually want to use OAuth2 / don't want to make the app "less secure", you can achieve this by

1. Search "Gmail API" from the google API console and click "Enable"
2. Follow the steps at https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/quickstart/nodejs. In the quickstart.js file, changing the SCOPES var from ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly'] to ['https://mail.google.com/'] in the quickstart js file provided as suggested in troubleshooting at https://nodemailer.com/smtp/oauth2/
3. After following the steps in (2), the generated JSON file will contain the acessToken, refreshToken, and expires attributes needed in the OAuth2 Examples for Nodemailer

This way you can use OAuth2 authentication like the following

let transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
    service: 'Gmail',
    auth: {
        type: 'OAuth2',
        user: 'user@example.com',
        clientId: '000000000000-xxx0.apps.googleusercontent.com',
        clientSecret: 'XxxxxXXxX0xxxxxxxx0XXxX0',
        refreshToken: '1/XXxXxsss-xxxXXXXXxXxx0XXXxxXXx0x00xxx',
        accessToken: 'ya29.Xx_XX0xxxxx-xX0X0XxXXxXxXXXxX0x',
        expires: 1484314697598
    }
});

instead of storing your gmail password in plaintext and downgrading the security on your account.

Answer 3

i just set my domain to: smtp.gmail.com and it works. I am using a VPS Vultr.

the code:

const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
const ejs = require('ejs');
const fs = require('fs');

let transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
    host: 'smtp.gmail.com',
    port: 465,
    secure: true,
    auth: {
        user: 'xxx@gmail.com',
        pass: 'xxx'
    }
});

let mailOptions = {
    from: '"xxx" <xxx@gmail.com>',
    to: 'yyy@gmail.com',
    subject: 'Teste Templete ✔',
    html: ejs.render( fs.readFileSync('e-mail.ejs', 'utf-8') , {mensagem: 'olá, funciona'})
};

transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, (error, info) => {
    if (error) {
        return console.log(error);
    }
    console.log('Message %s sent: %s', info.messageId, info.response);
});

my ejs template (e-mail.ejs):

<html>
    <body>
        <span>Esse é um templete teste</span>
        <p> gerando com o EJS - <%=mensagem%> </p>
    </body>
</html>

Make sure:

• install ejs: npm install ejs --save
• install nodemailer: npm install nodemailer --save
• ping to smtp.gmail.com works: ping smtp.gmail.com
• change xxx@gmail.com to your gmail email
• change yyy@gmail.com to the email that you want to send a email
• Enable less secure apps
• Disable Captcha temporarily

have a nice day ;)

Answer 4

While the above answers do work, I'd like to point out that you can decrease security from Gmail by the following TWO steps.

STEP #1

Google Account: sign-in attempt blocked If this was you You can switch to an app made by Google such as Gmail to access your account (recommended) or change your settings at https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps so that your account is no longer protected by modern security standards.

STEP #2

In addition to enabling Allow less secure apps, you might also need to navigate to https://accounts.google.com/DisplayUnlockCaptcha and click continue.

Answer 5

You only need App password for google auth, then replace your google password in your code. go here https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

sample code:

const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
    service: "Gmail",
    auth: {
      user: 'example@gmail.com',
      pass: 'app password here'
    }
  });
transporter.sendMail(option, function(error, info){
    if (error) {
      console.log(error);
    } else {
      console.log('Email sent: ' + info.response);
    }
});

Answer 6

For debugging purpose it is handy to implement a callback function (they never do on the nodemailer github page) which shows the error message (if there is one).

transporter.sendMail({
    from: from,
    to: to,
    subject: subject,
    html: text
}, function(err){
    if(err)
        console.log(err);
})

It helped me solve my problem... Turns out newer versions are not working properly:

"Looks like nodemailer 1.0 has breaking changes so 0.7 must be used instead: http://www.nodemailer.com/

Message posted on nodemailer as of 12/17/15:

Do not upgrade Nodemailer from 0.7 or lower to 1.0 as there are breaking changes. You can continue to use the 0.7 branch as long as you like. See the documentation for 0.7 here."

I found this answer here

Answer 7

And install smtp module as dependency:

npm install smtp

var nodemailer = require('nodemailer');

var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
  service: 'gmail',
  type: "SMTP",
  host: "smtp.gmail.com",
  secure: true,
  auth: {
    user: 'writeYourGmailId@gmail.com',
    pass: 'YourGmailPassword'
  }
});

var mailOptions = {
  from: 'xyz.khan704@gmail.com',
  to: 'azran.khan704@gmail.com',
  subject: 'Sending Email to test Node.js nodemailer',
  text: 'That was easy to test!'
};

transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, function(error, info){
  if (error) {
    console.log(error);
  } else {
    console.log('Email sent');
  }
});

Go to https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps and change it ON because Some apps and devices use less secure sign-in technology, which makes your account more vulnerable. You can turn off access for these apps, which we recommend, or turn on access if you want to use them despite the risks.

Answer 8

try this code its work for me.

var http = require('http');
var nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
  res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});

  var fromEmail = 'akarthi@xyz.com';
  var toEmail = 'akarthi@xyz.com';

  var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
    host: 'domain',
    port: 587,
    secure: false, // use SSL
    debug: true,
      auth: {
        user: 'fromEmail@xyz.com',
        pass: 'userpassword'
      }
  });
   transporter.sendMail({
      from: fromEmail,
      to: toEmail,
      subject: 'Regarding forget password request',
      text: 'This is forget password response from your app',
      html: '<p>Your password is <b>sample</b></p>'
  }, function(error, response){
      if(error){
          console.log('Failed in sending mail');
          console.dir({success: false, existing: false, sendError: true});
          console.dir(error);
          res.end('Failed in sending mail');
      }else{
          console.log('Successful in sending email');
          console.dir({success: true, existing: false, sendError: false});
          console.dir(response);
          res.end('Successful in sending email');
      }
  });
}).listen(8000);
console.log('Server listening on port 8000');

response:

Successful in sending email
{ success: true, existing: false, sendError: false }
{ accepted: [ 'akarthi@xyz.com' ],
  rejected: [],
  response: '250 2.0.0 uAMACW39058154 Message accepted for delivery',
  envelope: 
   { from: 'akarthi@xyz.com',
     to: [ 'akarthi@xyz.com' ] },
  messageId: '1479809555147-33de4987-29d605fa-6ee150f1@xyz.com' }

Answer 9

You should not use gmail password for it anymore!

Recently google has provided a new method to use in 3rd party apps or APIs. You need to use App Password instead of the gmail password. But for creating it, you need to enable 2-step Authentication mode in your google account:

You can find steps here: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833?hl=en

Answer 10

It is important to note that nodemailer may not work in development. Although, when you will move the application to production it works fine.

Answer 11

Adding to xShirase answer just providing screenshots where to enable. Also confirm in security that previous attempt was from you.

Xshirase deserves all upvotes.Iam just showing screenshot.

Answer 12

Here is best way send email using gmail

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
    service: 'gmail',
    auth: {
        user: '******@gmail.com',
        pass: '**********',
    },
});

use two authentication from google => security => app password and do fill some stuff get app password