Sending e-mail in WordPress

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Method #1: Using a third-party plugin

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Installing the WP Mail SMTP plugin

1. Log in to your WordPress site as the administrator.
2. In the left-hand pane, click Plugins.
3. Click Add New.
4. In the Search Plugins text box, type mail smtp, and then press Enter.
5. Locate WP Mail SMTP by WPForms, and then click Install Now.
6. After WordPress finishes installing the plugin, click Activate.

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Configuring the WP Mail SMTP plugin

1. Log in to your WordPress site as the administrator.
2. In the left-hand pane, click WP Mail SMTP, and then click Settings. The WP Mail SMTP general settings page appears.
3. Under Mail, in the From Email text box, type the e-mail address you want to use as the sender.

   🚧 Important This e-mail address must exist on your account.

4. In the From Name text box, type the name you want to associate with the e-mail address you specified in step 3.
5. Under Return Path, select the Set the return-path to match the From Email check box.
6. Under Mailer, select Other SMTP.
7. Under Other SMTP, in the SMTP Host text box, type the full server name for your account.

   📘 Note For information about how to determine your account’s server name, please see this article.

8. Choose one of the following configurations:

• If you want to use encryption, in the SMTP Port text box type 465, and then under Encryption, select SSL.
• If you do not want to use encryption, in the SMTP Port text box type 25, and then under Encryption, select None.

9. Under Authentication, select On.
10. In the SMTP Username text box, type the e-mail address you specified in step 3.
11. In the SMTP Password text box, type the password for the e-mail account you specified in step 10.
12. Click Save Settings.

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Method #2: Using the WordPress API

1. In the wp-config.php file, copy and paste the following code:

define( 'SMTP_HOST', 'server.a2hosting.com' );  // hosting.com server name. For example, "mi3-ss10.a2hosting.com"
define( 'SMTP_AUTH', true );
define( 'SMTP_PORT', '465' );
define( 'SMTP_SECURE', 'ssl' );
define( 'SMTP_USERNAME', 'user@example.com' );  // Username for SMTP authentication
define( 'SMTP_PASSWORD', 'password' );          // Password for SMTP authentication
define( 'SMTP_FROM',     'user@example.com' );  // SMTP From address
define( 'SMTP_FROMNAME', 'Kelly Koe' );         // SMTP From name

2. Replace the SMTP_HOST, SMTP_USERNAME, SMTP_FROM, and SMTP_FROMNAME values with the settings for your own site, and then save your changes to the wp-config.php file.
3. In your plugin code file, copy and paste the following code:

add_action( 'phpmailer_init', 'send_smtp_email' );
function send_smtp_email( $phpmailer ) {
    $phpmailer->isSMTP();
    $phpmailer->Host       = SMTP_HOST;
    $phpmailer->SMTPAuth   = SMTP_AUTH;
    $phpmailer->Port       = SMTP_PORT;
    $phpmailer->SMTPSecure = SMTP_SECURE;
    $phpmailer->Username   = SMTP_USERNAME;
    $phpmailer->Password   = SMTP_PASSWORD;
    $phpmailer->From       = SMTP_FROM;
    $phpmailer->FromName   = SMTP_FROMNAME;
}

4. To send an e-mail message, call the wp_mail() function. For example:

wp_mail("recipient@example.com", "Subject", "Message");

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More information