SMTP authentication failing #10906

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GiteaMirror · 2025-11-02T09:21:48-06:00

GiteaMirror commented

2025-11-02 09:21:48 -06:00

Originally created by @clmcavaney on GitHub (May 24, 2023).

Description

I am running Gitea as a docker container.
In the past I have been able to use a SMTP server with authentication successfully.
I have recently had to change SMTP providers and now am getting this error message when I am testing email:

Failed to send a testing email to "<redacted>": gomail: could not send email 1: failed to authenticate SMTP: 535 5.7.8 Error: authentication failed: authentication failure

I have looked into the debugs, but there are not many around the email process.
I have also tried another go based CLI mail program (github.com/kiwimic/mailCLI) to see if the SMTP service is working with the same SMTP credentials as I have configured for Gitea.
That CLI worked.

I also tested with the swaks CLI tool with the same SMTP credentials, and it worked too.

So, I am wondering why Gitea isn't working. Is there a way to get more debugging information out of Gitea? I have set the log level to DEBUG, but it isn't including things like what attributes it is passing to the SMTP service or anything like that.
I am wondering if it is a string encoding issue or something that is causing the SMTP server to say authentication failure.

Any assistance would be fantastic - I'm happy to diagnose further, I am not as familiar with go as with other languages.

Gitea Version

1.20.0+dev-888-g64e0672e3

Can you reproduce the bug on the Gitea demo site?

No

Log Gist

No response

Screenshots

This is the only console log about the test email:
gitea | 2023/05/24 15:41:13 ...eb/routing/logger.go:102:func1() [I] router: completed POST /admin/config/test_mail for []:0, 303 See Other in 2924.0ms @ admin/config.go:31(admin.SendTestMail)

Git Version

git version 2.40.1

Operating System

Docker container

How are you running Gitea?

Within a Docker container using the gitea/gitea:nightly release.
I used nightly to see if the isn't had been resolved in the latest version.
docker-compose.yml contains:

...
      - GITEA__mailer__PROTOCOL=smtp+starttls
      - GITEA__mailer__SMTP_PORT=587
      - GITEA__mailer__IS_TLS_ENABLED=true
      # shouldn't need this but giving it a try
      - GITEA__mailer__FORCE_TRUST_SERVER_CERT=false
      - GITEA__mailer__FROM=<redacted>
      - GITEA__mailer__USER=<redacted>
      - 'GITEA__mailer__SUBJECT_PREFIX=GITEA: '
      - GITEA__mailer__PASSWD=`<redacted>`
...

Database

MySQL

Originally created by @clmcavaney on GitHub (May 24, 2023). ### Description I am running Gitea as a docker container. In the past I have been able to use a SMTP server with authentication successfully. I have recently had to change SMTP providers and now am getting this error message when I am testing email: ``` Failed to send a testing email to "<redacted>": gomail: could not send email 1: failed to authenticate SMTP: 535 5.7.8 Error: authentication failed: authentication failure ``` I have looked into the debugs, but there are not many around the email process. I have also tried another go based CLI mail program ([github.com/kiwimic/mailCLI](github.com/kiwimic/mailCLI)) to see if the SMTP service is working with the same SMTP credentials as I have configured for Gitea. That CLI worked. I also tested with the `swaks` CLI tool with the same SMTP credentials, and it worked too. So, I am wondering why Gitea isn't working. Is there a way to get more debugging information out of Gitea? I have set the log level to DEBUG, but it isn't including things like what attributes it is passing to the SMTP service or anything like that. I am wondering if it is a string encoding issue or something that is causing the SMTP server to say `authentication failure`. Any assistance would be fantastic - I'm happy to diagnose further, I am not as familiar with `go` as with other languages. ### Gitea Version 1.20.0+dev-888-g64e0672e3 ### Can you reproduce the bug on the Gitea demo site? No ### Log Gist _No response_ ### Screenshots This is the only console log about the test email: gitea | 2023/05/24 15:41:13 ...eb/routing/logger.go:102:func1() [I] router: completed POST /admin/config/test_mail for [<redacted>]:0, 303 See Other in 2924.0ms @ admin/config.go:31(admin.SendTestMail) ### Git Version git version 2.40.1 ### Operating System Docker container ### How are you running Gitea? Within a Docker container using the `gitea/gitea:nightly` release. I used `nightly` to see if the isn't had been resolved in the latest version. `docker-compose.yml` contains: ``` ... - GITEA__mailer__PROTOCOL=smtp+starttls - GITEA__mailer__SMTP_PORT=587 - GITEA__mailer__IS_TLS_ENABLED=true # shouldn't need this but giving it a try - GITEA__mailer__FORCE_TRUST_SERVER_CERT=false - GITEA__mailer__FROM=<redacted> - GITEA__mailer__USER=<redacted> - 'GITEA__mailer__SUBJECT_PREFIX=GITEA: ' - GITEA__mailer__PASSWD=`<redacted>` ... ``` ### Database MySQL

GiteaMirror added the type/question label 2025-11-02 09:21:48 -06:00

GiteaMirror closed this issue

2025-11-02 09:21:48 -06:00

GiteaMirror commented

2025-11-02 09:21:48 -06:00

@wxiaoguang commented on GitHub (May 24, 2023):

Can you manually check your "app.ini" to see whether the options are right there?

gitea.com is also using the nightly and it also sends emails, it works there.

@wxiaoguang commented on GitHub (May 24, 2023): Can you manually check your "app.ini" to see whether the options are right there? gitea.com is also using the nightly and it also sends emails, it works there.

GiteaMirror commented

2025-11-02 09:21:49 -06:00

@clmcavaney commented on GitHub (May 24, 2023):

G'day @wxiaoguang,
Thanks for the prompt response.
I was able to check that and had found that the environment variables from the docker-compose.yml hadn't come through correctly.
I have made some adjustments and I think it may be working now.
I will update for sure once I can confirm.

@clmcavaney commented on GitHub (May 24, 2023): G'day @wxiaoguang, Thanks for the prompt response. I was able to check that and had found that the environment variables from the `docker-compose.yml` hadn't come through correctly. I have made some adjustments and I think it may be working now. I will update for sure once I can confirm.

GiteaMirror commented

2025-11-02 09:21:49 -06:00

@clmcavaney commented on GitHub (May 24, 2023):

I can confirm that this is working.

From what I can determine the issue was twfold.

One, is that there is two configuration items for essentially the same thing:
GITEA__mailer__HOST which is a combination of GITEA__mailer__SMTP_ADDR and GITEA__mailer__SMTP_PORT.
If I only configure GITEA__mailer__HOST email fails to send.
I have to configure both the HOST, SMTP_ADDR, and SMTP_PORT values.

Why is this?

I read the documentation as HOST would take priority over SMTP_ADDR and SMTP_PORT - but maybe it is the other way round.

I think the issue there could be that if SMTP_ADDR and SMTP_PORT is supplied, and HOST is not, any existing HOST value in the app.ini file isn't removed. (NOTE: There is an existing app.ini file as there is a persistent volume specified in the docker-compose.yml file.

Two, escaping the password value. Once I realised I was able to see the app.ini file in the Docker container, I was able to ascertain that the password had not been configured correctly.

Thanks again for your quick response @wxiaoguang

@clmcavaney commented on GitHub (May 24, 2023): I can confirm that this is working. From what I can determine the issue was twfold. **One**, is that there is two configuration items for essentially the same thing: `GITEA__mailer__HOST` which is a combination of `GITEA__mailer__SMTP_ADDR` and `GITEA__mailer__SMTP_PORT`. If I only configure `GITEA__mailer__HOST` email fails to send. I have to configure both the `HOST`, `SMTP_ADDR`, and `SMTP_PORT` values. Why is this? I read the documentation as `HOST` would take priority over `SMTP_ADDR` and `SMTP_PORT` - but maybe it is the other way round. I think the issue there could be that if `SMTP_ADDR` and `SMTP_PORT` is supplied, and `HOST` is not, any existing `HOST` value in the `app.ini` file isn't removed. (NOTE: There is an existing `app.ini` file as there is a persistent volume specified in the `docker-compose.yml` file. **Two**, escaping the password value. Once I realised I was able to see the `app.ini` file in the Docker container, I was able to ascertain that the password had not been configured correctly. Thanks again for your quick response @wxiaoguang

GiteaMirror commented

2025-11-02 09:21:49 -06:00

@wxiaoguang commented on GitHub (Jul 14, 2025):

I have to configure both the HOST, SMTP_ADDR, and SMTP_PORT values.

IIRC some of the options were deprecated, there should be some logs mentioning it.

@wxiaoguang commented on GitHub (Jul 14, 2025): > I have to configure both the `HOST`, `SMTP_ADDR`, and `SMTP_PORT` values. IIRC some of the options were deprecated, there should be some logs mentioning it.

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Reference: github-starred/gitea#10906