Note: You are currently viewing documentation for Moodle 1.9. Up-to-date documentation for the latest stable version is available here: Email settings.

Email settings

From MoodleDocs

Location: Administration > Server > Email


SMTP hosts

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The SMTP host is an email relay that will take the email from Moodle and send it to users. You will need to set this only if your server does not allow mail relay. Otherwise, PHP will send out the mail using its built-in mail server. All the email sent by forums and other modules will be sent through this host.

Most SMTP hosts make use of the default port 25 to for listening email traffic. However, occasionally a non-default port is used. In such cases, entering an SMTP host followed by a colon (i.e. :) and the port number should work. For example, if my SMTP host is myemailserver.com and it listens on port 587 or 465 (most common) instead of port 25 I would enter the SMTP host as myemailserver.com:587. Currently, the parameter check is too strict to allow this via the Moodle UI; however, MDL-15923 has been created and resolved to address this. Until then, it can be set via phpMyAdmin using a query statement like: UPDATE mdl_config SET value='myemailserver.com:587' WHERE name='smtphosts';

Secure SMTP hosts with SSL/TLS

For SMTP hosts that require secure authentication, SSL or TLS you must run the following query:

UPDATE mdl_config SET value='ssl://myemailserver.com:465' WHERE name='smtphosts';

This doesn't seem to work on Moodle 1.9.7 though.

SMTP username

If you set an SMTP server and it requires authentication, enter the username for the account that will be relaying the email from Moodle.

SMTP password

Enter the password for the SMTP user you set previously.

No-reply address

Email sent from Moodle needs to have a return address or many servers will reject it as spam. Some users also want to keep their email private, so Moodle sends all of its email using the noreply address you set here.

Allowed and denied email domains

Authentication may be restricted to particular email domains when using Email-based self-registration so that, for example, only students with a university email can login.

(Note: In Moodle 1.9 onwards, the allowed and denied email domains settings can be found in Administration > Users > Authentication > Manage authentication.)

Hour to send digest emails

Moodle allows mail digests from the forums, so users get only one email per day instead of an individual message for every posting. This setting specifies when digests are emailed to users. Users set their email digest type in their profile page.

Support

Moodle1.9

From Moodle 1.9 onwards, a support name, support email and support page may be set up for users requiring general help. This email address can be set via site administration>server>email>Support email.

If set, emails from Moodle regarding password setting/resetting, password change confirmation, password and account confirmation will list the support name, support email and support page at the bottom of the email.

TIP: New installs should check this setting. The default might surprise you.

See also