By abeen .
a newly installed discourse forum. While signing up, we are supposed to receive verification email, not receiving this at all, checked into smtp in yaml thingy - AI says it is correct. Even tried email/server-settings to send test mail but I get ERROR - execution expired
stuck in this since 2 days.
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Hi there,
The “execution expired” error on the test email is the key clue here. That means the connection is timing out before it even reaches the SMTP server, which points to a network or port blocking issue rather than a config problem.
Most likely cause: DigitalOcean blocks outbound port 25 by default on all new Droplets. If your Discourse SMTP config is using port 25, it will silently time out exactly like this.
Check your app.yml and make sure you are using port 587 with STARTTLS, not port 25:
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true
Also make sure you are using a dedicated SMTP service rather than trying to send directly. Discourse works well with smtpfa.st, Mailgun or Postmark. Trying to send from the Droplet’s own IP directly is going to cause deliverability issues even if you get past the port block.
More context on the port 25 block here: https://docs.digitalocean.com/support/why-is-smtp-blocked/
Heya, @abeen
The error itself leans towards a smtp relay issue - a network or port blocking issue rather than a problem with the configuraton. DigitalOcean blocks outbound port 25 by default on all new Droplets. If your Discourse SMTP config is using port 25, it will silently time out exactly like this.
You can try changing the SMTP relay host to a dedicated one lik Sendgird, smtpfast and Mailgun to send your emails.
Regards
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