How can I send email using Python?

Question

I am writing a program that sends an email using Python. What I have learned from various forums is the following piece of code:

#!/usr/bin/env python import smtplib sender = "[email protected]" receivers = ["[email protected]"] yourname = "Abhishek Sagar" recvname = "receptionist" sub = "Testing email" body = "who cares" message = "From: " + yourname + "\n" message = message + "To: " + recvname + "\n" message = message + "Subject: " + sub + "\n" message = message + body try: print "Sending email to " + recvname + "...", server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com:587') username = '[email protected]' password = '*****' server.ehlo() server.starttls() server.login(username,password) server.sendmail(sender, receivers, message) server.quit() print "successfully sent!" except Exception: print "Error: unable to send email"

But it is simply printing ""Error: unable to send email" and exits out on the terminal. How might I resolve this?

I modified the last two lines to

except Exception, error: print "Unable to send e-mail: '%s'." % str(error)

I get the following error message :

Traceback (most recent call last): File "./2.py", line 45, in <module> smtpObj = smtplib.SMTP('localhost') File "/usr/lib/python2.6/smtplib.py", line 239, in __init__ (code, msg) = self.connect(host, port) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/smtplib.py", line 295, in connect self.sock = self._get_socket(host, port, self.timeout) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/smtplib.py", line 273, in _get_socket return socket.create_connection((port, host), timeout) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/socket.py", line 514, in create_connection raise error, msg socket.error: [Errno 111] Connection refused

I see you're new to stackoverflow, welcome! Make sure you use the editing help to properly format your posts. This helps us read your question more easily and increases your chances of getting an answer. — André Caron
– André Caron, Commented Feb 14, 2012 at 5:43

jfs · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-09 02:14:18Z

If message headers, payload contain non-ascii characters then they should be encoded:

#!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- from email.header import Header from email.mime.text import MIMEText from getpass import getpass from smtplib import SMTP_SSL login, password = '[email protected]', getpass('Gmail password:') recipients = [login] # create message msg = MIMEText('message body…', 'plain', 'utf-8') msg['Subject'] = Header('subject…', 'utf-8') msg['From'] = login msg['To'] = ", ".join(recipients) # send it via gmail s = SMTP_SSL('smtp.gmail.com', 465, timeout=10) s.set_debuglevel(1) try: s.login(login, password) s.sendmail(msg['From'], recipients, msg.as_string()) finally: s.quit()

Gmail is now pretty tight with what devices can sign in to the account. If, like me, you have issues using code like this on a remote machine you can try logging into gmail account and checking the "Allow less secure apps" option. There are also tools to authorize specific apps
@jprockbelly: don't compromise security. It works even on the account with 2-step verification. Just generate an app password for your script.

André Caron · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-14 06:11:20Z

If you print the error message, you will likely get a comprehensive description of what error occurred. Try (no pun intended) this:

try: # ... except Exception, error: print "Unable to send e-mail: '%s'." % str(error)

If, after reading the error message, you still do not understand your error, please update your question with the error message and we can help you some more.

Update after additional information:

the error message

socket.error: [Errno 111] Connection refused

means the remote end (e.g. the GMail SMTP server) is refusing the network connection. If you take a look at the smtplib.SMTP constructor, it seems you should change

server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com:587')

to the following.

server = smtplib.SMTP(host='smtp.gmail.com', port=587)

after doing what you said , i get the following error : Sending email to receptionist... Unable to send e-mail: '[Errno 110] Connection timed out' . i am behind the proxy , so do i need to add something extra to the code.
@AbhishekSagar: SMTP configuration is a complex topic. Perhaps you can try one of the alternate ports? See configuring other email clients in the GMail frequently asked questions.
yes, i install postfix , and gave up the idea when i searched Configuring the SMTP ! its really complex.

Will Cheng · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-14 06:15:04Z

According to the error message, you use the localhost as the SMTP server, then the connection was refused. Your localhost didn't have an SMTP sever running I guess, you need to make sure the SMTP server you connect is valid.

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