Comments on Configure Postfix to use Gmail as a Mail Relay

I tried this once a while back but I noticed that GMail replaces the sender automagically with the GMail email account you're relaying through. Is this still the case?

For Ubuntu 14.04.x, do not use `systemctl restart postfix.service` but:

$ sudo service postfix restart

Is it possible to setup postfix, if I don't want to use Step 6: Allowing less secure apps to access your account?

See reply below from Scott Mullen

Thanks - great writeup.

For Debian, I also needed to install libsasl2-modules for it to send the mail out.

apt-get install libsasl2-modules

Following this guide I ontain on Centos 7 server the error message "...remote host said 550 relay through this server without authentication.." and postfix don't send emails.Some helps?

I've tried on Debian 8, seems okay. Thank you.

Can I perform these installation instructions after having installed ispconf3 on Ubuntu 16.04 ? Will it break anything important if I do?

I only run the server locally at the moment to test webs so I don't need the email setup, but at the same time I would like to receive important system messages.

Worked like a charm, thank you.

Instead of enabling 'Less Secure Apps" In Gmail you can just use app passwords.  

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833

Yes, I did this.: )

In Ubuntu, I think heirloom-mailx is better than mailutils, and heirloom-mailx in ubuntu = mailx in CentOS~

Sorry for my language!

Works in ubuntu server 14.10 LTS!!.

Very, very thanks.

Thanks for this tutorial. It worked (Ubuntu 12.04)!

Great tutorial done on Debian Jessie oa Raspberry PI and worked first up

Thanks for the tutorial. It was very easy to follow. I got mine working.

Thanks very much for the clear and concise instructions :-)

I have tested the Ubuntu version for Raspbian Jessie on a Pi model B running nagios and I was able to get the test e-mail sent.

Regards

I did same setting, there is no mail in gmail account.

Hello I made configuration on centos. Ok, but after I have send first email Gmail blocked my account because of "failure to comply with terms and conditions". Is this somethnig to do with settings or this way can be used anymore ?

Hi, Great instructions.  I am on OpenSuse Leap 42.1 and every step in your instructions worked flawlessly.

Many thanks

Awesome write-up.  Worked first time through.  Thanks!

Hi,

I had been installed postfix on my local server, but  dont know how to configure this?  Please help me I am using ubuntu 16.04 lts

This article is GOLDEN. It WORKS. So happy. ^^

Awesome article.it saved my day

i got an error saying "Invaild Email Address"

huh? Could it be "-" in email address?

I had this error to avoid it do the following:# status=bounced (host smtp.gmail.com[74.125.206.109] said: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first. m201sm9925851wmd.15vi /etc/postfix/tls_policy# add linesmtp.gmail.com:587 encrypt#then runchown root:root /etc/postfix/tls_policy && chmod 600  /etc/postfix/tls_policypostmap /etc/postfix/tls_policysystemctl restart postfix

Thank you!  Works perfectly once I figured out how to read and solve a small issue :)

I used the wrong paths in the config file the first time (copied the FreeBSD config lines into my Raspbian config so paths were wrong.)  Once i did that, I noticed an error in the postfix log file regarding cert file cannot be found. For my Raspbian jesse, I left out the cert line in the postfix conf file:

Also had to turn on Allow less secure apps in Google.

All worked well after that!

Thanks!

I receive mails on my mailbox (gmail) however when someone try to contact me  the FROM  field instead of

  FROM: NAME + EMAIL SENDER

I have

  FROM: NAME + MY EMAIL

config: only postfix relay via smtp gmail 

Any idea ?

THANX A LOT! EVERYTHING WORKS WELL!

I have a question: It's known that the Google App service have certain limits per day. Are those limits affected by this method? 

You saved my nec.

May the force be with you !!!

:)

postfixt was bouncing outgoing mail saying "Must issue a STARTTLS command first". On https://askubuntu.com/questions/507514/ I found suggestion to use:  "mailsmtp_enforce_tls = yes" in main.cf instead "smtpd_use_tls=yes" as instructed above.

I did that, now it works like a charm.

Thank for great tutorial!

Worked for Ubuntu 17.04. It took me F O R E V E R, and one reinstall, but finally got joy. Good luck.

Hi,

all sent emails are in mail queue with:

TLS is required, but was not offered by host smtp.gmail.com[74.125.206.108])

 What to do?

Thanks and Regards,

Thank you so very much for this great tutorial.  I got it working on Ubuntu 17.10 Budgie.  I placed the file: sasl_passwd in /etc/postfix/sasl/ instead of /etc/postfix/.  Also, tailing the logs (tail -f /etc/mail.*) was very helpful in helping to diagnose any issues I had.  I made the hostname to the email address username and I had to re-run postfix install a couple of times before I got it working (dpkg-reconfigure postfix). I also set to IPv4 only instead of All during postfix setup.

You do not need to do step 6. Step 6. Should be setting an app password then instead of using your regular password in sasl_passwd, you use the app password provided by gmail. Voila it works no need to turn on lesser secured apps choice.

Thanks, this really worked for me. In my case allow less secure apps is not an option since I work with very sensitive stuff.

Thanks, it's the only one working tutorial I've found.

I liked your article. Did you know that Google has introduced Gmail Go? Go not only takes up significantly less space on your phone, but uses less data than the standard Gmail app.

Under Debian 9 stretch, it is mandatory to replace in main.cf addendum "smtp_sasl_security_options =" by

"smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous", in order that poxtfix works well with the SMTP of Google.

Worked great. Thanks very much.

Only downside is it won't send email to itself.. any ideas on a fix for that?

Opensuse rocks 100%

THX

I tried this on a Ubuntu 18.x server... and it worked perfect the first time... Thanks for a clear and accurate writeup. I used 'systemctl restart postfix.service' and it seemed to work on this version of Ubuntu.... 

echo "To echo an earlier compliment: This article is GOLDEN! Thank you." | mail -s "The Joys of Community Support" [email protected]

I have recently rebuilt my Ubuntu 18.04 server. Previously I had used your instructions to successfully enable the gmail replay but now it fails. I get errors relating to CPAN and as it cannot find the perl script Makefile.PL. Is this issue know and if so are there any solutions?

 On Fedora 30 - I was getting (SASL authentication failed; cannot authenticate to server smtp.gmail.com[108.177.8.108]: invalid parameter supplied)

I added smtp_sasl_mechanism_filter = plain  to  /etc/postfix/main.cf   and it is working fine now.

Great article! I signed up so I could post the following feedback in the hopes I save some people some time.

The following took place on a CentOS 7.6.1810 server, kernel 3.10.0-957.21.3, Postfix version postfix-2.10.1-7

Long story short, this article exactly as described was not working. I enabled verbose logging with the following in main.cf

debug_peer_level = 10

Afterwards, I saw the following in /var/log/maillog when sending a test email:

connect to smtp.gmail.com[2607:f8b0:400d:c09::6c]:587: Network is unreachable

Jun 23 14:05:59 server postfix/smtp[104589]: 3B54DCD8268C: to=<[email protected]>, relay=none, delay=0.32, delays=0.02/0.04/0.27/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to smtp.gmail.com[2607:f8b0:400d:c09::6c]:587: Network is unreachable)

Jun 23 14:06:33 server postfix/postfix-script[104637]: stopping the Postfix mail system

I remembered that my ISP still does not offer IPv6 functionality at all. I specified Postfix to use only IPv4 with the following in main.cf

inet_protocols = ipv4

I restarted Postfix and it started working properly.

/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

How this generate, or where it come from???

Thank you very much.

I have a two internet connections.Both internet connections use have dynamic IPs.

When I am using the primary internet connection, emails get sent out and work perfectly. When I use the secondary, here is the log (the log is very edited because I dont know if the information is sensible or not)

Oct 15 14:12:56 hostname postfix/smtp[ ]:  : to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp.gmail.com[74.125.193.108]:587, delay=1.2, delays=0/0/1.2/0, dsn=4.7.14, status=deferred (SASL authentication failed; server smtp.gmail.com[74.125.193.108] said: 534-5.7.14 > Please?534-5.7.14 log in via your web browser and then try again.?534-5.7.14  Learn more at?534 5.7.14  https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78754 - gsmtp)

If I switch back to the primary WAN, it instantly works again.

I have checked my firewall as well and it is not a firewall issue.

Would you be able to provide reference links or any books which allowed you to put together this configuration? I am struggling to find comprehensive materials that explain the various options.

How do I send emails using my Postfix with relay?

Google is moving away from application passwords and requiring use of OAuth.  Is there any (hopefully relatively simple) way to revise the process you describe here to use that type of authentication?  Thanks.

I managed to get this working from a centos 8 VM running in azure.

I needed to add the following to main.cf

inet_protocols = ipv4

relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587

smtp_use_tls = yes

smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes

smtp_sasl_security_options =

smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt

After that I was getting the "SASL authentication failed" error messages so...Then I followed the step "Generate an app Password for Postfix" here (I didn't follow any of the other steps): https://www.linode.com/docs/email/email-services/configure-postfix-to-send-mail-using-gmail-and-google-apps-on-debian-or-ubuntu/#generate-an-app-password-for-postfix

Then I put the app password in /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd like so:

[smtp.gmail.com]:587 <username>@gmail.com:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx   (where x is your 16 char app password)

postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

systemctl restart postfix.service

Great... Worked for me (Fedora OS). Finally got a working solution out of hundreds of web resources. Thank you author for sharing this valuble information.

thank u so much <3 <3 <3

Feb 28 16:50:18 hassan postfix/master[46992]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/tlsmg pid 47017 exit status 1Feb 28 16:50:18 hassan postfix/master[46992]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/tlsmg: bad command startup -- throttlingFeb 28 16:50:57 hassan postfix/master[46992]: warning: unix_trigger_event: read timeout for service private/tlsmgrFeb 28 16:51:18 hassan master[47029]: fatal: master_spawn: exec /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/tlsmg: No such file or directoryFeb 28 16:51:19 hassan postfix/master[46992]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/tlsmg pid 47029 exit status 1Feb 28 16:51:19 hassan postfix/master[46992]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/tlsmg: bad command startup -- throttling

Works!

I did however needed to change smtp_tls_CAfile to /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

And it seems to work with the password and the 16 digit code you can generate.

hi, 

i got error like below

localhost postfix/smtp[4330]: connect to smtp.gmail.com[142.251.10.108]:587: Connection timed out

any suggest

Great directions.  I had a clean rasbian install and I had to add one things to make it work.  And since Goggle is not going to allow lower account security as of 5/22 so I'll reiterate what another poster wrote.

Rather than putting in your google account password in step 2, create an App password as outlined here and put that in as the password instead

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833

Then you can ingore step 6

After step 5, do the following

sudo apt-get install libsasl2-modules

After this works perfectly for me on raspbian!

Just wanted to mention - now that less secure apps are disabled, you have to go to account.google.com, enable 2-factor authentication, and create "App passwords". Use that password as your password in the sasl_password file.

Sjau asked a question regarding rewriting the from: header to the gmail address instead of the originating mail address.  I have noticed that this is currently happening (12/27/22).  I haven't found any articles to fix this.  Has anyone come up with a solution?