SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: Permission denied (13)

Question

Good day!

Im trying to make my phpmailer work in my shared hosting (freehostia.com) and I always get this error. The username and password of my gmail is correct, and the rest of the settings is like this:

$mail = new PHPMailer;

$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->SMTPDebug  = 2;
$mail->Host       = 'tls://smtp.gmail.com'; // Specify main and backup SMTP servers
$mail->SMTPAuth   = true; // Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Username   = 'mymail@gmail.com'; // SMTP username
$mail->Password   = 'mypassword'; // SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls'; // Enable TLS encryption, `ssl` also accepted
$mail->Port       = 587; // TCP port to connect to

$mail->setFrom('mymail@gmail.com', 'ASAPHOT Administrator'); // Add a recipient
$mail->addAddress('sorianorobertc@gmail.com'); // Name is optional
$mail->addReplyTo('mymail@gmail.com', 'ASAPHOT Administrator');

$mail->isHTML(true); // Set email format to HTML

$mail->Subject = 'it works';
$mail->Body    = 'it works';
$mail->AltBody = 'This is the body in plain text for non-HTML mail clients';

if (!$mail->send()) {
    echo 'Message could not be sent.';
    echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
} else {
    echo 'Message has been sent';
}

openssl is uncommented in the php.ini also. Am I missing something here? Thank you.

Complete error message:

Connection: opening to smtp.gmail.com:587, timeout=300, options=array ()
SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: Permission denied (13)
SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting
Message could not be sent.Mailer Error: SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

Possible duplicate of [Send email using the GMail SMTP server from a PHP page](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/712392/send-email-using-the-gmail-smtp-server-from-a-php-page) — Chetan Ameta, Nov 27 '15 at 05:58
Maybe you don't have a firewall on your machine and php can't create sockets. — gtzinos, Mar 26 '17 at 10:34
@gtzinos Does phpmailer require a firewall? (Innocent question.) — Parapluie, Apr 07 '17 at 20:04

score 26 · Answer 1 · answered May 12 '18 at 01:42

Let's get to the answer first of all! Try with the following command:

$ getsebool httpd_can_sendmail

if it shows: httpd_can_sendmail --> off

switch it on with this:

$ sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail 1

then try sending the email again.

This solution comes from this great page.

As it was pointed out from this article, you may also need to try sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1. While for my CentOS 7 vm hosted by DigitalOcean, it's not necessary.

The problem I met was failing to send out emails from a Drupal website, with the SMTP Authentication Support module, which relies on PHPMailer underneath. And the SMTP server used was Google.

BTW, I had suspected it was OpenSSL certificate problem and did some test but no luck. So by setting the $SMTPDebug level to 2 from the PHPMailer source code, I was able to capture the "Permission denied (13)" error message.

Thank you so much for this answer, I wish I could upvote it more than once. — Azkatro, May 25 '21 at 07:11

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 27 '15 at 08:08

2

This suggests that fopen wrappers or socket functions are disabled in your PHP installation. Not unusual in shared hosting. Running phpinfo() should tell you.

You can probably use $mail->isMail(); and skip the auth to send via the ISP's mail server instead of SMTP, but beware of SPF issues.

answered Nov 27 '15 at 08:08

Synchro

35,538
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1

you just helped me a lot. – theRiley Nov 17 '19 at 06:53

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 02 '15 at 08:03

0

the problem is that the free hosting of freehostia blocks outcoming mails.

answered Dec 02 '15 at 08:03

wobsoriano

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 16 '18 at 08:24

0

Freehostia blocks the list below in the free plan. (Chocolate)

-mailer

-curl

-soap get

-xml get

answered Oct 16 '18 at 08:24

muselbetsi2017

17
6

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 15 '20 at 00:22

0

this is important for http

getsebool httpd_can_sendmail is Off then turn On it sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail 1
may need sudo 'setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1'
disable_function = ...... delete exec for exec() in php.ini

answered Jul 15 '20 at 00:22

DBA James Choi

51
4

kaushik · Answer 6 · 2017-04-14T12:33:56.120

-2

use this
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // enable SMTP authentication
$mail->SMTPSecure = "ssl"; // sets the prefix to the servier
$mail->Host = "ssl://smtp.gmail.com"; // sets GMAIL as the SMTP server
$mail->Port = 465; // set the SMTP port

if this not working than try bellow for php code.

mail($to,$subject,$message);

edited Apr 14 '17 at 12:33

answered Nov 27 '15 at 06:07

kaushik

903
7
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try this $mail->SMTPDebug = 0; // 1 to enables SMTP debug (for testing), 0 to disable debug (for production) – kaushik Nov 27 '15 at 06:28
Hi dear, your phpmailer class file is not a correct code. so please find correct class.phpmailer.php – kaushik Feb 26 '16 at 09:50

SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: Permission denied (13)

6 Answers6

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