PHPMailer using SMTP username as senders email address

Question

So I'm trying to send an email using current version of PHPMailer (https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer). The SMTP connection and the mail sending is working fine, except the script is not using the "SetFrom" $email variable for the senders mail, but instead the "Username" email.

I've tried using multiple forms of setting the "From" mail and nothing seems to work, although it's important to note that the "name" in the "SetForm" is set just fine, but "email" is not.

Here's the code:

    $mail = new PHPMailer;

    $mail->isSMTP();                                   
    $mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com';                     
    $mail->SMTPAuth = true;                            
    $mail->Username = 'USERNAME(MY EMAIL)';      
    $mail->Password = 'PASSWORD';                    
    $mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';                        
    $mail->Port = 587;

    $mail->isHTML(true);

    $mail->SetFrom($email,$name);
    $mail->addAddress($email_received);                 

    $mail->Subject = $subject;
    $mail->Body = $user_msg;

I would check your $email variable from the time it is created to when it is called in $mail->SetFrom($email,$name). Basically, is the value of $email changing anywhere in the script? — Denis Priebe

Synchro Synchro · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-20T10:18:41

This is a common question, asked many times on here. gmail does not allow you to set arbitrary senders - if you're sending through gmail, you have to use either your gmail address, or a pre-configured alternative. See here for google's docs on the matter. Generally it's a bad idea to try to do this anyway as it's likely to cause your message to fail SPF tests that the address owner may have configured.

PHPMailer using SMTP username as senders email address

2 Answers